Showing posts with label Seasonal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seasonal. Show all posts
The most popular treat for Halloween trick-or-treaters are candy bars with Snickers being the most popular
Although some popular histories of Halloween have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult invention to rechannel Halloween activities away from vandalism, there are very few records supporting it. Des Moines, Iowais the only area known to have a record of trick-or-treating being used to deter crime. Elsewhere, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger. Likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. Sometimes even the children protested: for Halloween 1948, members of the Madison Square Boys Club in New York City carried a parade banner that read “American Boys Don’t Beg.” The National Confectioners Association reported in 2005 that 80 percent of adults in the United States planned to give out confectionery to trick-or-treaters, and that 93 percent of children, teenagers, and young adults planned to go trick-or-treating or participating in other Halloween activities. In 2008, Halloween candy, costumes and other related products accounted for $5.77 billion in revenue.
The most frequent season for most suicides to occur is in the spring. The winter months have the lowest number of suicides
Research on seasonal effects on suicide rates suggests that the prevalence of suicide is greatest during the late spring and early summer months, despite the common belief that suicide rates peak during the cold and dark months of the winter season.
Many people believe that suicide rates peak during the winter months. Intuitively, this makes sense given the existence of seasonal affective disorder and the tendency to associate depression with winter. Harsh weather increases the prevalence of diseases such as pneumonia and hypothermia, which have mainly been from the minimal amount of sunlight in the winter time. In turn, this notion is indicative of the winter season having a general association with suicide rates. Some also believe that “holiday cheer amplifies loneliness and hopelessness in people who have lost loved ones, or who have high expectations of renewed happiness during the holiday season, only to be disappointed.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics report that suicide rates in the United States are lowest during the winter months and highest in the summer and spring. F. Stephen Bridges asserts that there is “a high incidence in early spring (April and May) and…also a low incidence in winter” of suicides rates. Bridges’s study focused on seasonal effects on suicide risk by examining the monthly distribution of suicides in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s via a “harmonic time series model” with six observable harmonic cycles within each consecutive year. The results show a consistent pattern of suicide risk with most suicides occurring in the spring/summer and the fewest during the winter months. Specifically, Bridges found that in the 1970s “about 47% of the total variances can be explained by the seasonal components” within that given decade (with more suicides in spring/summer). From 1980 to 1990, “the seasonal component of suicide incidence for the time period 1981 through 1990 is clearly significant and records about a 27.7% increase in seasonal contribution by comparison with the previous period”. For the 1990–2000 decade, “the significant seasonal rhythm were explained in 63% of the total variation.”
According to Bridges, recent research from industrialized countries (including Finland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, England, and Wales) has provided enough information to show a decrease in seasonal effects on suicide rates over the past few decades. In the case of Greece, seasonal variations in mortality from suicide are “more frequent during the spring and summer months…but [have] no regular annual rhythm”. The Greek researchers proposed that “the seasonal variation of suicide follows more closely to the seasonal variation of sunshine, rather than the corresponding variation of temperature”. Few scientific assessments have focused on seasonal suicide Epidemiology of suicide#Seasonal suicide variations in the southern hemisphere. Studies in Brazilhave shown that “the peak number of suicides occurred in spring (November) in men and women of Rio Grande do Sul state and in men of Parana and Santa Catarina states, and in early summer (January) for women of Parana state.”
Eleni Petridou, a professor of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, led an international study on seasonal effects on suicide rates that involved twenty countries. The results showed an early summer peak in suicides. She concluded that “seasonal variation in suicide incidence could be explained by the increase in sunshine in summer months because of a relationship between sunshine, high temperatures and suicide rate.” Australian researchers J. Edwards and F. Whitlock found a “spring peak in the number of suicides committed in Brisbane, Australia, but the results were not statistically significant…and thatDublin reported the incidence of suicide varied according to seasons in the northern hemisphere.”
French sociologist Émile Durkheim had found similar results, reporting that more suicides occurred in the spring than in the summer. Rather than emphasizing the role of nature, Durkheim interpreted the seasonal variation in sociological terms; he wrote that most suicides took place in the spring because “everything begins to awake; activity is resumed, relations spring up, interchanges increase. In other words, it is the density of human interactions, and not the environment that caused higher incidence of suicide in spring or summer.”
Many people believe that suicide rates peak during the winter months. Intuitively, this makes sense given the existence of seasonal affective disorder and the tendency to associate depression with winter. Harsh weather increases the prevalence of diseases such as pneumonia and hypothermia, which have mainly been from the minimal amount of sunlight in the winter time. In turn, this notion is indicative of the winter season having a general association with suicide rates. Some also believe that “holiday cheer amplifies loneliness and hopelessness in people who have lost loved ones, or who have high expectations of renewed happiness during the holiday season, only to be disappointed.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics report that suicide rates in the United States are lowest during the winter months and highest in the summer and spring. F. Stephen Bridges asserts that there is “a high incidence in early spring (April and May) and…also a low incidence in winter” of suicides rates. Bridges’s study focused on seasonal effects on suicide risk by examining the monthly distribution of suicides in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s via a “harmonic time series model” with six observable harmonic cycles within each consecutive year. The results show a consistent pattern of suicide risk with most suicides occurring in the spring/summer and the fewest during the winter months. Specifically, Bridges found that in the 1970s “about 47% of the total variances can be explained by the seasonal components” within that given decade (with more suicides in spring/summer). From 1980 to 1990, “the seasonal component of suicide incidence for the time period 1981 through 1990 is clearly significant and records about a 27.7% increase in seasonal contribution by comparison with the previous period”. For the 1990–2000 decade, “the significant seasonal rhythm were explained in 63% of the total variation.”
According to Bridges, recent research from industrialized countries (including Finland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, England, and Wales) has provided enough information to show a decrease in seasonal effects on suicide rates over the past few decades. In the case of Greece, seasonal variations in mortality from suicide are “more frequent during the spring and summer months…but [have] no regular annual rhythm”. The Greek researchers proposed that “the seasonal variation of suicide follows more closely to the seasonal variation of sunshine, rather than the corresponding variation of temperature”. Few scientific assessments have focused on seasonal suicide Epidemiology of suicide#Seasonal suicide variations in the southern hemisphere. Studies in Brazilhave shown that “the peak number of suicides occurred in spring (November) in men and women of Rio Grande do Sul state and in men of Parana and Santa Catarina states, and in early summer (January) for women of Parana state.”
Eleni Petridou, a professor of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, led an international study on seasonal effects on suicide rates that involved twenty countries. The results showed an early summer peak in suicides. She concluded that “seasonal variation in suicide incidence could be explained by the increase in sunshine in summer months because of a relationship between sunshine, high temperatures and suicide rate.” Australian researchers J. Edwards and F. Whitlock found a “spring peak in the number of suicides committed in Brisbane, Australia, but the results were not statistically significant…and thatDublin reported the incidence of suicide varied according to seasons in the northern hemisphere.”
French sociologist Émile Durkheim had found similar results, reporting that more suicides occurred in the spring than in the summer. Rather than emphasizing the role of nature, Durkheim interpreted the seasonal variation in sociological terms; he wrote that most suicides took place in the spring because “everything begins to awake; activity is resumed, relations spring up, interchanges increase. In other words, it is the density of human interactions, and not the environment that caused higher incidence of suicide in spring or summer.”
Wood frogs can be frozen solid and then thawed, and continue living. They use the glucose in their body to protect their vital organs while they are in a frozen state
The wood frog has garnered attention by biologists over the last century because of its freeze tolerance, relatively great degree of terrestrialism (for a Ranid), interesting habitat associations (peat bogs, vernal pools, uplands), and relatively long-range movements. The ecology and conservation of the wood frog has attracted a great deal of research attention in recent years. This may be because they are often considered “obligate” breeders in ephemeral wetlands (sometimes called “vernal pools”) that are themselves more imperiled than the species that breed in them (see below). The wood frog is the state amphibian of New York.
Similar to other northern frogs that hibernate close to the surface in soil and/or leaf litter, wood frogs can tolerate the freezing of their blood and other tissues. Urea is accumulated in tissues in preparation for overwintering, and liver glycogen is converted in large quantities to glucose in response to internal ice formation. Both urea andglucose act as “cryoprotectants” to limit the amount of ice that forms and to reduce osmotic shrinkage of cells. Frogs can survive many freeze/thaw events during winter if no more than about 65% of the total body water freezes.
The abbreviation Xmas for the word Christmas is of Greek origin.
Since the word for Christ in the Greek language is Xristos, which starts with the letter "X," they started putting the X in place of Christ and came up with the short form for the word Christmas
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