Aerial ropeways or Cableways are a means of transport or carriage in which a great rope or cable, elevated above the ground on fixed supports, is made use of in conveying from place to place materials or articles of various kinds. Such a cable may be said to serve the purpose of a rail, from which are suspended the carriages, buckets, or carriers of whatever sort are employed to convey the materials dealt with, the cable being actuated by means of an engine and winding-gear of suitable construction. During the 19th century and early 20th century such cables were much used in carrying materials over a comparatively short space, as in quarries, excavations for canals, docks, etc; in the construction of bridges, in shipbuilding, etc, and in the coaling of battleships at sea from a coal transport standing by. Research Aerial Ropeways
The Rule of 1756 was a rule of international law laid down by the English Courts in the War of 1756, to the effect that where a European country has forbidden trade with its colonies in times of peace, it shall not open it to neutrals in time of war. In 1793 the English Prize Courts enforced this doctrine against American neutral carriers, the US Government protesting. Research Rule of 1756
The Cob is a type of horse comprising two breeds: the Welsh Cob and the Norman Cob, both resulting from the Irish Draft either purebred or crossed. Cobs are renowned carriers of weight, able to carry a man hunting all day. Cobs are fairly small horses, calm and gentle.
Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped Gram-negative bacteria that inhabit the intestine and cause disease (salmonellosis) in humans and animals. They are aerobic or facultatively anaerobic, and most are motile.
Salmonellae can exist for long periods outside their host, and may be found, for example, in sewage and surface water. Humans may become infected by consuming contaminated water or food, especially animal products, such as eggs, meat, and milk, or vegetables that have been fertilized with contaminated manure. The bacteria can also be transmitted from human or animalcarriers by unhygienic food preparation. Various species of Salmonella cause gastroenteritis and septicaemia; typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever are caused by Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi, respectively. Research Salmonella
Albumin is one of the three main components of plasma. The other two proteins are globulins and fibrinogen. All three proteins are manufactured by the liver. These three proteins circulate in plasma and act as carriers for small molecules. Albumin, the most plentiful, is similar in texture to egg whites and gives blood its gummy texture. It is soluble in water and coagulable by heat. The globulins, three in number: alpha, beta, and gamma. They are divided on the basis of electrophoretic mobility. The globulins transport certain proteins. They number half the albumin proteins found in plasma. The globulin proteins are insoluble in water, soluble in saline solutions, and coagulable by heat. Globulins are also found in cerebrospinal fluid. Gamma globulins are the antibodies of the blood, giving immunity to disease. Only 3% of plasma is made up of fibrinogen. It is an important link in the chain of reactions that leads to blood clotting (coagulation). It uses the enzyme thrombin to form a web of fine protein fibres, called fibrin, that bindblood cells together, creating a bridge over which injured tissue can rebuild itself while blood continues to flow underneath. As an important factor to coagulation, it is often referred to as factorI. Research Albumin
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common form of muscular dystrophy, and is transmitted by an X-linked recessive trait. Only males are affected and only females are carriers that pass the trait on. The disorder cannot be detected by amniocentesis. It affects about 1 in 10,000 boys. Symptoms of the disorder begin to appear in early childhood between the ages of two to six years. The pelvic and leg muscles are affected first. The child is slow in learning to sit up and walk. Progressive and rapid weakening of the muscles results in frequent falls, difficulty in climbing stairs, difficulty in getting up from the floor, and an awkward gait. Sometimes a curvature of the spine is associated with the disorder. Despite their weakness, the muscles appear unusually large and firm (psuedohypertrophy). At about early adolescence affected children are no longer able to walk. Children with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy are prone to chest infections and heart disorders due to progressive weakening of those muscles. Few sufferers survive into their teenage
years. Research Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Dysentery is of two main types, namely bacillary and amebic, caused by different forms of infection, but in both there is inflammation of the mucousmembrane lining the lower or large bowel. The symptoms are those of enteritis and colitis, diarrhaea with small loose stools containing mucus and blood, abdominal tenderness, griping pain, and tenesmus during evacuation. Bacillary dysentery is a very infectious disease caused by various specific bacterial organisms (Sonne, Shiga and Flexner bacilli) which occur in impure water, contaminated food and excreta, and are often conveyed by flies or by 'carriers'.
The incubation period may be only a few hours, and is seldom more than three days. The disease is prevalent where insanitary conditions occur, and epidemics are common especially in the tropics. The disease develops suddenly with loss of appetite, lassitude, fever, shivering, heat of the skin, and a quickpulse. These are followed by griping pains in the bowels, and a constant desire to evacuate, and prostration. In general the stools are small and slimy, composed of mucus mixed with blood. Defaecation is attended and followed by severe griping and inclination to strain, called tormina and tenesmus; they are sometimes in the early stages attended by nausea and vomiting. The natural faeces are passed in the first few evacuations. Tenesmus continues and perhaps increases for several days, the discharges being mostly blood in some cases, and chiefly mucus in others. Having generally but little odour at first, these discharges become, as the disease advances, exceedingly offensive.
Vomiting is common, and there may be a high or low temperature, with headache. The disease may be severe or moderate in its course. In severe cases there are thirst, muscular pains, blueness of the face, extreme tenderness of the abdomen, hiccough, prostration, incontinence and a high mortality rate. If recovery follows convalescence is slow, with recurrent diarrhaea and various complications such as arthritis, iritis, chronic colitis, peritonitis, piles, boils, etc. In mild cases the symptoms abate after four or
five days. Research Dysentery
Plasma, made of about 92% water, is the blood's solvent. It is the liquid part of the blood, or blood minus cells, containing proteins, minerals, and salts. Its main components are the three proteins: albumin, globulins, and fibrinogen, all of which are manufactured by the liver. These three proteins circulate in plasma and act as carriers for small molecules. Salts, minerals, sugars, fats, and proteins, all important nutrients, are transported through plasma. All of the chemicals needed by cells to stay alive are brought to them by the blood. At the same time, bicarbonates in the plasma act as a filter to remove poisonous waste to the kidneys. Albumin, the most plentiful, is similar to egg whites and gives blood its gummy texture. The globulins, three in number: alpha, beta, and gamma, transport certain proteins. They number half the albumin proteins found in plasma. Gamma globulins are the antibodies of the blood, giving immunity to disease. Only 3% of plasma is made up of fibrinogen. It is an important link in the chain of reactions that leads to blood clotting. It forms a web of fine protein fibres that bindblood cells together, creating a bridge over which injured tissue can rebuild itself while blood continues to flow underneath. Research Plasma
Polio (properly poliomyelitis, and also known as infantile paralysis) is caused by infection of the nervous system by a virus which gains entry through the nasopharynx and breeds in the intestinal mucous lining. It is expelled in the faeces. The bloodstream carries the disease to the nervous system. There the virus attacks the cells lying in the grey matter of the brain and spinal cord, and in a case of very severe infection certain of these nerve cells may be entirely destroyed. This affection of the nerve cells leads to the characteristic symptom of the disease, namely muscular paralysis. A striking feature of the disease is its occurrence in young children, especially in those between the ages of two and four years. It may occur also in adolescence and early adult Life, but is rare after middle age. During an epidemic the virus may attack many people without giving rise to actual paralysis in any part of the body, and it has been found that over 50 per cent of the adult population have the special antibodies against the virus in the blood, showing that they have at some time suffered from a mild or unrecognised attack.
Confirmation of these facts was found in an American epidemic in the 1950s. Amongst twenty-two contacts of a case of infantile paralysis, fourteen were found to have the virus in the faeces. Fourteen of the twenty-two cases developed slight fever, but only one became paralysed. The disease is spread by humancarriers of the virus, who may or may not be ill with the disease. The secretions of the nose and throat are infective during the first ten days of the illness, and spread of the disease mainly takes place from one person to another by what is known as 'droplet infection' (as in sneezing, coughing, talking, etc.), and by the common use of articles recently contaminated by these secretions. The virus may be present also in the faeces of a patient up to three months after his apparent recovery.
The disease may also be spread by infected water, milk or fruit, either by direct handling, or by flies carrying infection from lavatories or sewage. The disease is much more prevalent during the hotter months of the summer, and in the European climate it reaches its maximum frequency in August and September. The incubation period varies between six and ten days, the average being nine days. Infantile paralysis begins suddenly with fever lasting from one to five days, the temperature rising to 102 or 104 degrees. The child is usually flushed and drowsy, but may be very irritable, and vomiting and convulsions may occur. There is headache, with pain in the neck and back, and tenderness of the limbs. The symptoms at this stage are similar to those seen in many other acuteinfectious diseases, though special significance should be attached to severe pains in the limbs and tenderness of the muscles. In one to five days the characteristic signs of paralysis appear in one or more groups, of muscles. In older children and adults the paralysis is usually present within twenty-four hours of the onset. It develops rapidly and appears to have its maximum limit of distribution from the moment it appears. It is, in fact, usually much more widespread at the onset than it is destined to be permanently.
At first all four limbs may appear to be completely helpless, but after some days a rapid recovery occurs from much of the paralysis, so that only one limb may be finally affected. The narrowing down of the initial paralysis begins to appear after the end of the first week, and any muscle which is going to recover its power will have done so before the end of the first month. The muscles which are permanently paralysed become atrophied, or wasted, and in the course of time they tend to become contracted or shortened. This shortening may lead to considerable deformity of the part unless it is prevented by suitable treatment. The paralysis may affect any of the muscles of the body, but those of the leg are far more commonly involved than any others. Research Polio
The Battle of Midway was a decisive US naval victory over Japan in June 1942 off Midway island, north-west of Hawaii. The Midway victory was one of the most important battles of the Pacific war - Japanese naval air superiority was destroyed in one day, putting an end to Japaneseexpansion and placing them on the defensive thereafter. In May 1942 the Japanese planned to expand their conquests by landing troops in the Aleutian islands and on Midway. The Japaneseattack involved two task forces; the Aleutian force was to draw the US fleet north, allowing the Midway force a free hand. The US forces deciphered Japanese naval codes and were able to intercept the mission. Both launched aircraft and the Americans sank one Japanese carrier and so damaged another two that they were abandoned.
The sole remaining Japanese carrier managed to launch a strike which sank the USSYorktown, but later in the day another US strike damaged it so badly that it had to be scuttled. With no aircraft carriers or aircraft left the Japanese abandoned their attack and retreated. Research Battle of Midway
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Aerial Ropeways
