Creation Of Earth Research Articles

Extreme Anatomy: The Lottery Winners, Specialists, and Extreme Adaptations That Are No More.

This special issue of The Anatomical Record explores extravagant adaptions that vertebrates have evolved from their base groups to survive in the most challenging environments. It stems from a symposium entitled "Extreme Anatomy: Living beyond the edge," which was held April 23, 2017, at the annual meeting of the American Association for Anatomy, in Chicago, IL. In Part 1 of this issue, we examined extreme morphologies that allow exploration of new niches. In this issue, we return to the evolution of terrestriality by digging deeply into the fossil history of the piscine antecedent of tetrapods. These were truly "lottery winners" among vertebrates. This issue also bears on extreme specialists that once thrived but are now long extinct and some extant species that thrive in the hottest terrestrial niches. Herein, several contributions discuss developmental strategies that facilitate later demanding locomotor regimens and feeding strategies for accessing nutrients from less than ideal food sources. From mole-rats to short-faced breeds of domestic dogs, we encounter another host of the most unusual of earth's creatures, who have much to teach us about our world. Anat Rec, 2019. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy Anat Rec, 303:214-217, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy.

Some Remarks on the Genesis of One of the Images of Early Medieval Art

The article focuses on the origin of the image of a dragon with a serpentine body known in the early medieval antiquities of Eastern European nomads. Researchers have long been discussing such images found on the sites of the Volga region and the Urals. According to the most recent hypothesis proposed by N.A. Lifanov, these dragon figures generally match the image of ancient κyτος which was adopted as a result of the acquaintance of the steppe inhabitants with works of late antique or early Byzantine art. The present study addresses a wide range of sources allowing us to construct an alternative version of the genesis of the dragon image. The group of images of fantastic creatures associated with early Buddhist art can be found in East Turkestan. They show immediate morphological and stylistic conformity with Eastern European images. They are also similar to the figures of Sogdian mural and plastic arts. East Turkestan’s images reproduce the well-known patterns of the Buddhist art of Gandhara. Gandhara figures originate from the images of κÞτεα and other widespread in Hellenistic art of Bactria sea monsters. KÞτεα which were companions of sea deities in classical mythology were seamlessly included in the decoration of headwear of Buddha sculptures, worship or relic veneration scenes. They are often found on the architectural details of stūpas. Some believe that κÞτεα evolved from the creation of sea into the creation of sea, air, and earth in the Indo-Greek tradition. They became mediators between worlds. Finally, they could exercise some sort of soteriological function. Apparently, Turkic peoples who were actively involved in all processes that took place in Central Asia and East Turkestan could comprehend these properties. So, the κÞτεα images could be reinterpreted and integrated into their imagery.

The First Dinosaur: How Science Solved the Greatest Mystery on Earth by Ian Lendler

Reviewed by: The First Dinosaur: How Science Solved the Greatest Mystery on Earth by Ian Lendler Elizabeth Bush Lendler, Ian The First Dinosaur: How Science Solved the Greatest Mystery on Earth; illus. by C. M. Butzer and with photographs. McElderry/Simon, 2019 224p Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-5344-2700-6 $24.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5344-2702-0 $12.99 R Gr. 6-9 The remains of dinosaurs were, of course, trapped within and scattered upon Earth for millions of years before humans appeared and wondered over them, but without humans' collective knowledge and imagination to conceive that fossils testify to life before pre-Biblical (or other mythological) time, they might just as well have stayed hidden. In this big picture view of the scientific revolution—well, leaps and baby steps—that led to the identification and description of Megalosaurus, Lendler offers a thoroughly engaging history of myriad milestones that were crossed before anyone could believe in dinosaurs' existence. The narrative is both patient and enthusiastic, with an approach that leads readers steadily from the first naturalists to document their findings and include description and measurements; through naturalists who dared speculate that outlandish specimens could not be accounted for by the Bible; through geologists who pushed Earth's creation back into deep time; to scientists who shared, critiqued, and dismissed one another's findings and kept debate on the boil. This journey is raucous and often very funny, with big-name scientists, forgotten scholars, and credit to the quarry workers and canal diggers whose perspicacity would never illuminate the halls of the geological societies. Well-captioned period reproductions are included, as well as index, citations, and bibliography. Readers carrying their dinophilia into middle school and beyond will be delighted with this deep dive into the origins of their mania. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Creation and Analysis of Earth’s Surface Roughness Maps from Airborne LiDAR Measurements in Downtown Urban Landscape

The Earth’s surface roughness constitutes an important parameter in terrain analysis for studying different environmental and engineering problems. Authors gave different definitions and measures for the earth’s surface roughness that usually depend on exploitation of digital elevation data for its reliable determination. This research aimed at exploring the different approaches for defining and extraction of the Earth’s surface roughness from Airborne LiDAR Measurements. It also aimed at evaluating the effects of the window size of the standard deviation filter on the created roughness maps in downtown landscapes using three known approaches namely; standard deviation filtering of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), standard deviation filtering of the slope gradient model and standard deviation filtering of the profile curvature model. In this context, different roughness maps have been created from Airborne LiDAR measurements of the City of Toronto, Canada using the three filtering approaches with varying window sizes. Visual analysis has shown color tones of small roughness values with smooth textures dominate the roughness maps from small window sizes of the standard deviation filter, however, increasing the window sizes has produced wider variations of the color tones and rougher texture roughness maps. The standard deviations and ranges of the roughness maps from LiDAR DEM have increased due to increasing the filter window size while the skewness and kurtosis have decreased due to increasing the window size, indicating that the roughness maps from larger window sizes are statistically more symmetrical and more consistent. Thus, kurtosis has decreased by 53% and 82% due to increasing the window size to 7 × 7 and 15 × 15 respectively. The standard deviations of the roughness maps from the slope gradient model have increased due to increasing the window size till 15 × 15 while they have decreased with more increases. However, skewness has decreased due to increasing the window size till 15 × 15 and the kurtosis has decreased with higher rate till window size of 11 × 11. In the roughness maps from the profile curvature model, the ranges and skewness have decreased by 93.6% and 82.6% respectively due to increasing the window size to 15 × 15 while, kurtosis has decreased by 58.6%, 76.3% and 93.76% due to increases in the filter window size to 5 × 5, 7 × 7 and 15 × 15 respectively.

A Critical Study of the Pre-Modern and Modern Theories Regarding the Creation, Evolution and Existence of Earth in the Light of Qur’an

The human intellect has been examined in terms of relationship and association between physical and metaphysical world from the very beginning. Perceptions, Ideas, beliefs and philosophies are exist about these natural inquiries in almost all faculties of knowledge. Earth is the most obvious reality in human life, an axiom in the field of religion and science that’s why the comprehension of its origin and evolution is a prerequisite . It is not only the nucleus of social and legal domain of studies but it has a pivotal status in astronomy, religion and science too. This article will throw light upon all valuable thoughts and theories about the creation, evaluation and existence of the earth in pre-modern and modern literature and will correlate its essence of elaboration to the updated exegesis of the Qura'nic verses.

Forty-First Lauriston S. Taylor Lecture: Environmental Radiation and Life-A Broad View.

Since Earth's creation some 4.5 billion years ago, primordial radioactivity has been part of the planet, and radiations from space have continuously impinged on its surface. Primordial radioactivity has helped shape Earth's surface through the heat from radioactive decay energy, and omnipresent natural radiation has likely influenced the origin, and certainly the evolution, of all life forms in our biosphere today. This paper offers a brief discussion of our natural radiation environment and its impacts, from the beginning of life to the present, and provides a broad overview of present day radioecology, which includes the use of radioactive tracers to study ecosystem functions, the fate and transport of radionuclides in the biosphere, and radiation effects on plants and animals. Large releases of radioactivity, although tragic and regrettable, have been studied to increase our knowledge of Earth's basic processes and of radionuclide transport and accumulation in the environment. On a much smaller scale, purposeful use of natural and anthropogenic radioactive tracers has contributed further knowledge. This information has solidified basic concepts and provided data for constructing dynamic models to calculate concentrations of radionuclides in, and radiation doses to, plants and animals. Sealed radiation sources have been used to study effects of chronic exposure on natural biotic communities. Existing transport models and knowledge of radiation effects provide tools to evaluate human health risks and environmental impacts of radioactive releases. Applications have included guidance for environmental protection, radiation litigation, environmental cleanup decisions and informed responses to releases of radioactivity. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the more urgent knowledge gaps and potential new research approaches.

A Review of Pharmacological Activities of Acacia nilotica (Linn) willd W.S.R to Osteoporosis

Medicinal plants have been utilized for the treatment of diseases since creation of earth or before it; in traditional medicine, they still play an important role as effective and have natural origin. Acacia nilotica commonly known as babul belongs to the family Fabaceae and is widely distributed all over India, SriLanka, and Sudan; Egypt is the native country of this plant. Useful parts such as root, bark, leaves, flower, gum, pods, etc., are used in medicines. Different parts of the plant like leaves and fruit contain tannin; flower contains stearic acid, kaempferol-3-glucoside, isoquercetin, leucocyanidin; pod contains tannin, polyphenolic compounds, gum Contains arabic acid combined with calcium, magnesium and potassium. In traditional medicine, it is used for bleeding diseases, prolapsed, leucorrhoea, antihypertensive, antispasmodic, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant activity, etc. The present review is an attempt to explore and comprehensively highlight use for osteoporosis, phytochemical properties and pharmacological uses of A. nilotica reported till date.

Getting Back on Track to Being Human

Cooperation and compassion are forms of intelligence. Their lack is an indication of ongoing stress or toxic stress during development that undermined the usual growth of compassion capacities. Though it is hard to face at first awareness, humans in the dominant culture tend to be pretty unintelligent compared to those from societies that existed sustainably for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of years. Whereas in sustainable societies everyone must learn to cooperate with earth’s systems to survive and thrive, in the dominant culture this is no longer the case. Now due to technological advances that do not take into account the long-term welfare of earth systems, humans have become “free riders” until these systems collapse from abuse or misuse. The dominant human culture, a “weed species,” has come to devastate planetary ecosystems in a matter of centuries. What do we do to return ourselves to living as earth creatures, as one species among many in community? Humanity needs to restore lost capacities—relational attunement and communal imagination—whose loss occurs primarily in cultures dominated by child-raising practices and ways of thinking that undermine cooperative companionship and a sense of partnership that otherwise develops from the beginning of life. To plant the seeds of cooperation, democracy, and partnership, we need to provide the evolved nest to children, and facilitate the development of ecological attachment to their landscape. This will take efforts at the individual, policy, and institutional levels.

English

Humans have been examining the cosmic bodies for many millennia, but scientific discoveries and ideas about the origin of the universe have changed the religious discourse and rely completely on empiricism. Many theories were put forth by the physicists, philosophers and even religions at large but Islam has its prime source of information “Quran” upon which Muslim cosmologists builds their theories and directed their ideas about the cosmology. According to Quran with the role of man or other creatures in the formation and regulation of heavenly bodies, it is God who holds everything and has power to create things which are observable or hidden in this universe. A large portion of the Holy Quran contains such information from first big bang to expansion of the universe, the concept of time, space, creation of heavens and earth, constellations and extinction of the total canvas of the universe. An attempt has been made to answer all the challenges put forth by modern sciences to religious knowledge particularly to Islamic cosmology. Different sources were utilized to highlight those challenges and response to them is provided through mutakallimun literature, and also directly from Qur’anic references. Key words: Big-Bang, cosmology, cosmogony, expansion of universe, formation of sky and earth, Ratqan, red shift.

Dwelling

Dwelling Meena Alexander (bio) Look I have set my house on fire! kabir for Kimiko Hahn I used to live in the Bronx. One night I covered my manuscript in a woolen shawl and carried it to the incinerator. I opened the metal bin, shoved it in. The shawl had flowers and bird beaks embroidered on the border. I could hear the crackling when the edges caught fire. A friend came for dinner. He entered our apartment at the edge of Fort Washington Avenue; he stared at the black trees outside the window. He settled into the couch. Two months earlier his wife had killed herself plunging a knife into her chest. She was lying on the bed when he entered. There was blood everywhere. I got a new bed. I thought he was going to choke, the way he said it. He pointed to his book bag—green with blue straps, a meager thing. I go from house to house. I live out of that, he said. I make the jitney to Mattituck. K and I have been friends for thirty years. Her house is brand new. On the lawn the swit-swit of tiny earth creatures, [End Page 58] Bustle of birds, insects rubbing against grass blades, swarm of crickets. We spill over our shadows, traipse over to the pool. Resist the temptation to look in. K introduces me to Barthes’s Mourning Diary. He wrote it after his mother died. My own mother lies in hospital. She has a lump on her neck. No one knows the cause. The windows have green shutters. The nurses keep coming in. What do they think I am? Amma whispers on the phone. That night I see a nurse all veiled in white. She has no eyes. In Mattituck, cocooned in sheets, I see the Untouchable man who chopped wood, then begged for silver. He wants to put the coins on his own eyes when he dies, Grandfather said– Untouchable means someone whose touch pollutes you. Even the shadow can do this. They used to beat drums to warn people they were coming close. This was in the house of my childhood, the house with the courtyard where the mulberry tree bloomed. He must hate us for living here, for making him chop wood, I said to grandfather. The wind rose in the mango trees and whipped against the wood stumps piled by the wellside. Some of the stumps were tied with black cord. The path of social reform like the path to heaven (at any rate in India) is strewn with many difficulties, Ambedkar wrote. The Untouchable was required to have a black thread either on his wrist or around his neck, [End Page 59] As a sign or a mark to prevent the Hindus from getting themselves polluted. So it was that we dwelt in the house. A verb deliberately archaic (Old English dwellen—to lead or go astray, hinder, delay, stun). Five decades after grandfather’s death, four years ago to this date, the house was sold to a distant cousin. Gutted, a deliberate ruin. The land is used for a block of luxury flats, complete with swimming pool. I crouch in front of a lightbox, out of it comes a sonic scape, pitched higher than I can bear. In a back room of moma fluted cries of forest birds, some already extinct Childhood comes back, pure black happiness. My shadow and I sit weeping. Bird sounds trapped in a forest, magnified by machines, else inaudible. The forest in the mind’s space, an openness sunk in darkness. What does it mean to conjugate joy? Elsewhere air axed, trees burnt, ground clawed apart for bauxite. K tells me that the lines I hope to write about the house of my childhood, destroyed now, could make a poem. It’s your voice, she says. I wish I could believe her. I make a show of thrusting out with my elbows As babies do, wet and bloodied, after being born. Nothing is nowhere. This rings in my ear—line from a handbook for teaching English in Dubai [End Page 60] (I find the book shoved into the seat pocket of...

The Imaginary Sea Voyage: Sailing Away in Literature, Legend and Lore James J.Bloom. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.

The Imaginary Sea Voyage: Sailing Away in Literature, Legend and Lore James J. Bloom. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.James Bloom takes us on a journey to legendary locales as varied as Atlantis, Avalon, Moore's Utopia, the Northwest Passage, Stevenson's Treasure Island, Verne's Nautilus, Gilligan's Island, and the Starship Enterprise. They comprise what he calls the genre of the imaginary voyage, a hybrid between outright fantasy and authentic seaman's yarns (16).His book is charmingly desultory. It gives us a miscellany of observations, opinions, encyclopedic summaries, and surveys of research about explorations that may or may not have happened. Bloom's approach organizes material by association: one instance of a sea voyage of the mind suggests another, and another, and so on. If readers are looking for a tidy critical principle with which to analysis this messy genre, they will be disappointed. But if they are looking for considered appreciations by a scholar who has read thoroughly in the field and has plenty to say about culture, literary highlights, and the topography of fantasy, then they've picked the right book.Bloom begins with a survey of how others have attempted to define the genre. He is especially fond of using John Kirkland Wright's term geo sophy to explain the meaning of imaginary voyages. According to Wright, geo sophy (which includes the study of geography from all points of view) is to geography what historiography is to history.This all-embracing word gives Bloom the license to wander happily amid wide-ranging works. Chapters of unequal length take us on magical mystery tours of sea voyages, tall tales, and seldom-visited places. Like any self-confident traveler, he enjoys taking fascinating detours along the way. His digressions are always instructive. For instance, he compares the earlier flood story in the Gilgamesh with the later flood story in Genesis. Both are woven from remarkably similar details: divine intervention via a worldwide flood; instructing a righteous man to build a large-roofed multi-deck boat to save his family and earth's creatures; the boat's coming to rest on a mountain; releasing a series of birds from the boat; leaving the boat when the last bird fails to return; offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving; receiving divine blessing and a special promise made to the progeny of the righteous man.Bloom also pays particular attention to legendary constructs like Hy-Bras il and Atlantis. …

Biochar: An emerging policy arrangement in Brazil?

Biochar, the solid product of pyrolysis, has emerged as a new technology and policy tool to address various environmental challenges (climate change, food production and agricultural waste management). The concept of biochar drew its inspiration from Amazonian practices that had led to the creation of Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE): fertile soils rich in (bio)char and human artefacts. In this article, we conceptualize biochar as an emerging policy arrangement, and examine it along the four dimensions of the Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA), which are actors, discourse, power and rules. We focus on Brazil as an important player in the international biochar debate. Our analysis shows that science experts are the predominant players in the network, while policy-makers, businessmen and farmers are marginally positioned. Experts from Embrapa occupy central positions and thus exercise most power in the network. Moreover, experts linked to ADE have lost prominence in the network. The reason for this is to be found in the shift from the ADE/biochar to the biochar/technology discourse. The latter discourse includes different coalitions such as ‘climate change mitigation’, the ‘improvement of soil fertility’ and ‘improving crop residue management’. Although the biochar/climate coalition is dominant at the international level, it is far less prominent in Brazil. Nationally, it is particularly the discourses of ‘improvement of soil fertility’ and ‘improving crop residue management’ which have prompted actors’ relationships and practices. However, the biochar/technology discourse has not (yet) been formally institutionalized in Brazil. As a consequence, the country lacks an established biochar policy field.

First Nations, Maori, American Indians, and Native Hawaiians as Sovereigns: EAP with Indigenous Nations Within Nations

Indigenous workforces have existed across the world since the creation of Earth. What has changed is the evolution of multicultural societies, governments, and landscapes that have become part of, or sit parallel to, sovereign Indigenous nations and their workforces. An international response to Employee Assistance Programming (EAP) and workplace health will be shared from various Indigenous groups across the globe. These societies include the Maori of New Zealand, First Nations of Canada, American Indian groups from the U.S. mainland, and Native Hawaiians. Guidelines for EAP practice include the discussion of historical trauma, communication skills, confidentiality, and environmental issues. Theoretical underpinnings for health sovereignty are shared through ancient teachings of Indigenous philosophies and their relationships to contemporary EAP development and utilization.

Humanity And Nature

Humans’ relationship with nature has always been complex. A part of it, and apart from it. Situated in a semi-exalted realm that lies somewhere between beasts and gods. It should be obvious that we are part of a continuum that links all of the creatures of Earth, but for much of our recorded history, we have insisted that we are somehow fundamentally different from all other living things. We are conscious. We are aware of our mortality. We weave creation myths. We imagine that we have dominion over the rest of creation, and many of our religions reflect that belief. Especially over the past 200 years, as our technology has granted us almost godlike power to shape the natural world, we have abused that dominion and desecrated much of the planet. We humans are the direct cause of what has become known as the “sixth extinction,” the continuing massive loss ...

Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures (review)

Reviewed by: Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures Kate Quealy-Gainer Dickinson, Peter . Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures. Big Mouth, 2012. [256p]. Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-61873-058-9 $17.95 Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-61873-038-1 $14.95 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-61873-039-8 $9.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9 up. Noted fantasist Dickinson concludes the cycle of elemental stories he began with Robin McKinley in Fire (BCCB 11/09) and Water (BCCB 7/02) in a solo outing with tales of earth and air spirits. Aside from the sci-fi influenced final story, "The Fifth Element," the five preceding tales evoke an old-world flavor of magic, incorporating pieces of Greek mythology and European folklore, sometimes placing archetypal beings in the modern world of cars and email. Appropriately, the two tales focusing on earth creatures, "Troll Blood" and "Wizand" (yes, that is the right spelling), are characterized by densely loaded prose and deal with themes of love, lust, and possession. Without McKinley's more adolescent-focused contributions, the stories lean more toward a new adult audience, though the two animal-centered stories, "Ridiki" and "Scops," will appeal to pet-friendly readers, particularly dog lovers. These stories are nonetheless thoughtful and provocative, and they will find an audience among Dickinson's usual fans. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Myth and the creative imagination in The Book of Urizen

William Blake is best known and admired forSongs of Innocence and Experience. The same year as he completed it, he also published the earliest in his series of so-called ‘prophetic books’ that explore creation. Etched in double columns in imitation of the Bible,The First Book of Urizen(1794) is about the creation of earth, the first female, her son and his near sacrifice and what humankind lost when separated forever from Eternity. It tells of horrendous pain and disillusionment. Ever since the 1970s, critical interest in the work has been dominated by new historicist approaches that relate its interactions to events in the outer world of Blake's time. This article explores them as an expression of an autonomous process unfolding in hisinnerworld. Its objective is to show not only how Jungian theory helps to identify and follow its concerns and intrinsic logic, but also how Blake's work broadens our understanding of the nature of unconscious processes.

N. F. S. Grundtvigs trinitariske folkekirketeologi i nordisk kontekst

N.F.S. Grundtvigs trinitariske folkekirketeologi i nordisk kontekst[Trinitarian Folk Church Ecclesiology by N. F. S. Grundtvig in a Nordic Context]By Hans Raun IversenIn the theological writings of N. F. S. Grundtvig we find a unique balance and interaction between what Grundtvig labels the first and the second creation (creation of heaven and earth and creation of salvation) by the one and same Trinitarian God. This makes Grundtvig outstanding in terms of the significance of the theology of creation in his profoundly elaborated Trinitarian theology. On this background Grundtvig is also offering a Trinitarian balanced ecclesiological understanding of the church which is decisive but still only rarely found in the Nordic Folk Churches. In the same breath Grundtvig offers a comprehensive contribution to a Trinitarian theology of participation in the communication of the Trinity where there is a living interaction not only between the primary theology found in God’s own living words in creation and in liturgy, but also between this primary theology and the secondary theological reflection of the two forms of primary theology

Are humans causing a sixth mass extinction of Earth's creatures?

Are humans causing a sixth mass extinction of Earth's creatures?

Violet Transparent

Violet Transparent is a riveting collection of environmental poetry. Starting with the first poem, “Mirror of the Ages,” Anne Coray identifies with all of Earth's creatures—from sponges and reptiles to birds, predators, and prey—and suggests that such empathy is an important aspect of being human: “at the birth of my first calf, my antlers fell / but still I was not a true woman” (9–10). To be a true woman, one must first know how it feels to be a deer, although even this is not enough. The implication is that one must experience aspects of being both male and female: the speaker has been a female deer with antlers. In most deer species, only males have antlers. In reindeer and caribou, however, both males and females have antlers, and in a few other species, females with antlers occasionally appear. The poet has been one of these antlered females, who can be mistaken for males.

Hard core constraints on accretion

The duration of Earth's creation remains unknown. Elegant modelling of the Earth's core formation reaffirms that the bulk of accretion occurred within a few tens of millions of years, but another 100 million years or so were needed to finish the job.