Reduce,Reuse and Reclycle Essay Example for Free

Reduce,Reuse and Reclycle Essay Practicing these three steps (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) helps us lessen the environmental impact that manufacturing and distributing products have on our environment. Reducing waste is the most effective 3 R practice, because it means not producing unnecessary waste in the first place – So there is zero impact on the environment. If we reduce what we buy and use in the first place and reuse wherever possible, fewer things need to be recycled and the amount of waste we produce will fall. The next best is Reuse, because it extends the life of a product. That item still had to be made but it is used over and over, reducing the need to make new stuff. Recycling in the end is the reprocessing of materials. It helps reduce pollution caused by waste and the need of raw material so that rainforests can be preserved. BENEFITS: We are going to give you some tips and practical examples how to save money, energy and the environment. 1. Do not waste food, make sure that you buy what you are going to consume, give leftovers to your pets or discard them in a responsible way. (Environmental friendly). 2. Grow your own vegetable, fruits, and flowers. 3. When you leave a room always turn the lights off – Do not forget to switch off all the electrical equipment’s, turn down your emersion heater. 4. Instead of using dishwasher, wash dishes by hands from the sink 5. Always turn the tap off when you wash your teeth. You do not need the tap running when you are brushing your teeth. 6. Instead of buying a lot of books, you can borrow from the library or charity shops. 7. Do not automatically get rid of your old newspaper; use it in place of paper towels to clean glasses and mirrors. Shred it to make packaging materials, use it as a fire starter. 8. Reuse junk mail envelops for your own mail. Just put a label over the see through window or if the envelop has a bar code at the bottom, run a black marker through it. 9. Do not dump water you use to cook vegetable; water your plants with it. 10. Use the public transport (trains, undergrounds) rather than cars to reduce pollution. ADVANTAGES OF RECYCLING: Recycling uses much less energy than producing new materials from scratch. This means less fossil fuel is burnt and less greenhouse gas is emitted. The vast majority of materials collected from your doorstep are recycled and used in the UK. This means less fuel is used to export waste and import new materials. Recycling helps to reduce pollution, Co2 emissions caused by waste and preserve natural resources for futures generations. Recycling is one of the best ways for you to have a positive impact on the planet in which we live. It is so important to both, the natural environment and us (Human beings). N. B: However, recycling still creates some pollution because it is an industrial process. That’s why â€Å"Reduce and Reuse† are the most important of the 3 R practice. Did you know? Recycling Aluminium uses only five per cent of the energy and emissions needed to make it from raw materials. Each year in the UK, we go through over 1. 2 million Tonnes of electrical waste. (That’s the equivalent of 150 Thousand double decker buses). Prevention is better than cure as the doctors say. Therefore, we must act fast as the amount of waste we create is increasing all the time. We are going to conclude our topic with this wise and pertinent citation of Margaret Mead: â€Å"Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. †

Children A Gift From God Religion Essay

Children A Gift From God Religion Essay Many have heard of yuppies but have you heard of dinkies? The first type refers to those young urban professionals who are financially secured. Dinkies (double income but no kids) refer to those married couples having no intention or unwilling to have children. Freedom to travel and to enjoy life is a frequent answer. Other reasons include less expenses, less responsibilities and fewer problems in short less headaches. A few crudely replied, We simply dont like children as if they have never been children themselves. Some argue that the old Chinese saying, raising children to safeguard our old age, no longer applies as they saw the presence of neglected parents around. They are absolutely right. Bringing up children involves countless sacrifices and giving up many of lifes enjoyment. A parents responsibilities start from a childs conception onwards to adulthood and oftentimes beyond. From a purely economic viewpoint, investing the money spent in raising and educating a child could easily provide for a comfortable retirement. All these reasons centre on avoiding responsibility and maximizing enjoyment in life. Barring any justifiable reason, there is only one appropriate word to describe this self-centred attitude selfishness. The reason to raise and to sacrifice for our children can also be summarized simply in one word love the opposite of selfishness. Love for God, our Creator by following Christs teachings. Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility. (CCC #2367) Love for our spouse, i.e. to bring forth the fruits of a sacred marriage. Fecundity (producing or capable of producing offspring) is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. Children are the fruits of our love for our spouse and fulfillment of our marriage. The Catechism teaches A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. (CCC #2379) Look at those who intentionally shrink from their responsibility of having children. They may look happy and carefree but can they really find joy in their lives? I felt sorry for a former colleague suffering from mid-life emotional problems. Adamantly, he ridiculed the formality of marriage and refused to have children. I wonder if his newest Mercedes limousine, latest audio-visual equipment, memories of world travel and investment portfolio could take the place of children Gods gift that he had refused in giving joy to him and his spouse. Danny, a friend who recovered fully from cancer, told me that the support of his wife and two daughters gave him the courage to withstand the rigors of chemotherapy and other pains. He praised God for the most precious gift, his children. As for those neglected parents in their old age, they have done their duties for God and for their children. Whether their children will fulfill their own towards their parents is another matter. In comforting neglected parents, my wife, Mary, explained, Consider the joy and happiness that your child had given to you as consolation for your past sacrifices and love. Be glad that you have done your duty. A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The supreme gift of marriage is a human person. However, those couples who did not receive this gift need not despair. (They) should unite themselves with the Lords Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others. (CCC#2379) Before receiving the gift of children at his old age, Abraham asked God, What will you give me for I continue childless?(Gen 15:2) Remember, sometimes God acts in a mysterious way. Spouses suffering from infertility may not realize that Gods gift comes in many ways and at different time. Instead of giving them children, He may have given other gifts. Have faith and follow His will. For those who are struggling to support large families, they can find solace in our Churchs teaching: Sacred Scripture and the Churchs traditional practice see in large families a sign of Gods blessing and the parents generosity (CCC#2373). Our children are indeed a blessing and a gift from God.  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ Please send your comments to [emailprotected]

Essay --

People from all over come to experience the Grand Canyon National Park, located exclusively in North Arizona. Covered with unexplored caves and valleys, and immense canyons, the Grand Canyon is very well liked for hikers, whether that hiker is experience of a beginner. This park offers recreational events for everyone. Today, the Grand Canyon stretches out to be eighteen miles long in some places. The Grand Canyon has much to offer from hiking along a rough, yet narrow landscape, bringing the family out to camp for a few days, gazing at the amazing scenery, or visiting the Indian reservations. This area contains several ecosystems and also hundreds to thousands of unique plants and animals. â€Å"It contains fossils of corals, crinoids, and brachiopods that indicate warm tropical conditions in a sea that once stretched across the continent. The stone looks different from the red wall, because 500 million years ago the ocean was closer to the ancient continent, and any mud and sand t hat washed off the land mixed in with the lime, making it crumbly and yellow† (Weintraub 24). The rock layers in the canyon make a magnificent color of stripes in the canyon walls that could be seen miles and miles away. Not only is this canyon enormous, but also this vast canyon can be seen from space. Although the canyon is not the deepest canyon in the world, it is known for its tremendous dimension and its vibrant landscape. This terrain reserves more than two thousand archeological sites of Native Americans, who have also resided there for four thousand years. The park itself became a National Park in the year 1919. The Grand Canyon is a stunning place to visit for all ages, and for the family to see the remarkable canyon formed not only by the erosi... ... patches along the river† (Halvorsen 5). Separate from the eroding motion of the Colorado River, the flow of the debris played a major, yet foremost role in the broadening and expanding of the Grand Canyon. All these elements contributed to the creation of the Grand Canyon, which still till this day remains a fascinating story and feature for every one of us, especially geologists, who still have many thoughts as to how the Grand Canyon was even formed. Rock layers that have formed the Grand Canyon, as everyone has seen, are created due to the sedimentations of the seas and the oceans. All of this is precisely evident of the fact that the rocks that are found on the sides of the canyon are made of sedimentary rocks. Scientists have said that the erosion is how the Grand Canyon was form, but there can always be something new to every evaluation of the Grand Canyon.

We devised apiece of drama with the help of the story that was written :: Drama

We devised apiece of drama with the help of the story that was written with words extractedfrom the poem: Walls. I represented. We devised a piece of drama with the help of the story that was written with words extracted from the poem: Walls. I represented Jerusalem; the holy city of God. I was positioned at the centre in-between the two worshippers to show that Jerusalem is a place of pilgrimage and prayer. In front of me, either side, were the soldiers that guarded Jerusalem and the people within. Behind me (Jerusalem) were the two builders, again either side, building the ‘wall’ around me; which is known as the Wailing Wall or Western Wall. The Western Wall in Jerusalem is the holiest site in Judaism. The wall is all that remains of the Second temple, built by Herod the Great. Jews traditionally visit the site, which is also known as the Wailing Wall, to lament the destruction of the First and Second Temples and to offer prayers. My group showed narrated action where the narrator (enacted by me) spoke directly to the audience to comment on the events happening on stage. I was tall and stood up straight so therefore I had the highest level. In the opening freeze, as shown in the stick diagram, my arms were raised high above and spread outwards to symbolically show that I am a vast piece of land i.e. Jerusalem. Indeed, it is a place for protection, safety and support for the people living here. I had a strong and bold tone of voice and said the narration loudly and clearly. A piece of prop that we had used was a sari that was draped around me to show a sense of divinity and to represent the holy land of God. The worshippers had themselves knelt down to show their devotion and respect as well as their humility (lower level). The proximity between me and the worshippers are really close because they are the inhabitants of the city and are part of the community. The soldiers were upstanding and sturdy as I was (Jerusalem) because the well-being of the people and the city is under their guardianship. The builders of the wall, who were behind me, were miming movements of real builders such as; one hand clenched like a fist, the other ‘holding’ a hammer and building. Since it was a spontaneous improvisation we had only little time to prepare. Using the time we had, I think we had prepared a clear and engaging presentation of the story. The soldiers (Craig and Dior) moved from their designate places to the opposite side (left to right), back and

Civil War :: essays research papers

Alpha -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alpha The first Greek alphabet alpha symbolizes the beginning of an event. Here, of course, we are talking about the beginning of the Civil War. Conventional history claims that the American Civil War started on April 12, 1861 at the bombing of Fort Sumter. Is it true? We CW buffs probably would not quite satisfy with this answer, and we know there were armed hostile incidents happening long before Ft. Sumter, and we shall examine them here. Carl Von Clausewitz, author of "On War", said that war is the extension of politic. The South had long making threat that they would secede if the country elected the Lincoln as President. The North dismissed them. After all, the Southerners had been "talking" secession for the last 40 years since the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Too many cry wolves. Meanwhile, the South thought that the North wouldn't fight. "I could wipe all the blood with my handkerchief" proclaimed Leroy Walker, who later served as the first Confederate Secretary of War. "They are shopkeepers and factory workers. What do they know about soldiering?" The South believed that one southerner could easily beat 10 Yankees. So both sides underestimated the other's determination. The drumming of war cry were beating slowly in the background. In the month of November 1860, events began to heat up. Lincoln got elected on the 6th. South Carolina called for a Convention. New York stock market dropped its price. Maj. Anderson was ordered to Ft. Moultrie. Georgia voted a million dollars to arm the State. In December, South Carolina seceded on 20th. Anderson secretly moved the Federal garrison to Ft. Sumter at night on 26th. US Revenue Cutter William Aiken surrendered to S. Carolina State force on demand. Please notice that President Buchanan took the "do nothing" policy. Taking a ship is clearly an act of war, according to the Northern viewpoint, but the same act would become the defense of a new Country from the Southern viewpoint. But if the Federal chose not to fight back, there would be no "conflict." So you could see that a series of "incidents" happened, but the Federal under Buchanan did not respond. The tempo of war drum increased in January 1861. South Carolina prepared for war / defense, organizing troops and guarding the wharfs and ships, and seized Ft. Johnson in Charleston Harbor. Federal organized militia to defend the D.C. Capital.

Fast Food and Food Handler Wear Essay

1. Infrared thermometers are used to measures? Surface temperatures 2. Food cannot be refrozen once it is thawed because? Dangerous bacteria can grow on thawed food 3. What is the minimum temperature for transporting hot food and hot food holding items? 135 (F) degrees 4. The appropriate freezing method for destroying the anisakis parasite in fish is? -4 f degrees and held for 7days 5. What type of jewelry may a food handler wear while preparing food? Plain band 6. A women runs out of the bathroom in a fast food restaurant, and frantically tells the manager that the bathroom sink has backed up and is overflowing. What should the manager do? Close the restroom and call a plumber to unblock the drain 7. The concentration of a sanitizing solution is compromised when? The solution is to hot 8. All of these foods are potentially hazardous expect for? Raw asparagus 9. If the water supply to an establishment is shut off and there is no alternate portable water source? The establishment needs to close until the water supply is restored 10. The minimum internal temp of a pork roast or tuna casserole cooked in a microwave is? 165 (f) degrees for 15seconds 11. A food handler reports to the manager that he has been diagnosed with hemorrhagic colitis. The manager must? Ask the person to leave the establishment and report the incident to the health dept. 12. Clean plates are required for each trip to the buffet because? Contamination can be prevented 13. Frozen foods, other than ice cream, must not be stored at a temp. Over? 0 f degrees 14. Hand washing is not allowed in sinks that are? Used for food prep 15. Light bulb in food prep area must? Be covered to prevent physical contamination 16. The safe way to thaw large poultry or meat product is? In a frig at 41 f or lower 17. The minimum temp and time allowed for cooking a roast beef is? 130 f for 112 min 18. Hand antiseptics can be used? After proper hand washing 19. Which of the following is the best method for killing bacteria in ground beef? Cook to 155 f for 15 sec 20. Which of these disease- causing bacteria may be found in the shell eggs? Salmonella 21. Cooked food is a self serve establishment that has been in the danger zone of under 135 f to over 70 f internal temp of? 165 f – for 15 sec 22. When displaying live shellfish for consumption, the FDA food code requires that you? Have a HACCP plan and a variance 23. The chef prepared a large quantity of homemade beef stew and divided it up into two shallow pans for cooling. He placed the pans in the refrigerator and stirs them frequently. However, he was unsuccessful in cooling the stew from 135 f to 70 f within 2 hrs. What must the chef do to cool the stew? Reheat stew at 165 f for 15 sec and begin cooling process again 24. The entire hand washing process should take at least? 20 sec 25. Listeria bacteria is especially dangerous because? It can grow in dish water 26. Back siphoning occurs when the portable water pressure is lower than the waste water pressure and the waste water backs into the portable water-cross connection? Air gaps 27. Which of these foods in the most likely source of botulism? Vegetables in a swollen can 28. The internal receiving temp of fresh? 41 f 29. Which organism is most likely to multiply in vacuum or airless packaged foods? Clostridium botulinum 30. The minimum wash temp for chemical sanitizing in a ware washing machine should be? 120 f degrees 31. To manually hot water sanitize in a three sink process, the item must be in the water that is at minimum? 120 f – 30 sec 32. Which of the following is a safe food handling practice? Clean and sanitize food surfaces in constant use every 4 hrs 33. In a Hazards Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan, CCP’s are identified in? Flow chart 34. Measure a chicken noodle casserole where do you insert thermometer? Into the center or thickest part of the casserole 35. Grease traps must be cleaned on a regular basis because the can? Cause a backup 36. Product stuffed with either raw chicken or beef must be cooked to an internal temp of? 165 f for 15 sec 37. The first step in planning a food safety training program is? Identify the topics for the training 38. When cooking in a microwave, potentially hazardous foods should? Be rotated or mixed halfway through the cooking process 39. To ensure that the items are sanitized, the temp of a ware washing machine’s final sanitizing rinse must be at least? 180 f degrees 40. What two factors are the most important for controlling food borne illness in the food preparation process? Time and temp 41. Reduced Oxygen Packaged food must be stored? In refrigeration 42. An outbreak of typhoid fever, caused by the Salmonella Typhi Bacterium, is most likely to occur after? Flooding 43. Which of the following fall into the â€Å"eight most common food allergens† category? Milk, Wheat, Soybeans 44. Enterohemorrahagic E. coli is a? Bacteria that produces shiga toxins. 45. Which of the following bacteria are found in soil? Bacillus cereus 46. The anisakis simplex worm is most likely to be found in? Under cooked fish 47. Which of the following illness DO NOT have to be reported to the local health dept? Giardiasis 48. Which type of temp probe would use to measure the temp of an oven or refrigerator? Air 49. Which of the following is NOT a method for removing oxygen from packed foods? HMR 50. For traditional steeped tea, the hot water should be a minimum of? 175 f and steeped for minimum of 5 min 51. The correct method for calibrating a stem type thermometer is? In water and ice, and calibrate 32 f 52. Shellfish dealer tags must be kept on file for how many days after the shellfish was harvested? 90 days 53. You have a food delivery arriving in an hour that will consist of milk cartons, fresh chicken breasts, and vacuum-packed bacon. What is the best thermometer to use to check product temperatures on all of these products? Bimetallic thermometer 54. Food borne intoxication is caused by eating food that contain? Poison producing microorganisms 55. To free up space in the kitchen, a busser is asked to manually clean some pot and pans in a three-compartment sink. First he scrapes and rinses the items. Then, he washes them in the first sink, rinses them in the second sink, sanitizes them in the third sink, and sets the items on the drain board to air dry. What did the busser do wrong? He forgot to clean and sanitize the sinks before using them 56. PCO stands for? Pest control operator 57. The best method of preventing an outbreak of Hepatitis A is? Proper hand washing procedures 58. On her morning shift, a food handler puts on clean disposable gloves, and begins to move defrosted hamburger patties form the refrigerator to the preparation area, as directed by the cook. Then, she is asked to slice tomatoes. When she’s done, she slices raw onions. In this sequence of task, when should the food handler change gloves? After moving the hamburger patties to the preparation area 59. The chef just finished preparing raw chicken breasts in a citrus marinade. She will store them in the refrigerator for the next shift to cook and serve for dinner. In order to prevent possible cross-contamination, where should the chef place the tray of chicken breast in the refrigerator? On the bottom self next to the ground turkey 60. A food handler comes to work with a bad cold, but insists that he is well enough to work. The employee is asked to take his temperature, and it turns out that he has a fever. What should the manager do? Send the employee home 61. Which of the following bacteria might be found in a food worker’s hand wound? Staphylococcus aureus 62. A father takes his four year old daughter and her friend to the local hamburger diner after swimming lessons. The friend wants a hot dog, and his daughter wants a hamburger. Because the father likes his hamburgers rare, he orders a rare hamburger for himself and his daughter. What should the server do? Explain that the restaurant cannot serve rare hamburgers to young children 63. Salmonella spp. Bacteria have recently been found in contaminated? Produce 64. A food worker used a Quats sanitizing solution in a three compartment sink as the final step in the cleaning and sanitizing process. She confirmed that the water temp was 75 f, she followed the manufacturer’s concentration instructions, and she completely immersed the cleaned metal cooking pots in the solution for 15 sec. last, she let the pot air dry before storing it. What did the food worker do wrong? She didn’t immerse the pot long enough 65. Which of the following foods are most easily contaminated with the Norovirus? Ready to eat foods 66. Shigella spp. Bacteria are most likely to be found in contaminated? Water 67. A catering company is preparing and transporting hot and cold foods to a customer site for a birthday party. The customer will then reheats and serve the food to guests at the appropriate time. Which of the following must the catering company provide to the customer? Reheating instructions for hot foods 68. A customer has just finished eating a seafood salad with a peanut dressing. As he is paying the bill, the customer starts to have trouble breathing. His face starts to swell, and he breaks out in hives. Most likely the customer is suffering from? An allergy attack 69. In the final hour of a local fund raising event, your food booth runs out of ice for cold beverages. What is the best course of action to follow? Send a volunteer to the nearest store for a bag of ice 70. A food handler in a small coffee shop has just finished deep frying a batch of chicken nuggets, when a customer order comes in for fried shrimp. What does the food handler need to do to avoid cross- contact? The food handler should use a different fryer and oil assigned to cook seafood 71. At an offsite catered event, the food service manager has been hot holding a beef stir fry at 145 f, when suddenly she loses her heat source. Guests are in line waiting to be served. What should the manager do? Begin to serve guests, because the stir fry can be out of temp control for up to 4 hrs 72. A server walks up to a newly seated party of two. The female customer announces that she has a wheat allergy. What should the server do? Wait till the customer orders, and then check with the manager to confirm if any of the ordered items contain wheat

Buddha’s Brain

in the SPOTLIGHT Richard J. Davidson and Antoine Lutz Buddhas Brain Neuroplasticity and speculation I n a new visualise to the f wholly in States, the Dalai Lama gave a speech at the Society for Neurosciences annual showdown in Washington, D. C. Over the past some(pre no(prenominal)einal) years, he has helped recruit Tibetan Buddhist monks for and directly encouraged interrogation on the fountainhead and conjecture in the Waisman research lab for Brain resource and Behavior at the University of WisconsinMadison.The findings from studies in this unusual sample, as easily as related research efforts, signal that anywhere the contrast of meditating for tens of thousands of hours, the long- circumstance practitioners had genuinely alte passing the structure and serve of their superstars. In this article we discuss neuroplasticity, which encompasses much(prenominal) alterations, and the findings from these studies. Further, we notice on the colleagued signal affect ( SP) challenges, the flow status, and how SP can contribute to advancing these studies. WHAT IS NEUROPLASTICITY?The term neuroplasticity is officed to describe the wizard changes that extend in response to capture. There atomic number 18 many another(prenominal) different mechanisms of neuroplasticity, ranging from the growth of parvenue connections to the creation of new neurons. When the framework of neuroplasticity is apply to surmise, we suggest that the moral procreation of surmisal is fundamentally no different than separate forms of learning acquisition that can entice plastic changes in the brain 1, 2. WHAT IS conjecture? The term speculation refers to a all-encompassing variety of holds, ranging from techDigital Object Identifier 10. 109/MSP. 2007. 910429 niques designed to throw out relaxation to exercises, performed with a more farr all(prenominal)ing terminal such as a heightened spirit of well-being. It is thus essential to be specialised about the type of sup put bore under investigation. In 3, supposition was conceptualized as a family of complex horny and directional regulatory strategies developed for various ends, including the finis of well-being Buddhist Vipassan? and Mah? mudr? , a a a and ar similarly involve in many popular layperson interventions that draw on Buddhist practices.FINDINGS OF caput CHANGES IN MEDITATION In what follows, we add to pressher the changes in the brain that occur during each of these styles of meditation practice. Such changes include alterations in practice sessions of brain function assessed with functional magnetic resonance resource (fMRI), changes in the cortical evoked response to visual stimuli that weigh the impact of meditation on economic aid, and alterations in amplitude and synchrony of highfrequency oscillations that probably flirt an important role in connectivity among widespread circuitry in the brain.EXPERIMENTAL SETUP The experiments describe below that measure hemodynamic changes with fMRI petition a high-field-strength magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner equipped with the appropriate throb sequences to acquire data rapidly and with the needful fiber optic stimulant drug obstetrical delivery devices so that visual stimuli can be presented to the subject while he or she lays in the bore of the magnet. For the studies that measure brain galvanising employment, a high-density recording organization with amongst 64 and 256 electrodes on the scalp surface is enjoymentd.FA MEDITATION A recent assume 4 used fMRI to beam the skittish correlates of FA ( proceed on page 172) THE terminal NEUROPLASTICITY IS USED TO DESCRIBE THE BRAIN CHANGES THAT expire IN RESPONSE TO EXPERIENCE. and emotional balance. here(predicate) we counseling on deuce habitual styles of meditation, i. e. , commissioned attention (FA) meditation and informal supervise (OM) meditation. FA meditation entails voluntarily cerebrate attention on a elect inclination in a sustain fashion. OM meditation involves nonreactively monitoring the content of experience from import to moment, primarily as a means to recognize the nature of emotional and cognitive patterns.OM meditation signly involves the use of FA training to calm the mind and shrink distractions, but as FA advances, the cultivation of the monitoring skill per se becomes the main focus of practice. The aim is to reach a landed e arouse in which no explicit focus on a specific object is retained instead, one remains sole(prenominal) in the monitoring state, attentive moment by moment to anything that occurs in experience. These dickens common styles of meditation ar a great deal combined, whether in a single seance or all over the course of a practitioners training.These styles argon instal with some variation in some(prenominal)(prenominal) meditation systems, including the 1053-5888/08/$25. 002008IEEE IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING magazine publisher 176 SEPTEM BER 2007 in the SPOTLIGHT y=4 keep from page 176 % T2 Accuracy Times2 Versus 1 50 40 30 20 10 0 ? 10 Novices Time1 Practitioners PZ P3b to T1 420-440 ms 0 10 1,000 F-Values ms Novices Practitioners r=? 0. 68, p=. 001 Amygdala 0. 2 0. 1 0 ? 0. 1 ? 0. 2 10 20 30 (a) V 20 ? 20 20 ? 20 20 ? 20 20 ? 20 20 ? 20 20 ? 20 (d) 40 50 r=? 0. 64 Time2 +5? V ? 5? V ? 200 scintillate No-Blink T1 T2 ?5 ? 4 ? 3 ? 2 ? 1 0 1 2 3?V T1-Elicited P3b Amplitude Time2 Versus 1 (c) (b) F3 Fc5 Cp5 F4 Fc6 Cp6 V2 500 ccc hundred 0 Blocks 50 Resting State 100 pensive State (e) 150 Time (s) % 100 45 0 Controls % 100 45 * * % 80 Practitioners * * * * * 40 0 current Initial Base withdraw Baseline (g) Meditation State * Controls Practitioners * * 0 * 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (f) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 FIG1 Neuroimaging and neurodynamical correlates of FA and OM meditations. (a) Relationship between degree of meditation training (in years) and hemodynamic response in the amygdala (in blue) to distractor sounds during FA meditation in long Buddhist practitioners.Individual responses in the right amygdala ar plotted (adapted from 4). (b) The step-down in P3b amplitude (a brain-potential world power of resource allocation) to the premiere of two tar retrieve stimuli (T1 and T2) presented in a rapid period of distracter stimuli after iii months of intensive Vipassan? meditation 5. (c) Generally, the greater the decrement in brain-resource allocation to T1 was a over time, the break out open an individual became at accurately identifying T2 (adapted from 5 ). d)(e) Example of high-amplitude da Gamma military action during a form of OM meditation, nonreferential shame meditation, in long-term Buddhist practitioners 6. (e) Time course of da Gamma (2542 Hz) activity force out over the electrodes displayed in (d) during four blocks computed in a 20-s sliding window every 2 s and then comed over electrodes. (f) Intra-individual analysis of the ratio of gamma to behindhand oscillations (413 Hz ) averaged across all electrodes during forgiveness meditation. g) The evidentiary fundamental interaction between collection (practitioner, control) and state ( sign service line, ongoing baseline, and meditation state) for this ratio. meditation in ables and novices. The study compargond FA meditation on an external visual point to a rest condition during which participants do not use meditation and ar merely instructed to adopt a neutral baseline state. The meditation condition was associated with energizing in multiple brain regions implicated in monitoring (dorso side(prenominal) prefrontal cortex), engaging attention (visual cortex), and attentional orienting (e. g. , the uperior frontal sulcus, the adjunct motor area, and the intraparietal sulcus). Although this meditation-related activation pattern was chiefly stronger for long-term practitioners compared to IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING cartridge clip 172 JANUARY 2008 novices, activity in many brain areas involved in FA meditation showed an upside-down u-shaped curve for both classes of subjects. Whereas effective meditators with an average of 19,000 practice hours showed stronger activation in these areas than the novices, expert meditators with an average of 44,000 practice hours showed less activation.This modify u-shaped function resembles the learning curve associated with skill acquisition in other domains of expertise, such as language acquisition. The findings reinforcement the root that, after extensive FA meditation training, nominal effort is necessary to sustain attentional focus. Expert meditators also showed less activation than novices in the amygdala during FA meditation in response to emotional sounds. Activation in this affective region correlated negatively with hours of practice in aliveness, as shown in aim 1(a).This finding may substantiate the idea that advanced levels of concentration are associated with a significant decrease in emotionally reactive behaviors that are dissonant with stability of concentration. Collectively, these findings support the view that attention is a trainable skill that can be stird through the mental practice of FA meditation. OM MEDITATION Another study 5 deep examined the idea that OM meditation decreases elaborative stimulus processing in a longitudinal study using scalprecorded brain potentials and performance in an attentional blink task.The consequence of lessen elaborative stimulus processing is that the subject is able to better attend moment-to-moment to the stream of stimuli to which they are exposed and less likely to get stuck on any one stimulus. The attentional blink phenomenon illustrates that the information processing ability of the brain is limited. More specifically, when two targets T1 and T2, imbed in a rapid stream of events, are presented in close temporal proximity, the entropy target is often not seen.This deficit is believed to result from competition between the two targets for limi ted attentional resources, i. e. , when many resources are devoted to T1 processing, too hardly a(prenominal) may be available for accompanying T2 processing. The study in 5 found that ternary months of intensive training in Vipassan? meditation (a common style of a OM meditation) decreased brain-resource allocation to the first target, as reflected in a smaller T1-elicited P3b, a brainpotential index of resource allocation. This is illustrated in epithet 1(b), which shows the reduction in P3b amplitude.In this figure, the scalp-recorded brain potentials from electrode Pz, time-locked to T1 onset as a function of T2 truth detected (no-blink) vesus not detected (blink), time (before or after three months), and group (practitioners versus novices) are shown. The scalp map shows electrode sites where this three-way interaction was significant between 420 and 440 ms. The reduction in brain-resource allocation to T1 was associated with a smaller attentional blink to T2, as shown i n Figure 1(c).As participants were not returnd in formal meditation during task performance, these results contribute support for the idea that one long-term effect of OM meditation may be reduction in the propensity to get stuck on a target as reflected in less elaborate stimulus processing and the development of efficient mechanisms to engage and then disengage from target stimuli in response to task demands. Previous studies 6 of high-amplitude pattern of gamma synchrony in expert meditators during an emotional version of OM meditation support the idea that the state of OM may be shell understood in name of a succession of dynamic global states.Compared to a group of novices, the adept practitioners self-induced high amplitude sustained electroencephalography (EEG) gamma-band oscillations and long-distance stagecoach synchrony, in particular over lateral fronto-parietal electrodes, while meditating. Importantly, this pattern of gamma oscillations was also sig- nificantly more pronounced in the baseline state of the long-term practitioners compared with controls, suggesting a sack in the default mode of the practitioners as shown in Figure 1(g).Although the precise mechanisms are not clear, such synchronizations of oscillatory neural discharges may play a essential role in the constitution of transient networks that integrate distributed neural processes into highly legitimate cognitive and affective functions. An example of high-amplitude gamma activity during a form of OM meditation, nonreferential compassion meditation, in long-term Buddhist practitioners 6 is shown in Figure 1(d) and (e). The intra-individual analysis of the ratio of gamma to slow oscillations (413 Hz) averaged across all electrodes during compassion meditation is illustrated in Figure 1(f).The abscissa represents the subject numbers, the ordinate represents the difference in the mean ratio between the initial state and meditative state, and the black and red stars indicate th at this development is greater than two and three times, respectively, the baseline standard deviation. The significant interaction between group (practitioner, control) and state (initial baseline, ongoing baseline, and meditation state) for this ratio is shown in Figure 1(g). The relative gamma increase during meditation was higher in the postmeditation session.In the initial baseline, the relative gamma was already higher for the practitioners than the controls and correlated with the length of the long-term practitioners meditation training through life (adapted from 6). SP CHALLENGES While SP has a ludicrous opportunity to contribute to this novel effort to chart the manner in which the brain may be transformed through the mental practice of meditation, there are several associated challenges. Among these challenges are the characterization of different signatures of brain function that distinguish among different meditation practices,IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE 173 JAN UARY 2008 in the SPOTLIGHT continued the parsing of variance in brain activity that may be due to changes in peripheral physiology such as respiration, and the co-occurrent measurement of electrical and hemodynamic signals to harness the best temporal and spatial resolution possible. meet ON BRAINCOMPUTER INTERFACES 1 of the interesting implications of the research on meditation and brain function is that meditation might help to stamp down neural noise and so enhance signal-to-noise ratios in certain types of tasks.In contexts where brain-computer interfaces are being developed that are based upon electrical recordings of brain function, training in meditation may help oneself more rapid learning. This idea warrants imperious evaluation in the future. FUTURE take form Ongoing and future work focuses on a few distinct directions. One of the crucial areas requiring attention is the characterization of changes in connectivity among the various brain circuits that are diligent by these practices. The development of new methods to essay different aspects of connectivity (both structural and functional) provide be extremely valuable in furthering this line of inquiry.The goal of such work is to better understand how different circuits are combine during meditation to produce the behavioral and mental changes that are said to occur as a result of such practices, including the packaging of increased well-being. AUTHORS Richard J. Davidson (emailprotected edu) is a director and Antoine Lutz (emailprotected edu) is an associate scientist, both with the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison. REFERENCES 1 A. Berger, O. Kofman, U. Livneh, and A. Henik, Multidisciplinary perspectives on attention and the development of self-regulation, Prog.Neurobiol. , vol. 82, no. 5, pp. 256286, 2007. 2 R. A. Poldrack, Neural systems for perceptual skill learning, Behav. Cognit. Neurosc. Rev. , vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7683, 2002. 3 A. L utz, J. P. Dunne, and R. J. Davidson, Meditation and the neuroscience of consciousness An introduction, in The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, P. D. Zelazo and E. Thompson, Eds. Cambridge, U. K. Cambridge Univ. Press, in press. 4 J. A. Brefczynski-Lewis, A. Lutz, H. S. Schaefer, D. B. Levinson, and R. J. Davidson, Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. , vol. 104, no. 7, pp. 1148311488. 5 H. A. Slagter, A. Lutz, L. L. Greischar, A. D. Francis, S. Nieuwenhuis, J. M. Davis, and R. J. Davidson, Mental training affects use of limited brain resources, PLoS Biol. , vol. 5, no. 6, pp. e13800010008, 2007. 6 A. Lutz, L. Greischar, N. B. Rawlings, M. Ricard, and R. J. Davidson, long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude synchrony during mental practice, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. , vol. 101, no. 46, pp. 1636916373, 2004. SP I N D I A N A U N I V E R S I T Y P U R D U E U N I V E R S I T Y F O R T WAY N E unveiling DIRE CTOR OF THE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION RESEARCH atomic number 49 University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Department of engineer invites applications and nominations for the position of Founding Director of the centralise of virtuousness in radio receiver communicating Research. Candidates essential possess a recognized subject field reputation for research excellence in the field of radio receiver communication. chastens degree required possession of an acquire doctorate in electrical engineering or its equivalent is highly desired. perceptiveness leave be given to candidates with a strong history of applied research, patience collaboration, and experience in Department of Defense-funded projects.The initial appointment will be for a period of three years with the resource for subsequent renewal based upon performance. IPFW is a regional campus of both Indiana University and Purdue University and is the largest university in northeast Indiana. Serving more than 12,000 students and religious offering more than 180 degree options, IPFW is a comprehensive university with a strong custom of service to and collaboration with the region. The Department of Engineering offers B. S. degrees in electrical, computer, civil, and mechanical engineering. The M. S. egree in engineering with concentrations in electrical, mechanical, computer, and systems engineering will be launched during the 2007-2008 school year. The department presently includes 16 full-time faculty members and has approximately 300 undergrad students. The Founding Director of the spunk of Excellence in Wireless converse Research shall have the following responsibilities gear up the Center of Excellence in Wireless Communication Research, emphasizing the practical application of piano tuner technology for the needs of the regional defense labor.Expand collaboration with industry through sponsored research. Establish a radio receiver laboratory to supp ort courses in wireless communication. Develop a series of undergraduate courses that would lead to an undergraduate certificate in wireless communication. Develop and teach courses for the Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) electrical engineering concentration that would lead to a graduate certificate in wireless communication. Develop and offer credit and non-credit victor development experiences for regional employees. Participate in IEEE 802. X standards development.Coordinate and host conferences on the application of wireless technology with an emphasis on defense applications and emerging technical wireless technologies. This position offers a unique opportunity to build a Center of Excellence in Wireless Communication Research and to significantly expand industry-university cooperative research in the fields of wireless networks. IPFW offers a competitive salary and benefits incase and an excellent work environment. Fort Wayne is the second largest city in Indiana and is locate within several hours of Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Indianapolis.It boasts affordable housing, a low cost of living and a safe environment in which to instal a family. The region is home to septet major defense contractors employing over 1,800 engineers working in the fields of wireless communication, sensing element networks, C4, network-centric systems, and defense products. Applicants with extensive industrial earlier than university career experience will be given serious consideration and are strongly encouraged to apply. Candidates demonstrating extensive affaire networks within the business and governmental sectors will be preferred. To apply for this position, occupy visit our Web site at www. ipfw. obs. Applicants should submit a cover letter addressing wireless communication and DoD knowledge and experience, add up/vita, statement of research and teaching experience, and the call and contact information for at least three references . The committee will amaze review of applications immediately and the search will remain open until the position is filled. For supererogatory information regarding IPFW and the Department of Engineering please visit the Web sites at www. engr. ipfw. edu and www. ipfw. edu. ,3) LV DQ (TXDO 2SSRUWXQLW(TXDO $FFHVV$IILUPDWLYH $FWLRQ (PSORHU IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE 174 JANUARY 2008