Children’s moral behavior and attitudes in the real world largely carry over to the virtual world of computers, the Internet, video games and cell phones. Interestingly, there are marked gender and race differences in the way children rate morally questionable virtual behaviors, according to Professor Linda Jackson and her team from Michigan State University in the US.

Their research1 is the first systematic investigation of the effects of gender and race on children’s beliefs about moral behavior, both in the virtual world and the real world, and the relationship between the two.

Jackson and her team asked 515 12-year-old children (one-third African American, two-thirds Caucasian American) to fill in a written questionnaire looking at their moral behaviors and attitudes in the real world, and their view of morally questionable behavior in the virtual world. Measures of moral behavior in the real world included whether or not children had lied to parents and/or teachers, whether they had ever cheated, and whether they had ever bullied someone. Examples of morally questionable behavior in the virtual world were sending emails with threats, using sexually explicit or violent language in chat rooms and/or in text messages, hacking computers, and violence in video games.

Overall, African American children were more caring and more flexible about rules when personal goals were at stake than Caucasian American children. More specifically, Caucasian American girls and African American boys and girls viewed morality in the real world from the perspective of the individual’s well-being. In contrast, Caucasian American boys’ morality in the real world was more rule-based.

When it came to rating virtual behaviors, African American children were more likely than Caucasian American children to find acceptable virtual behaviors that result in real-world harm, for example emailing friends answers in advance of tests or sending text messages during class. The African American children were also more likely to find viewing online pornography acceptable.

For all groups, morality in the real world was related to morality in the virtual world. In other words, the more important good moral character in the real world was, the less acceptable morally questionable virtual behaviors were. There were however some race differences. African American children found some virtual behaviors that might advance individual goals in the real world more acceptable than did Caucasian American children. In contrast, the morality of Caucasian American boys, and to a lesser extent girls, was more rule-based in the virtual world.

The frequency of exposure to information technology also had an effect. The more children used the Internet, the more they found invasion of privacy online, videogame violence and online pornography acceptable.

The authors conclude that: “Educational interventions that are culturally sensitive need to be developed to assure that all children, regardless of race or gender, understand that certain virtual behaviors are unacceptable and in fact may be psychologically harmful, such as video game violence, or physically dangerous, like contacting strangers online.”

Researchers Find New Way Of Measuring ‘Reality’ Of Virtual Worlds

A research team, led by North Carolina State University’s Dr. Mitzi M. Montoya, has developed a new way of measuring how “real” online virtual worlds are – an important advance for the emerging technology that can be used to foster development of new training and collaboration applications by companies around the world.

A global economy, the rising cost of travel, and increasingly tight budgets have left companies exploring the possible use of virtual worlds to train employees and foster collaboration in areas such as research and development, but until now no one has had a way to measure just how “real” those worlds are. The researchers focused on developing a measurement tool specifically for business applications in the virtual world, noting that the productivity and effectiveness of workers interacting via these online environments is closely linked to how well the workers are able to feel as if they are in the virtual realm.

“This is an important issue,” Montoya says, “because we believe that if users feel they are ‘present’ in the virtual world, they will collaborate better with other members of their team – and the more effective the virtual world will be as a setting for research and development or other collaborative enterprises.” In addition, Montoya explains “an increased sense of presence in the virtual world leads to better comprehension and retention of information if the technology is being used for training purposes, and trainees are happier with the process.” Montoya is the Zelnak Professor of Marketing and Innovation at NC State.

The measurement scale developed by the researchers for the virtual world is called Perceived Virtual Presence (PVP), and factors in how users interact with the virtual environment, with their work in that environment, and with other users. “Now that we have developed the PVP scale,” Montoya says, “it can be used to determine what PVP levels are most conducive to training, collaboration or other applications.” Effectively, the PVP scale can be used to design a virtual environment that has the degree of reality that will best cater to a company’s specific needs.

Montoya developed the PVP metric with Dr. Anne P. Massey, Dean’s Research Professor of Information Systems at Indiana University.

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

The stability and livability of the world’s growing urban regions is going to depend more than ever on advances in public-infrastructure engineering, says Brad Allenby.

“The accelerating urbanization of the species is rapidly increasing the complexity of the urban environment for humanity as a whole,” he says. “This makes urban-system infrastructure a critical component in maintaining stable, functioning societies and ensuring quality of life.”

Allenby, a professor of civil, environmental and sustainable engineering in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University, will elaborate on his ideas in a presentation on Feb. 16 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago.

Responding to the challenges emerging from the world’s rapid urban population growth will fundamentally change how the engineering of public infrastructure is done in the future, he contends.

Allenby explains that this accelerating growth is driving an increasing reliance on information and communications technology – in everything from “smart buildings” that manage themselves to reduce energy consumption, to transportation networks that monitor themselves to prevent traffic and instruct drivers how to avoid congestion.

The integration of that kind technology into conventional infrastructure systems presents one of the biggest tasks in developing sustainable urban systems.

First, engineers have to deal with managing the complicated interactions between various information and communication systems – even as those systems themselves are evolving in complexity and capabilities.

Information technology is moving toward “autonomic” systems, Allenby says. These are systems capable not only of defining themselves in real time to meet user requirements but also, in the case of a problem, diagnosing and fixing their own internal faults and malfunctions. To do this, such systems are also being engineered with the ability to “learn” new functions.

The very complexity of such technological capabilities “introduces uncertainty in the designed urban environment,” Allenby says. “The public policy implications and social ramifications of such technological evolution are yet to be addressed.”

What issues arise?

For one, personal privacy becomes ever more difficult in an age where advanced technology greatly expands the possibility of surveillance of individuals.

Cell phone and toll technologies and global-positioning systems can keep track of where you’ve been, while your credit card and online history provide details about what you’re doing.

The gaps between those who can use the plentiful information systems in the modern economy, and those who can’t – what Allenby calls the “digital divide” – may be growing larger, with serious implications for employment, and the ability of poorer countries to develop.

As information systems in urban environments begin interacting with each other, Allenby says, their behavior cannot be predicted even by the experts who designed them.

This makes it critical to study how complex systems such as cities can be made more resilient. “We can’t predict or identify all the problems and opportunities that may arise,” Allenby says, “but we can try to design our cities and their infrastructure so that we’re better able to manage them when the problems and opportunities do arise.”

Overlaying such issues is the basic challenge of defining the concept of sustainable engineering itself.

“Conceptually, it’s slippery,” Allenby says, “but it’s crucial to gain an understanding of what is truly sustainable, and what contributes to system resiliency, if we’re going to make the kind of effective advances in infrastructure engineering that rapid urbanization demands.”

Considered one of the pioneers of industrial ecology, Allenby came to ASU in 2004. Previously he was a director of Energy and Environmental Systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and a vice president of Research, Technology and Environment for AT&T.

He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a visiting lecturer in ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary.

He graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1972, later earning a law degree from University of Virginia Law School, a master’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in environmental sciences from Rutgers University.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Higher Education selected Allenby as one of the winners of their 2008 U.S. Professors of the Year Awards.

Urban Black Bears ‘Live Fast, Die Young’

Black bears that live around urban areas weigh more, get pregnant at a younger age, and are more likely to die violent deaths, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The study, published in the Fall 2008 issue of the journal Human-Wildlife Conflicts, tracked 12 bears over a 10-year period living in urban areas around Lake Tahoe, Nevada and compared them to 10 “wildland” bears that lived in outlying wild areas. The authors found that bears in urbanized areas weighed an average of 30 percent more than bears in wild areas due to a diet heavily supplemented by garbage.

The authors believe that because the bears weigh more they are giving birth at an earlier age – on average when they are between 4-5 years old, as compared to 7-8 years for bears in wild areas. Some urban bears even reproduced as early as 2-3 years of age around Lake Tahoe.

Urban bears also tend to die much younger due mostly to collisions with vehicles, according to the study. All 12 urban bears tracked by the researcher were dead by age 10 due to vehicle collisions, while six of the wildland bears still survived. Bear cubs in urban areas also had dramatically higher mortality rates due mainly to vehicle collisions.

“Urban areas are becoming the ultimate bear traps,” said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Jon Beckmann, the study’s lead author. “Because of an abundant food source – namely garbage – bears are being drawn in from backcountry areas into urbanized landscapes where they meet their demise.”

The study warns that urbanized areas are functioning as “sinks” for black bear populations, drawing in bears from outlying wild areas, where they ultimately die. As a result, bears are failing to re-colonize outlying wild areas following this shift to urban centers.

The authors believe that without these sinks, populations of black bears in Nevada could increase. Right now, populations in Nevada remain steady due to bears immigrating from neighboring California. The Wildlife Conservation Society is studying the effects of urbanization and sprawl on a variety of wildlife and habitats in North America. WCS continues to work with local authorities to increase the use of bear-proof garbage containers and improve education efforts to reduce human-bear conflicts.

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Traffic engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods.

It focuses mainly on research and construction of the immobile infrastructure necessary for this movement, such as roads, railway tracks, bridges, traffic signs and traffic lights.

Increasingly however, instead of building additional infrastructure, dynamic elements are also introduced into road traffic management.

These use sensors to measure traffic flows and automatic, interconnected guidance systems (for example traffic signs which open a lane in different directions depending on the time of day) to manage traffic especially in peak hours. The relationship between lane flow (Q) (vehicles per hour) maximum speed (V) (kilometers per hour) and density (K) (vehicles per kilometer) is Q = KV.

Observation on limited access facilities suggests that up to a maximum flow, speed does not decline while density increases, but above a critical threshold, increased density reduces speed, and beyond a further threshold, increased density reduces flow as well..

Civil engineering

In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad field of engineering that deals with the planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed structures, or public works, as they are related to earth, water, or civilization and their processes.

Most civil engineering today deals with power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, environmental, sewer, flood control, transportation, telecommunications and traffic.

In essence, civil engineering may be regarded as the profession that makes the world a more agreeable place in which to live. Engineering has developed from observations of the ways natural and constructed systems react and from the development of empirical equations that provide bases for design.

Civil engineering is the broadest of the engineering fields, partly because it is the oldest of all engineering fields.

In fact, engineering was once divided into only two fields, military and civil.

Civil engineering is still an umbrella term, comprised of many related specialities..

Road-traffic safety

Road-traffic safety aims to reduce the harm (deaths, injuries, and property damage) resulting from crashes of road vehicles traveling on public roads.

Harm from road-traffic crashes is greater than that from all other transportation modes (air, sea, space, off-terrain, etc.) combined..

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, goods, signals and information.

The discipline has a number of subdisciplines, including aerodynamics (the study of gases) and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids)..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Natural and social sciences must work together to help solve some of the most pressing issues facing society. That’s the message in a report delivered recently to the global scientific community at the 29th General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) in Maputo, Mozambique.

“Global change, environment and natural resources management, sustainable development, poverty reduction, and environment and human health, are some of the major scientific research challenges currently being tackled by ICSU. But these issues cannot be solved without understanding the impact of people on these issues and the impact of these issues on people—that is, social science,” said Anne Whyte, a member of ICSU’s Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR) and a former Director General for Environment and Natural Resources of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada.

The report, “Enhancing Involvement of Social Sciences in ICSU,” identifies social sciences as being essential for the implementation of the ICSU Strategic Plan 2006-2011. Recommendations in the report include: that ICSU continue to encourage the participation of social sciences on its committees, task forces and collaborative research initiatives; stimulate more social sciences unions to join ICSU; and to work with the International Social Sciences Council (ISSC) as a key partner in strengthening international social science of relevance for implementing ICSU’s Strategic Plan.

Whyte said: “ICSU’s mission is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society. To do this, the natural and social sciences must be fully involved; working together to provide knowledge to solve global challenges.”

Heide Hackmann, Secretary-General of the International Social Sciences Council (ISSC) agreed: “High quality social scientific knowledge is becoming necessary knowledge for policymakers, business and community leaders, and natural scientists alike. In this environment the ISSC has taken on the challenge of becoming the major global social scientific player alongside, and in collaboration with, ICSU in addressing key global challenges.”

But it’s not all smooth sailing. There are barriers that must be overcome: natural and social scientists speak different languages; many institutions are not equipped to deal with interdisciplinary research; and there is resistance among some scientists from both sides of the table.

“The key to success is that natural and social scientists must work together on research agenda setting. One field cannot merely provide services for the other—they both must be involved in setting research goals. And you need to choose the right people,” said Roberta Balstad of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, at Columbia University in New York, and a member of CSPR.

Over the years, ICSU has actively involved the social sciences, particularly through its global environmental change programmes. The Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) successfully integrates natural and social sciences in order to investigate how changes in the Earth System affect global and regional sustainability. And new ICSU programmes, such as “Integrated Research on Disaster Risk” and “Ecosystem Change and Human Well-being,” have involved both the natural and social sciences from the earliest planning stages.

“Indeed, it could be argued that ICSU is at a point in its history where it is increasingly dependent on social science to fulfil its mission. Thus, better integration of the social sciences into ICSU is no longer an option, it is a necessity,” said Balstad.

The report “Enhancing Involvement of Social Sciences in ICSU” and more on the General Assembly are available at: http://www.icsu.org/3_mediacentre/GA_29.html

Social cognition

Social cognition is the study of how people process social information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations.

There has been much recent interest in the links between social cognition and brain function, particularly as neuropsychological studies have shown that brain injury (particularly to the frontal lobes) can adversely affect social judgements and interaction.

People diagnosed with certain mental illnesses are also known to show differences in how they process social information.

There is now an expanding research field examining how such conditions may bias cognitive processes involved in social interaction, or conversely, how such biases may lead to the symptoms associated with the condition. It is also becoming clear that some aspects of psychological processes that promote social behaviour (such as face recognition) may be innate.

Studies have shown that newborn babies, younger than one hour old can selectively recognize and respond to faces, while people with some developmental disorders such as autism or Williams syndrome may show differences in social interaction and social communication when compared to their unaffected peers..

nterpersonal relationship

Interpersonal relationships are social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people.

They vary in differing levels of intimacy and sharing, implying the discovery or establishment of common ground, and may be centered around something(s) shared in common.

The study of relationships is of concern to sociology, psychology and anthropology..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

A new American Cancer Society study finds that recent progress in closing the gap in overall cancer mortality between African Americans and whites may be due primarily to smoking-related cancers, and that cancer mortality differences related to screening and treatment may still be increasing.

The study, appearing in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, is the first to analyze racial and ethnic differences between the two broad categories of disease.

Despite decreases in overall cancer death rates across all racial and ethnic groups since the early 1990s, racial disparities in cancer mortality persist. African Americans have the highest risk of all major ethnic groups in the United States of being diagnosed with and dying of cancer. The researchers examined how black-white disparities have in cancer mortality have changed over time for all sites combined, for smoking-related cancers, and for sites affected, or potentially affected by screening and treatment (breast, prostate, colon/rectum).

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed the black-white disparity in overall cancer death rates narrowed from the early 1990s through 2004, especially in men. But analysis showed that reduction was driven predominantly by more rapid decreases in mortality from tobacco-related cancers in black men than white men. In contrast, racial disparities in mortality from cancers potentially affected by screening and treatment increased over most of the time intervals since 1975.

The study found death rates from lung and other smoking-related cancers in black and white men began to converge in the early 1990s, approximately 15 years after the prevalence of current cigarette smoking began to decrease more rapidly in black than white men. The convergence of death rates from smoking-related cancers other than lung cancer began somewhat earlier and was larger in proportionate terms than the pattern seen for lung cancer. But the trends for related to screening and treatment were notably different. For those, the decreases in death rates began earlier and have been larger in proportionate terms for whites than for African Americans.

“Racial disparities in cancer mortality have decreased for tobacco related cancers but continue to increase in relative terms for those cancer sites related to screening and treatment,” write the authors. “The goal of eliminating racial disparities in cancer mortality cannot be achieved without coordinated and sustained efforts to provide high quality prevention, screening and treatment to all segments of the population.”

Racial Disparities In Cancer Mortality Rates Between Blacks And Whites Quantified

African Americans have a shorter life expectancy than whites, and cancer plays a major role in this disparity. African Americans are more prone to get cancer; they tend to present at a later, deadlier stage; and they have poorer survival rates after diagnosis.

But to what extent are each of these three factors responsible for the disparity in cancer mortality? A new UCLA study, published in Journal of General Internal Medicine Feb. 18, answers that question, finding that for most types of cancer, the disparity in mortality is almost entirely due to the fact that African Americans are more likely to get cancer in the first place. Their stage at presentation and survival after diagnosis play a much smaller role.

Overall, African American men live 1.47 fewer years than white men, and African American women 0.91 fewer years than white women, due to all cancers combined. The results spotlight the need for greater prevention efforts aimed at African Americans.

This is the first time that researchers have quantified the role that disparities in cancer incidence, stage at diagnosis and survival after cancer plays in African Americans’ shorter life expectancy, according to lead author Dr. Mitchell D. Wong, associate professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“Putting a number on it is very informative, because when you look at the figures, you see that the reason their mortality is worse is almost entirely due to the fact that blacks are more likely to get cancer,” Wong said. “This highlights the importance of prevention — it’s where most of the efforts should be.”

A notable exception to this pattern was breast cancer. While white women are more likely to get breast cancer than African American women, the disparities between whites and blacks in stage at presentation and survival after diagnosis for breast cancer had a large impact on the racial gap in life expectancy.

“This argues for much more research and efforts to close the gap in breast cancer screening and treatment,” Wong said.

The researchers analyzed data from the Surveillance and Epidemiology End Result (SEER) cancer registry and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Together, the data sets covered about 2.7 million white and 291,000 African American cancer patients from 12 geographic regions in the United States: San Francisco/Oakland, Connecticut, Detroit, Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico, Seattle (Puget Sound), Utah, Atlanta, Alaska, San Jose/Monterey and Los Angeles.

Among the other findings:

* Cancer incidence, stage at diagnosis and post-diagnosis survival accounted for 1.12, 0.17 and 0.21 years, respectively, in the life-expectancy disparity among men.
* Among women, those categories accounted for 0.41, 0.26 and 0.31 years, respectively.
* The difference in incidence of cancer had a greater impact on the racial gap in cancer mortality than did the stage at which the cancer was diagnosed.
* The differences in post-diagnosis survival were significant with only two types of cancer: breast (0.14 years) and prostate (0.05 years).

“Continuing to improve cancer treatment and screening is undoubtedly important to improving life expectancy and quality of life for all adults, yet substantial disparities in cancer mortality will persist unless we can find ways to address the enormous impact of racial differences in cancer incidence,” the researchers concluded.

In addition to Wong, study authors included Susan L. Ettner and Martin F. Shapiro of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and John Boscardin of the division of geriatrics at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The National Institute on Aging, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a Pfizer Scholars Grant in Clinical Epidemiology, and a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scientist Development Award funded this study.

Making The List: Disparities In Kidney Transplant Waiting Lists

You might expect that living close to a clinic that specializes in transplanting organs would put you at an advantage if you needed a new kidney. According to a new you would be wrong. The study found that distance from a patient’s home to the nearest transplant facility has no bearing on whether an individual is placed on the transplant waiting list. However, the research identified other factors associated with disparities in waitlisting, including neighborhood poverty.

Access to kidney transplants is not equal for all patients, particularly when comparing patients of different races. To understand this disparity, Rachel Patzer, MPH, Sandra Amaral, MD, and their colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta analyzed data from 1998 to 2002 of 35,346 patients in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina who had end-stage renal disease (ESRD). They found that black patients were less likely than whites to be placed on the kidney transplant waiting list, and this disparity was not associated with the distance to the nearest transplant center. They also found that as neighborhood poverty increased, the likelihood of being placed on the waiting list decreased for blacks compared with whites. “We found the most striking disparity in the poorest neighborhoods, where blacks were 57% less likely to be waitlisted for transplantation than whites,” said Patzer.

The researchers offer several potential explanations for these racial disparities. Social, behavioral, cultural, and biologic factors may play a role, as could patient preferences (black patients have been shown to be less likely to want a transplant). “Exploring the role of these factors in the observed racial differences in waitlisting outcomes is important in developing effective solutions for improving equality in access to healthcare,” said senior author William McClellan, MD. Dr. Amaral adds, “Our study suggests that poverty also needs to be considered as an influential factor in these racial differences. Constructing future interventions that reach out to poorer communities may be one approach to mitigate racial disparity in transplantation.”

The authors report no financial disclosures.

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

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Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

A new study in The Financial Review provides empirical evidence on the Democratic premium and the presidential cycle effect by examining the implications of both factors on the predictability of U.S. excess stock returns.

Results show that even though political variables are often included in forecasting models, they will not help investors to systematically improve, in real-time, the performance of trading rules.

Using monthly U.S. data from 1953 to 2003, researchers analyzed the implications of political stock market anomalies for forecasting excess stock returns in real-time.

Based on widely used statistical model-selection criteria, political variables are often included in the forecasting model an investor should have used to forecast excess stock returns in real-time. The economic benefits an investor could have reaped upon using political variables to set up trading rules, however, would have been limited.

The limited success of political variables in forecasting excess stock returns also shows that political stock market anomalies, when analyzed in real time, are not necessarily an indication of market inefficiency.

The so called efficient market hypothesis is one of the cornerstones of modern finance theory. Broadly speaking, this hypothesis states that investors cannot use information on past and current financial market, macroeconomic, and political developments to outperform the market.

“Our results raise doubts as to whether the Democratic premium anomaly and the presidential cycle anomaly constitute major challenges to the efficient markets hypothesis,” the authors conclude.

Transparency In Politics Can Lead To Greater Corruption

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — Why are some countries more prone to political corruption? Viviana Stechina from Uppsala University, Sweden, has investigated why corruption among the political elite was more extensive in Argentina than in Chile during the 1990s. Among other things, her research shows that greater transparency does not necessarily lead to less corruption.

In her comparison of Chile and Argentina, Viviana Stechina focuses on the rules of the game of politics and on the actions of the political elite in situations that offer many incentives and opportunities for corruption. Through detailed examination of several privatization processes in the two countries, she identifies the institutional circumstances that heighten or reduce the risk of elite corruption. In her analysis she concentrates on four institutional aspects that corruption experts often put forward as relevant to understand the occurrence of corruption: the extent of intrastate accountability, the extent of transparency in policy-making, and the respective degrees of concentration of power and discretion among decision-makers.

The dissertation shows that political institutions play a major role in terms of how vulnerable the two countries are to corruption. Chile’s political system, with stronger intrastate accountability and less power concentration, proved to be more resistant to corruption than the Argentine system. However, the extent of discretion among decision-makers proved to be less of a factor than corruption researchers normally claim.

The most remarkable finding is that the greater transparency found in Argentina did not lead to less corruption in the short run.

“Thanks to the extensive coverage by the press, the public in Argentina had greater access to information about political decisions and actions than in Chile, but this did not prevent the occurrence of corruption and abuses of power. Instead, media reports increased the public awareness not only of the extent of corruption but also of the impunity that politicians enjoyed. In the short run, this probably increased the incentives for corruption. In the long run, on the other hand, there have been advantages with greater transparency,” says Viviana Stechina.

Viviana Stechina defended her doctoral thesis at Uppsala University on October 3.

Government Accommodates Rich And Poor Alike

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2008) — The election year is in full swing, complete with allegations of class warfare and claims about which candidates cater to the rich and which candidates will best serve the interests of the poor and the middle class.

But a new study, co-authored by North Carolina State University researcher Dr. Chris Ellis, explores the idea that Congress and the White House act on behalf of the wealthy – and shows that it would be impossible to cater solely to any socioeconomic group, because people’s preferences tend to be overwhelmingly similar when it comes to how the federal government should spend its money.

The study shows that “Even if government wanted to respond only to the interests of the rich, it couldn’t,” Ellis says, “because the rich and the poor tend to share similar political viewpoints – at least on economic issues.”

In the study, researchers used data from the long-running General Social Survey to measure public opinion on government spending from 1973 to 2006 – and found that political sentiment was very similar between the various socioeconomic groups. Basically, trends among rich, poor and middle-class voters toward becoming more liberal or more conservative tended to take place at the same time. Ellis explains that the trends happened at the same time because both rich and poor responded to changes in the nation’s economic health, or the actions of the federal government, in broadly similar ways. Ellis, an assistant professor of political science at NC State, co-authored the study with Dr. Joseph Ura, an assistant professor of political science at Texas A&M University.

The study concludes that the federal government acts on the preferences of all income groups either because it can’t tell the difference between the preferences of the rich versus the poor, or because officeholders wish to represent the desires of the public as a whole. The study, “Income, Preferences, and the Dynamics of Policy Responsiveness,” was published in the Oct. 3 issue of the journal Political Science and Politics.

“This does not mean that the government is actually acting in the best interests of the poor,” Ellis says, “only that what the poor want is similar to what the rich want in terms of how the government appropriates its funds.” For example, the public’s views of what the federal government should do with respect to education, health care and the environment are similar regardless of socioeconomic level. Ellis notes, however, that social issues – such as abortion – were not considered in the study.

Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!

Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch?

If so, chances are you’re more conservative — politically, and especially in your attitudes toward gays and lesbians — than your less-squeamish counterparts, according to two Cornell studies.

The results, said study leader David Pizarro, Cornell assistant professor of psychology, raise questions about the role of disgust — an emotion that likely evolved in humans to keep them safe from potentially hazardous or disease-carrying environments — in contemporary judgments of morality and purity.

In the first study, published in the journal Cognition & Emotion, Pizarro and co-authors Yoel Inbar of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Paul Bloom of Yale University surveyed 181 U.S. adults from politically mixed “swing states.” They subjected these adults to two indexes: the Disgust Sensitivity Scale (DSS), which offers various scenarios to assess disgust sensitivity, and a political ideology scale. From this they found a correlation between being more easily disgusted and political conservatism.

To test whether disgust sensitivity is linked to specific conservative attitudes, the researchers then surveyed 91 Cornell undergraduates with the DSS, as well as with questions about their positions on issues including gay marriage, abortion, gun control, labor unions, tax cuts and affirmative action.

Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to notions of morality or purity. The researchers also found a weak correlation between disgust sensitivity and support for tax cuts, but no link between disgust sensitivity and the other issues.

And in a separate study in the current issue of the journal Emotion, Pizarro and colleagues found a link between higher disgust sensitivity and disapproval of gays and lesbians. For this study, the researchers used implicit measures (measures that have been shown to assess attitudes people may be unwilling to report explicitly; or that they may not even know they possess).

Liberals and conservatives disagree about whether disgust has a valid place in making moral judgments, Pizarro noted. Conservatives have argued that there is inherent wisdom in repugnance; that feeling disgusted about something — gay sex between consenting adults, for example — is cause enough to judge it wrong or immoral, even lacking a concrete reason. Liberals tend to disagree, and are more likely to base judgments on whether an action or a thing causes actual harm.

Studying the link between disgust and moral judgment could help explain the strong differences in people’s moral opinions, Pizarro said; and it could offer strategies for persuading some to change their views.

“People have pointed out for a long time that a lot of our moral values seem driven by emotion, and in particular, disgust appears to be one of those emotions that seems to be recruited for moral judgments,” said Pizarro.

That can have tragic effects — as in cases throughout history where minorities have been victims of discrimination by groups that perceived them as having disgusting characteristics.

The research speaks to a need for caution when forming moral judgments, Pizarro added. “Disgust really is about protecting yourself from disease; it didn’t really evolve for the purpose of human morality,” he said. “It clearly has become central to morality, but because of its origins in contamination and avoidance, we should be wary about its influences.”

The studies were funded by Cornell.

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Streaming media is media that is consumed (read, heard, viewed) while it is being delivered.Streaming is more a property of the delivery system than the media itself..

Therapy dog

Therapy Dog refers to a dog trained to provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, mental institutions, schools, and stressful situations such as disaster areas.

The concept of a therapy dog is often attributed to Elaine Smith, an American who worked as a registered nurse for a time in England.

Smith noticed how well patients responded to visits by a certain chaplain and his canine companion, a golden retriever.

Upon returning to the United States in 1976, Smith started a program for training dogs to visit institutions.

Over the years health care professionals have noticed the therapeutic effect of animal companionship, such as relieving stress, lowering blood pressure, and raising spirits, and the demand for therapy dogs continues to grow.

In recent years, therapy dogs have been enlisted to help children overcome speech and emotional disorders.

The concept has widened to include other species, specifically therapy cats, therapy rabbits, and therapy birds..

Pediatrics

Pediatrics (also spelled paediatrics) is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents (from newborn to age 16-21, depending on the country).

Pediatrics differs from adult medicine in many respects.

The obvious body size differences are paralleled by maturational changes.

The smaller body of an infant or neonate is substantially different physiologically from that of an adult.

Congenital defects, genetic variance, immunology, oncology, and a host of other issues are unique to the realm of pediatrics..

Culture of fear

Culture of fear is a term that refers to a perceived prevalence of fear and anxiety in public discourse and relationships, and how this may affect the way people interact with one another as individuals and as democratic agents.

Among those who share this perception there are a variety of different claims as to the sources and consequences of the trend they seek to describe; however, most share the basic claim that this is a relatively new phenomenon with important and potentially harmful implications..

Agriculture

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Coastal management or coastal defence is used throughout the world for many different purposes, but predominantly to reduce coastal erosion and flooding..

Soil science

Soil science deals with soil as a natural resource on the surface of the earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils per se; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils. Sometimes terms which refer to branches of soil science, such as pedology (formation, chemistry, morphology and classification of soil) and edaphology (influence of soil on organisms, especially plants), are used as if synonymous with soil science.

The diversity of names associated with this discipline is related to the various associations concerned.

Indeed, engineers, agronomists, chemists, geologists, geographers, biologists, microbiologists, sylviculturists, sanitarians, archaeologists, and specialists in regional planning, all contribute to further knowledge of soils and the advancement of the soil sciences..

Controlled burn

Prescribed or controlled burning is a technique sometimes used in forest management, farming, or prairie restoration.

Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology and controlled fire can be a tool for foresters.

Controlled burning stimulates the germination of some desirable forest trees, thus renewing the forest.

Some seeds, such as sequoia, remain dormant until fire breaks down the seed coating.

Another consideration is the issue of fire prevention.

In Florida, during the drought in 1998, catastrophic wildfires burned numerous homes.

But forestry managers note that the underlying problem was prior cessation of controlled burning, due to complaints by homeowners.

Each year additional leaf litter and dropped branches increased the likelihood of a hot and uncontrollable fire.

In industrialized counties, controlled burning is usually overseen by fire control authorities for regulations and permits.

The party responsible must delineate the intended time and place.

Obtaining a permit may not limit liability if the fire burns out of control..

Forestry

Forestry is the art, science, and practice of studying and managing forests and plantations, and related natural resources.

Silviculture, a related science, involves the growing and tending of trees and forests.

Modern forestry generally concerns itself with assisting forests to provide timber as raw material for wood products; wildlife habitat; natural water quality regulation; recreation; landscape and community protection; employment; aesthetically appealing landscapes; and a ’sink’ for atmospheric carbon dioxide.

A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester. Forests have come to be seen as one of the most important components of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital field of science, applied art, and technology.

Foresters may be employed by industry, government agencies, conservation groups, urban parks boards, citizens’ associations, or private landowners.

Industrial foresters are predominantly involved in planning the timber harvests and forest regeneration..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development were conceived by Lawrence Kohlberg to explain the development of moral reasoning.

This theory holds that moral reasoning, which is the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental stages.

He followed the development of moral judgment beyond the ages originally studied by Piaget, who claimed that logic and morality develop through constructive stages.

Kohlberg expanded considerably on this groundwork, determining that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice and that its development continued throughout the lifespan, even spawning dialog of philosophical implications of his research.

Kohlberg used stories about moral dilemmas in his studies, and was interested in how people would act if they were put in a similar moral crux.

He would then categorize and classify evoked responses into one of six distinct stages.

These six stages where broken into three levels: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional.

His theory is based on constructive developmental stages; each stage and level is more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than the last..

Due process

Due process of law is a legal concept that ensures the government will respect all of a person’s legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights when the government deprives a person of life, liberty, or property..

Prison

A prison is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interred.

Prisons are conventionally institutions which form part of the criminal justice system of a country, such that imprisonment or incarceration is the legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime..

Cyber-bullying

Cyber-bullying (cyberbullying, online bullying) is the use of electronic information and communication devices such as e-mail, instant messaging, text messages, mobile phones, pagers and defamatory websites to bully or otherwise harass an individual or group through personal attacks or other means, and it may constitute a computer crime..

Conservation ethic

The conservation ethic is an ethic of resource use, allocation, exploitation, and protection.

Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its forests, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity.

Secondary focus is on materials conservation and energy conservation, which are seen as important to protect the natural world.

To conserve habitat in terrestrial ecoregions and stop deforestation is a goal widely shared by many groups with a wide variety of motivations.

The consumer conservation ethic is sometimes expressed by the four R’s: ” Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Rethink.” This social ethic primarily relates to local purchasing, moral purchasing, the sustained and efficient use of renewable resources, the moderation of destructive use of finite resources, and the prevention of harm to common resources such as air and water quality, the natural functions of a living earth, and cultural values in a built environment..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

An industrial robot is an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes.

The field of industrial robotics may be more practically defined as the study, design and use of robot systems for manufacturing (a top-level definition relying on the prior definition of robot).

Typical applications of industrial robots include welding, painting, ironing, assembly, pick and place, palletizing, product inspection, and testing, all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision.

The most commonly used robot configurations for industrial automation, include articulated robots, SCARA robots and gantry robots.

In the context of general robotics, most types of industrial robots would fall into the category of robot arms..

Robot calibration

Robot calibration is the process of identifying the real geometrical parameters in the kinematic structure of an industrial robot, i.e., the relative position and orientation of links and joints in the robot.

A calibrated robot has a higher absolute positioning accuracy than an uncalibrated one, i.e., the real position of the robot end effector corresponds better to the position calculated from the mathematical model of the robot.

Absolute positioning accuracy is particularly releveant in connection with robot exchangability and off-line programming of precision applications.

Besides the calibration of the robot, the calibration of its tools and the workpieces it works with can minimize occurring inaccuracies and improve process security..

Robotic surgery

Robotic surgery is the use of robots in performing surgery.

Three major advances aided by surgical robots have been remote surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and unmanned surgery.

Major potential advantages of robotic surgery are precision and miniaturization.

Further advantages are articulation beyond normal manipulation and three-dimensional magnification.

Some surgical robots are autonomous, and they are not always under the control of a surgeon.

They are only sometimes used as tools to extend the surgical skills of a trained surgeon..

Nanorobotics

Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the scale of a nanometre (10-9 metres).

More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely theoretical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots.

Nanorobots (nanobots or nanoids) are typically devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometres and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components.

As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have so far been created, they remain a hypothetical concept at this time.

Another definition sometimes used is a robot which allows precision interactions with nanoscale objects, or can manipulate with nanoscale resolution.

Following this definition even a large apparatus such as an atomic force microscope can be considered a nanorobotic instrument when configured to perform nanomanipulation.

Also, macroscale robots or microrobots which can move with nanoscale precision can also be considered nanorobots..

Humanoid robot

A humanoid robot is a robot with its overall appearance based on that of the human body.

* Artificial Intelligence
* Robotics
* Mathematical Modeling

In general humanoid robots have a torso with a head, two arms and two legs, although some forms of humanoid robots may model only part of the body, for example, from the waist up.

Some humanoid robots may also have a ‘face’, with ‘eyes’ and ‘mouth’.

Androids are humanoid robots built to resemble a male human, and Gynoids are humanoid robots built to resemble a human female..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Anthropology is the study of humanity.Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences.

Since the work of Franz Boas and Bronisław Malinowski in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social anthropology has been distinguished from other social science disciplines by its emphasis on in-depth examination of context, cross-cultural comparisons (socio-cultural anthropology is by nature a comparative discipline), and the importance it places on long-term, experiential immersion in the area of research, often known as participant-observation.

Cultural anthropology in particular has emphasized cultural relativity and the use of findings to frame cultural critiques.

This has been particularly prominent in the United States, from Boas’s arguments against 19th-century racial ideology, through Margaret Mead’s advocacy for gender equality and sexual liberation, to current criticisms of post-colonial oppression and promotion of multiculturalism. Principally in the United States, anthropology is often defined as being “holistic” and based on a “four-field” approach.

There is an ongoing dispute on this view; supporters consider anthropology holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all human beings across times and places, and with all dimensions of humanity (evolutionary, biophysical, sociopolitical, economic, cultural, psychological, etc.); also many academic programs following this approach take a “four-field” approach to anthropology that encompasses physical anthropology, archeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology or social anthropology.

The definition of anthropology as holistic and the “four-field” approach are disputed by some leading anthropologists, that consider those as artifacts from 19th century social evolutionary thought that inappropriately impose scientific positivism upon cultural anthropology.

While originating in the US, both the four field approach and debates concerning it have been exported internationally under American academic influence. The four fields are: Biological or physical anthropology seeks to understand the physical human being through the study of human evolution and adaptability, population genetics, and primatology.

Subfields or related fields include anthropometrics, forensic anthropology, osteology, and nutritional anthropology. Socio-cultural anthropology is the investigation, often through long term, intensive field studies (including participant-observation methods), of the culture and social organization of a particular people: language, economic and political organization, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, kinship and family structure, gender relations, childrearing and socialization, religion, mythology, symbolism, etc.

(U.S.

universities more often use the term cultural anthropology; British universities have tended to call the corresponding field social anthropology, and for much of the 20th century emphasized the analysis of social organization more than cultural symbolism.) In some European countries, socio-cultural anthropology is known as ethnology (a term also used in English-speaking countries to denote the comparative aspect of socio-cultural anthropology.) Subfields and related fields include psychological anthropology, folklore, anthropology of religion, ethnic studies, cultural studies, anthropology of media and cyberspace, and study of the diffusion of social practices and cultural forms. Linguistic anthropology seeks to understand the processes of human communications, verbal and non-verbal, variation in language across time and space, the social uses of language, and the relationship between language and culture.

It is the branch of anthropology that brings linguistic methods to bear on anthropological problems, linking the analysis of linguistic forms and processes to the interpretation of sociocultural processes.

Linguistic anthropologists often draw on related fields including anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, semiotics, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. Archaeology studies the contemporary distribution and form of artifacts (materials modified by past human activities), with the intent of understanding distribution and movement of ancient populations, development of human social organization, and relationships among contemporary populations; it also contributes significantly to the work of population geneticists, historical linguists, and many historians.

Archaeology involves a wide variety of field techniques (remote sensing, survey, geophysical studies, coring, excavation) and laboratory procedures (compositional analyses, dating studies (radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence dating), measures of formal variability, examination of wear patterns, residue analyses, etc.).

Archaeologists predominantly study materials produced by prehistoric groups but also includes modern, historical and ethnographic populations.

Archaeology is usually regarded as a separate (but related) field outside North America, although closely related to the anthropological field of material culture, which deals with physical objects created or used within a living or past group as a means of understanding its cultural values. .

Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or archæology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains and landscapes. The goals of archaeology are to document and explain the origins and development of human culture, understand culture history, chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies.

It is considered, in North America, to be one of the four sub-fields of anthropology. A modern archaeological project often begins with a survey.

Regional survey is the attempt to systematically locate previously unknown sites in a region.

Site survey is the attempt to systematically locate features of interest, such as houses and middens, within a site.

Each of these two goals may be accomplished with largely the same methods. Archaeological excavation existed even when the field was still the domain of amateurs, and it remains the source of the majority of data recovered in most field projects.

It can reveal several types of information usually not accessible to survey, such as stratigraphy, three-dimensional structure, and verifiably primary context. Modern excavation techniques require that the precise locations of objects and features, known as their provenance or provenience, be recorded.

This always involves determining their horizontal locations, and sometimes vertical position as well.

Similarly, their association, or relationship with nearby objects and features, needs to be recorded for later analysis.

This allows the archaeologist to deduce what artefacts and features were likely used together and which may be from different phases of activity.

For example, excavation of a site reveals its stratigraphy; if a site was occupied by a succession of distinct cultures, artefacts from more recent cultures will lie above those from more ancient cultures..

The Genographic Project

The Genographic Project, launched in April 2005, is a five-year genetic anthropology study that aims to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from over 100,000 people across five continents..

Forensics

Forensic science (often shortened to forensics) is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system.

This may be in relation to a crime or to a civil action.

The use of the term “forensics” in place of “forensic science” could be considered incorrect; the term “forensic” is effectively a synonym for “legal” or “related to courts.”.

Multiregional hypothesis

The multiregional origin hypothesis of human species holds that some, or all, of the genetic variation between the contemporary human races is attributable to genetic inheritance from either Homo sapiens subspecies, or even other hominid species..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Archaeology, archeology, or archæology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains and landscapes. The goals of archaeology are to document and explain the origins and development of human culture, understand culture history, chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behavior and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies.

It is considered, in North America, to be one of the four sub-fields of anthropology. A modern archaeological project often begins with a survey.

Regional survey is the attempt to systematically locate previously unknown sites in a region.

Site survey is the attempt to systematically locate features of interest, such as houses and middens, within a site.

Each of these two goals may be accomplished with largely the same methods. Archaeological excavation existed even when the field was still the domain of amateurs, and it remains the source of the majority of data recovered in most field projects.

It can reveal several types of information usually not accessible to survey, such as stratigraphy, three-dimensional structure, and verifiably primary context. Modern excavation techniques require that the precise locations of objects and features, known as their provenance or provenience, be recorded.

This always involves determining their horizontal locations, and sometimes vertical position as well.

Similarly, their association, or relationship with nearby objects and features, needs to be recorded for later analysis.

This allows the archaeologist to deduce what artefacts and features were likely used together and which may be from different phases of activity.

For example, excavation of a site reveals its stratigraphy; if a site was occupied by a succession of distinct cultures, artefacts from more recent cultures will lie above those from more ancient cultures..

Artificial intelligence

The modern definition of artificial intelligence (or AI) is “the study and design of intelligent agents” where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximizes its chances of success.

John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” Other names for the field have been proposed, such as computational intelligence, synthetic intelligence or computational rationality.

The term artificial intelligence is also used to describe a property of machines or programs: the intelligence that the system demonstrates. AI research uses tools and insights from many fields, including computer science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, operations research, economics, control theory, probability, optimization and logic.

AI research also overlaps with tasks such as robotics, control systems, scheduling, data mining, logistics, speech recognition, facial recognition and many others. Computational intelligence Computational intelligence involves iterative development or learning (e.g., parameter tuning in connectionist systems).

Learning is based on empirical data and is associated with non-symbolic AI, scruffy AI and soft computing.

Subjects in computational intelligence as defined by IEEE Computational Intelligence Society mainly include: Neural networks: trainable systems with very strong pattern recognition capabilities. Fuzzy systems: techniques for reasoning under uncertainty, have been widely used in modern industrial and consumer product control systems; capable of working with concepts such as ‘hot’, ‘cold’, ‘warm’ and ‘boiling’. Evolutionary computation: applies biologically inspired concepts such as populations, mutation and survival of the fittest to generate increasingly better solutions to the problem.

These methods most notably divide into evolutionary algorithms (e.g., genetic algorithms) and swarm intelligence (e.g., ant algorithms). With hybrid intelligent systems, attempts are made to combine these two groups.

Expert inference rules can be generated through neural network or production rules from statistical learning such as in ACT-R or CLARION.

It is thought that the human brain uses multiple techniques to both formulate and cross-check results.

Thus, systems integration is seen as promising and perhaps necessary for true AI, especially the integration of symbolic and connectionist models..

Astronomy

Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth’s atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation).

It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences.

Astronomers of early civilizations performed methodical observations of the night sky, and astronomical artifacts have been found from much earlier periods.

However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science.

Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, the making of calendars, and even, at one time, astrology, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be identical with astrophysics.

Since the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches.

Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring and analyzing data, mainly using basic principles of physics.

Theoretical astronomy is oriented towards the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena.

The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the observational results, and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Amateur astronomers have contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, and astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and observation of transient phenomena. The most frequently studied star is the Sun, a typical main-sequence dwarf star of stellar class G2 V, and about 4.6 Gyr in age.

The Sun is not considered a variable star, but it does undergo periodic changes in activity known as the sunspot cycle.

The study of stars and stellar evolution is fundamental to our understanding of the universe.

The astrophysics of stars has been determined through observation and theoretical understanding; and from computer simulations of the interior. Star formation occurs in dense regions of dust and gas, known as giant molecular clouds.

When destabilized, cloud fragments can collapse under the influence of gravity, to form a protostar.

A sufficiently dense, and hot, core region will trigger nuclear fusion, thus creating a main-sequence star. Almost all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were created inside the cores of stars..

Big Bang

The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the universe whose primary assertion is that the universe has expanded into its current state from a primordial condition of enormous density and temperature.

The term is also used in a narrower sense to describe the fundamental “fireball” that erupted at or close to an initial timepoint in the history of our observed spacetime. Theoretical support for the Big Bang comes from mathematical models.

These models show that a Big Bang is consistent with general relativity and with the cosmological principle, which states that the properties of the universe should be independent of position or orientation. Observational evidence for the Big Bang includes the analysis of the spectrum of light from galaxies, which reveal a shift towards longer wavelengths proportional to each galaxy’s distance in a relationship described by Hubble’s law.

Combined with the assumption that observers located anywhere in the universe would make similar observations (the Copernican principle), this suggests that space itself is expanding.

The next most important observational evidence was the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964.

This had been predicted as a relic from when hot ionized plasma of the early universe first cooled sufficiently to form neutral hydrogen and allow space to become transparent to light, and its discovery led to general acceptance among physicists that the Big Bang is the best model for the origin and evolution of the universe.

A third important line of evidence is the relative proportion of light elements in the universe, which is a close match to predictions for the formation of light elements in the first minutes of the universe, according to Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Extrapolation of the expansion of the universe backwards in time using general relativity yields an infinite density and temperature at a finite time in the past.

This singularity signals the breakdown of general relativity.

How closely we can extrapolate towards the singularity is debated—certainly not earlier than the Planck epoch.

The early hot, dense phase is itself referred to as “the Big Bang”, and is considered the “birth” of our universe.

Based on measurements of the expansion using Type Ia supernovae, measurements of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, and measurements of the correlation function of galaxies, the universe has a calculated age of 13.7 ± 0.2 billion years. The earliest phases of the Big Bang are subject to much speculation.

In the most common models, the universe was filled homogeneously and isotropically with an incredibly high energy density, huge temperatures and pressures, and was very rapidly expanding and cooling.

Approximately 10−35 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the universe grew exponentially.

After inflation stopped, the universe consisted of a quark-gluon plasma, as well as all other elementary particles.

Temperatures were so high that the random motions of particles were at relativistic speeds, and particle-antiparticle pairs of all kinds were being continuously created and destroyed in collisions.

At some point an unknown reaction called baryogenesis violated the conservation of baryon number, leading to a very small excess of quarks and leptons over antiquarks and anti-leptons — of the order of 1 part in 30 million.

This resulted in the predominance of matter over antimatter in the present universe..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also known simply as Alzheimer’s, is a neurodegenerative disease that, in its most common form, is found in people over age 65.

Approximately 24 million people worldwide have dementia of which the majority (~60%) is due to Alzheimer’s. Clinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease are characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration, together with declining activities of daily living and by neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes.

The most striking early symptom is memory loss (amnesia), usually manifest as minor forgetfulness that becomes steadily denser with illness progression, with relative preservation of older memories. It is the most common type of dementia.

Plaques which contain misfolded peptides called amyloid beta (Aβ) are formed in the brain many years before the clinical signs of Alzheimer’s are observed.

Together, these plaques and neurofibrillary tangles form the pathological hallmarks of the disease.

These features can only be discovered at autopsy and help to confirm the clinical diagnosis.

Medications can help reduce the symptoms of the disease, but they cannot change the course of the underlying pathology. The ultimate cause of Alzheimer’s is unknown.

Genetic factors are clearly indicated as evidenced by dominant mutations in three different genes have been identified that account for the small number of cases of familial, early-onset AD.

For the more common form of late onset AD (LOAD), ApoE is the only clearly established susceptibility gene.

All four genes can contain mutations or variants that confer increased risk for AD, but account for only 30% of the genetic picture of AD.

These four genes have in common the fact that mutations in each lead to the excessive accumulation in the brain of Aβ, the main component of the senile plaques that litter the brains of AD patients..

Dementia with Lewy bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies is the second most frequent cause of hospitalization for dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease.

Current estimates are that about 60 to 75% of diagnosed dementias are of the Alzheimer’s and mixed (Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia) type, 10 to 15% are Lewy Bodies type, with the remaining types being of an entire spectrum of dementias including frontotemporal, Pick’s disease, alcoholic dementia, pure vascular dementia, etc..

Dementia

Dementia is progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging.

Particularly affected areas may be memory, attention, language and problem solving, although particularly in the later stages of the condition, affected persons may be disoriented in time (not knowing what day, week, month or year it is), place (not knowing where they are) and person (not knowing who they are)..

Multi-infarct dementia

Multi-infarct dementia, also known as vascular dementia, is a form of dementia resulting from brain damage caused by stroke or transient ischemic attacks (also known as mini-strokes)..

Amyloid

Amyloid describes various types of protein aggregations that share specific traits when examined microscopically.

For a period, the scientific community debated whether or not amyloid deposits were fatty deposits or carbohydrate deposits until it was finally resolved that it was neither, but rather a deposition of proteinaceous mass..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

<strong>”This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.</strong>

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also known simply as Alzheimer’s, is a neurodegenerative disease that, in its most common form, is found in people over age 65.

Approximately 24 million people worldwide have dementia of which the majority (~60%) is due to Alzheimer’s. Clinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease are characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration, together with declining activities of daily living and by neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes.

The most striking early symptom is memory loss (amnesia), usually manifest as minor forgetfulness that becomes steadily denser with illness progression, with relative preservation of older memories. It is the most common type of dementia.

Plaques which contain misfolded peptides called amyloid beta (Aβ) are formed in the brain many years before the clinical signs of Alzheimer’s are observed.

Together, these plaques and neurofibrillary tangles form the pathological hallmarks of the disease.

These features can only be discovered at autopsy and help to confirm the clinical diagnosis.

Medications can help reduce the symptoms of the disease, but they cannot change the course of the underlying pathology. The ultimate cause of Alzheimer’s is unknown.

Genetic factors are clearly indicated as evidenced by dominant mutations in three different genes have been identified that account for the small number of cases of familial, early-onset AD.

For the more common form of late onset AD (LOAD), ApoE is the only clearly established susceptibility gene.

All four genes can contain mutations or variants that confer increased risk for AD, but account for only 30% of the genetic picture of AD.

These four genes have in common the fact that mutations in each lead to the excessive accumulation in the brain of Aβ, the main component of the senile plaques that litter the brains of AD patients..

Dementia with Lewy bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies is the second most frequent cause of hospitalization for dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease.

Current estimates are that about 60 to 75% of diagnosed dementias are of the Alzheimer’s and mixed (Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia) type, 10 to 15% are Lewy Bodies type, with the remaining types being of an entire spectrum of dementias including frontotemporal, Pick’s disease, alcoholic dementia, pure vascular dementia, etc..

Dementia

Dementia is progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging.

Particularly affected areas may be memory, attention, language and problem solving, although particularly in the later stages of the condition, affected persons may be disoriented in time (not knowing what day, week, month or year it is), place (not knowing where they are) and person (not knowing who they are)..

Multi-infarct dementia

Multi-infarct dementia, also known as vascular dementia, is a form of dementia resulting from brain damage caused by stroke or transient ischemic attacks (also known as mini-strokes)..

Amyloid

Amyloid describes various types of protein aggregations that share specific traits when examined microscopically.

For a period, the scientific community debated whether or not amyloid deposits were fatty deposits or carbohydrate deposits until it was finally resolved that it was neither, but rather a deposition of proteinaceous mass..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Alternative Fuel Vehicle refers to a vehicle that runs on a fuel other than traditional gasoline or diesel; any method of powering an engine that does not involve petroleum.Due to a combination of heavy taxes on fuel, particularly in Europe, tightening environmental laws, particularly in California, and the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, work on alternative power systems for vehicles has become a high priority for governments and vehicle manufacturers around the world. Current research and development is largely centered on “hybrid” vehicles that use both electric power and internal combustion.

Other R&D efforts in alternative forms of power focus on developing fuel cells, alternative forms of combustion such as GDI and HCCI, and even the stored energy of compressed air. The use of alcohol as a fuel for internal combustion engines, either alone or in combination with other fuels, has been given much attention mostly because of its possible environmental and long-term economical advantages over fossil fuel. Both ethanol and methanol have been considered for this purpose.

While both can be obtained from petroleum or natural gas, ethanol may be the most interesting because many believe it to be a renewable resource, easily obtained from sugar or starch in crops and other agricultural produce such as grain, sugarcane or even lactose.

Since ethanol occurs in nature whenever yeast happens to find a sugar solution such as overripe fruit, most organisms have evolved some tolerance to ethanol, whereas methanol is toxic.

Other experiments involve butanol, which can also be produced by fermentation of plants. A hybrid vehicle uses multiple propulsion systems to provide motive power.

This most commonly refers to gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, which use gasoline (petrol) and electric batteries for the energy used to power internal-combustion engines and electric motors.

These powerplants are usually relatively small and would be considered “underpowered” by themselves, but they can provide a normal driving experience when used in combination during acceleration and other maneuvers that require greater power. A hydrogen car is an automobile which uses hydrogen as its primary source of power for locomotion.

These cars generally use the hydrogen in one of two methods: combustion or fuel-cell conversion.

In combustion, the hydrogen is “burned” in engines in fundamentally the same method as traditional gasoline cars.

In fuel-cell conversion, the hydrogen is turned into electricity through fuel cells which then powers electric motors.

With either method, the only byproduct from the spent hydrogen is water.

A small number of prototype hydrogen cars currently exist, and a significant amount of research is underway to make the technology more viable.

A solar car is an electric vehicle powered by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the car.

Solar cars are not a practical form of transportation; insufficient power falls on the roof of a practically sized and shaped vehicle to provide adequate performance..

Flexible-fuel vehicle

A flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) or dual-fuel vehicle (also sometimes called only flex-fuel) is an automobile that can typically alternate between two sources of fuel.

A common example is a vehicle that can accept gasoline mixed with varying levels of bioethanol (gasohol).

Some cars carry a natural gas tank and one can switch from gasoline to gas..

Automobile emissions control

Automobile emissions control covers all the technologies that are employed to reduce the air pollution-causing emissions produced by automobiles..

Automotive aerodynamics

Automotive aerodynamics is the study of the aerodynamics of road vehicles.

The main concerns of automotive aerodynamics are reducing drag, reducing wind noise, and preventing undesired lift forces at high speeds.

For some classes of racing vehicles, it may also be important to produce desirable downwards aerodynamic forces to improve traction and thus cornering abilities..

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which combustion occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber.

Combustion of a fuel creates high temperature/pressure gases, which are permitted to expand.

The expanding gases are used to directly move a piston, turbine blades, rotor(s), or the engine itself thus doing useful work.

Internal combustion engines can be powered by any fuel that can be combined with an oxidizer in the chamber..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).

The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock).The practice of agriculture is also known as “farming”, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. Subsistence farming, who farms a small area with limited resource inputs, and produces only enough food to meet the needs of his/her family.

At the other end is commercial intensive agriculture, including industrial agriculture.

Such farming involves large fields and/or numbers of animals, large resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, etc.), and a high level of mechanization.

These operations generally attempt to maximize financial income from grain, produce, or livestock. Modern agriculture extends well beyond the traditional production of food for humans and animal feeds.

Other agricultural production goods include timber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.

Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.

Beginning in the Western world, the green revolution spread many of these changes to farms throughout the world, with varying success. Other recent changes in agriculture include hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control.

Genetic engineering has yielded crops which have capabilities beyond those of naturally occuring plants, such as higher yields and disease resistance.

Modified seeds germinate faster, and thus can be grown in an extended growing area.

Genetic engineering of plants has proven controversial, particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants. As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world’s workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996), making it by far the most common occupation.

However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.

Also, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products)..

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.

As such, it is a vital skill for farmers and, in some countries in many ways..

Organic farming methods

Organic farming methods combine scientific knowledge and modern technology with traditional farming practices based on thousands of years of agriculture.

In general, organic methods rely on naturally occurring biological processes, which often take place over extended periods of time, and a holistic approach.

Crop diversity is a distinctive characteristic of organic farming..

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow.

Agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

They conduct research in crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and other areas..

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of a farm to produce perpetually..

“This article is brought to you by Gus Woltmann”.