802) Mumps

Mumps , also called epidemic parotitis, acute contagious disease caused by a virus and characterized by inflammatory swelling of the salivary glands. It frequently occurs as an epidemic and most commonly affects young persons who are between 5 and 15 years of age.

The incubation period is about 17 to 21 days after contact; danger of transmission begins one week before symptoms appear and lasts about two weeks. Mumps generally sets in with symptoms of a slightly feverish cold, soon followed by swelling and stiffening in the region of the parotid salivary gland in front of the ear. The swelling rapidly increases and spreads toward the neck and under the jaw, involving the numerous glands there. The condition is often found on both sides of the face. Pain is seldom severe, nor is there much redness or any tendency to discharge pus; there is, however, interference with chewing and swallowing. After four or five days the swelling subsides.

In patients past puberty, there is occasionally swelling and tenderness in other glands, such as the testicles in males (orchitis) and the breasts (mastitis) or ovaries (oophoritis) in females, and, rarely, involvement of the pancreas, but these are of short duration and usually of no serious significance. The testicles may become atrophied, but sterility from this cause is uncommon. Meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and its membranous covering) is a fairly common concomitant of mumps, but the outlook for recovery is favourable.

Mumps itself requires no special treatment; a single attack usually confers lifelong immunity. Infection with mumps virus was once common in childhood, but the frequency of infection was drastically reduced with the introduction in 1967 of routine immunization for prevention of the disease with a vaccine made from attenuated (weakened) live mumps virus. This vaccine is administered after the age of about one year, often in combination with measles and rubella vaccines.

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#7834. A trader sells his goods at 15% discount and incurs a loss of 2%. How much percent above Cost Price does he mark up his goods?

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773. (a) Solve:

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#1537. What does the medical term 'Ganglion' mean?

801) Bitumen

Bitumen, dense, highly viscous, petroleum-based hydrocarbon that is found in deposits such as oil sands and pitch lakes (natural bitumen) or is obtained as a residue of the distillation of crude oil (refined bitumen). In some areas, particularly in the United States, bitumen is often called asphalt, though that name is almost universally used for the road-paving material made from a mixture of gravel, sand, and other fillers in a bituminous binder. Bitumen is also frequently called tar or pitch—though, properly speaking, tar is a byproduct of the carbonization of coal and pitch is actually obtained from the distillation of coal tar.

Bitumen is defined by the U.S. Geological Survey as an extra-heavy oil with an API gravity less than 10° and a viscosity greater than 10,000 centipoise. At the temperatures normally encountered in natural deposits, bitumen will not flow; in order to be moved through a pipe, it must be heated and, in some cases, diluted with a lighter oil. It owes its density and viscosity to its chemical composition—mainly large hydrocarbon molecules known as asphaltenes and resins, which are present in lighter oils but are highly concentrated in bitumen. In addition, bitumen frequently has a high content of metals, such as nickel and vanadium, and nonmetallic inorganic elements, such as nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Depending on the use to which bitumen is put, these elements may be contaminants that have to be removed from the finished product. By far most refined bitumen is used in paving asphalt and roofing tiles, as is a large amount of natural bitumen. However, most of the bitumen extracted from Canada’s oil sands is upgraded into synthetic crude oil and sent to refineries for conversion into a full range of petroleum products, including gasoline.

800) Measles

Measles, also called rubeola, contagious viral disease marked by fever, cough, conjunctivitis, and a characteristic rash. Measles is most common in children but may appear in older persons who escaped it earlier in life. Infants are immune up to four or five months of age if the mother has had the disease. Immunity to measles following an attack is usually lifelong.

Transmission And Symptoms

Measles is so highly communicable that the slightest contact with an active case may infect a susceptible person. After an incubation period of about 10 days, the patient develops fever, redness and watering of the eyes, profuse nasal discharge, and congestion of the mucous membranes of the nose and throat—symptoms often mistaken for those of a severe cold. This period of invasion lasts for 48 to 96 hours. The fever increases with appearance of a blotchy rash, and the temperature may rise as high as 40 °C (about 105 °F) when the rash reaches its maximum. Twenty-four to 36 hours before the rash develops, there appear in the mucous membranes of the mouth typical maculae, called Koplik spots—bluish white specks surrounded by bright red areas about 1/32 inch (0.75 mm) in diameter. After a day or two the rash becomes a deeper red and gradually fades, the temperature drops rapidly, and the catarrhal symptoms disappear.

Treatment And Complications

No drug is effective against measles. The only treatment required is control of fever, rest in bed, protection of the eyes, care of the bowels, and sometimes steam inhalations to relieve irritation of the bronchial tree. When no complications occur, the illness lasts 10 days. Although uncomplicated measles is seldom fatal, infection with the virus has been shown to induce a form of “immune amnesia,” whereby measles virus eliminates as many as half of the antibodies generated against other infectious agents to which an individual was exposed previously. Thus, persons who survive measles infection may become vulnerable once again to a range of other diseases, such as chickenpox and polio. By contrast, individuals vaccinated against measles do not experience a loss of immunity to other infectious agents.

Deaths attributed to measles usually result from secondary bronchopneumonia caused by bacterial organisms entering the inflamed bronchial tree. Complications of measles are frequent and include a superimposed bacterial ear infection or pneumonia or a primary measles lung infection. Encephalitis is a rare occurrence. Measles virus can invade various organ systems and cause hepatitis, appendicitis, and gangrene of the extremities. A large percentage of cases of severe measles are associated with inadequate intake of vitamin A, and there is evidence that treatment with vitamin A may reduce measles complications.

On very rare occasions, persistent infection with a mutant measles virus can cause a degenerative central nervous system disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), in which there is a gradual onset of progressive behavioral and intellectual deterioration. Motor incoordination and impairment of speech and sight subsequently develop. The final stages of stupor, dementia, blindness, and death occur within six to nine months. There is no treatment for SSPE.

Measles Vaccine And Eradication Efforts

Mortality caused by measles declined steadily in the 20th century as the health of children and infants improved and effective treatment of complications became possible through the use of sulfonamide and antibiotic drugs. The widespread use of measles vaccine, beginning in the late 1960s, raised hopes for the eventual eradication of the disease. In the following decades, however, measles remained a leading cause of childhood mortality worldwide, primarily because attack rates remained high in less-developed countries, where factors such as malnutrition and weak public health infrastructure challenged infant health and the establishment of immunization programs. In the early 21st century, campaigns were initiated to increase vaccination, particularly in less-developed countries. International efforts led to a significant reduction in measles cases and deaths, bringing global elimination of the disease within reach. At the same time, supporting this progress, many wealthier countries, including the United States and some countries in the European Union, had successfully eradicated measles.

In the second decade of the 21st century, however, large measles outbreaks continued to occur in countries with low vaccination rates. In late 2019 in Samoa, for instance, a severe outbreak of measles resulted in school closures and government shutdown, followed by a mass vaccination campaign to prevent further spread of the disease. Measles also reemerged in several countries where it previously had been eradicated, a trend attributed to alarming declines in vaccination coverage. Of particular concern was the return of measles in developed countries such as the United States, where the disease had been eliminated by 2000, and the United Kingdom. In these countries, measles reemerged in the form of small outbreaks that were typically concentrated in areas with relatively high proportions of unvaccinated individuals. Coincident with the return of measles in those countries, however, was a massive surge in the disease in countries with traditionally low vaccination coverage, resulting in large increases in measles cases worldwide. Global incidence was notably high in 2019, with more than 364,800 cases reported between June and July alone that year—far exceeding the number of cases reported worldwide over that time frame for any year since 2006, according to officials with the World Health Organization (WHO). The largest increases occurred in countries in Africa, Europe, and the Western Pacific. By early 2020 the Democratic Republic of the Congo was in the midst of a severe measles epidemic, with more than 6,000 deaths according to WHO. WHO and health officials in regions affected by measles outbreaks increased efforts to bolster vaccination rates to stop the disease from spreading further.

Measles vaccines are live vaccines that work against measles alone or in combination against other agents, specifically with rubella (MR), mumps and rubella (MMR), or mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV). The vaccines typically are given in two doses. In the United States, for example, the first dose is given at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second dose is recommended at four to six years. In other countries, the vaccine is given first at nine months and the second dose later. The second dose of MMR must be given at least four weeks after the first dose; in adults whose vaccination status is uncertain, the two doses typically are given four weeks apart. The youngest age at which the vaccines can be given is six months, though revaccination (with two doses) is needed later.

Similar Illnesses

Measles must be differentiated from other disorders accompanied by an eruption. In roseola infantum, a disease seen in babies, a measleslike rash appears after the child has had a high temperature for two or three days, but there is no fever at the time of the rash. German measles (rubella) can be superficially differentiated from measles by the shorter course of the disease and mildness of the symptoms. Sometimes the rashes of scarlet fever, serum reactions, and other conditions may, on certain parts of the body, look like measles. Drugs that may produce rashes similar to measles are phenobarbital, diphenylhydantoin, the sulfonamides, phenolphthalein, and penicillin.

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#7833. By selling 10 bags, Arnold loses the Selling Price of 2 bags. Find the loss percentage.

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M # 609. Slant height of a square pyramid is 25 cm and its surface area is 896 square centimetres. Find the volume of the square pyramid.

799) Cocoa

Cocoa, highly concentrated powder made from chocolate liquor—a paste prepared from cocoa beans, the fruit of the cacao—and used in beverages and as a flavouring ingredient. Cocoa is the key ingredient in chocolate and chocolate confections.

The cocoa bean is the seed of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a tropical plant indigenous to the equatorial regions of the Americas. From the processed cocoa bean comes the fluid paste, or liquor, from which cocoa powder and chocolate are made. Chocolate is sold directly to the consumer as solid bars of eating chocolate, as packaged cocoa, and as baking chocolate. It is also used by confectioners as coating for candy bars and boxed or bulk chocolates, by bakery product manufacturers and bakers as coating for many types of cookies and cakes, and by ice-cream companies as coating for frozen novelties. Cocoa powders, chocolate liquor, and blends of the two are used in bulk to flavour various food products and to provide the flavours in such “chocolate” products as syrups, toppings, chocolate milk, prepared cake mixes, and pharmaceuticals.

History Of Use

Cacao residues on pottery in Ecuador suggest that the plant was consumed by humans as early as 5,000 years ago. The tree was likely domesticated in the upper Amazon region and then spread northward. It was widely cultivated more than 3,000 years ago by the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec peoples, who prepared a beverage from the bean (sometimes using it as a ceremonial drink) and also used the bean as a currency.

Christopher Columbus took cocoa beans to Spain after his fourth voyage in 1502, and the Spanish conquistadores, arriving in Mexico in 1519, were introduced to a chocolate beverage by the Aztec. The Aztec beverage was made from sun-dried shelled beans, probably fermented in their pods. The broken kernels, or nibs, were roasted in earthen pots and then ground to a paste in a concave stone, called a metate, over a small fire. Vanilla and various spices and herbs were added, and corn (maize) was sometimes used to produce milder flavour. The paste, formed into small cakes, was cooled and hardened on shiny leaves placed under a tree. The cakes were broken up, mixed with hot water, and beaten to foamy consistency with a small wooden beater, a molinet, producing the beverage called xocoatl (from Nahuatl words meaning “bitter water”).

Too bitter for European taste, the mixture was sweetened with sugar when introduced to the Spanish court. Although Spain guarded the secret of its xocoatl beverage for almost 100 years, it reached Italy in 1606 and became popular in France with the marriage of the Spanish princess Maria Theresa to Louis XIV in 1660. In 1657 a Frenchman opened a London shop, selling solid chocolate to be made into the beverage, and chocolate houses, selling the hot beverage, soon appeared throughout Europe. By 1765 chocolate manufacture had begun in the American colonies at Dorchester, in Massachusetts, using cocoa beans from the West Indies.

In 1828 C.J. van Houten of the Netherlands patented a process for obtaining “chocolate powder” by pressing much of the cocoa butter from ground and roasted cocoa beans. In 1847 the English firm of Fry and Sons combined cocoa butter, a by-product of the pressing, with chocolate liquor and sugar to produce eating chocolate, and in 1876 Daniel Peter of Switzerland added dried milk to make milk chocolate. The proliferation of flavoured, solid, and coated chocolate foods rapidly followed.

Starting in the Americas in an area stretching from southern Mexico to the northern countries of South America, commercial cacao cultivation spread around the world to areas within 20° of the Equator where rainfall, temperatures, and soil conditions were suitable for its growth.

Cocoa Bean Processing

Harvesting

Harvesting of cocoa beans can proceed all year, but the bulk of the crop is gathered in two flush periods occurring from October to February and from May to August. The ripe seed pods are cut from the trees and split open with machetes. The beans, removed from the pods with their surrounding pulp, are accumulated in leaf-covered heaps, in leaf-lined holes dug in the ground, or in large shallow boxes having perforated bottoms to provide for drainage.

Fermentation

The pulp of common grades (Forastero) is allowed to ferment for five to seven days, and the pulp of the more distinctively flavoured grades (Criollo) for one to three days. Frequent turnings dissipate excess heat and provide uniformity. During fermentation, the juicy sweatings of the pulp are drained away, the germ in the seed is killed by the increased heat, and flavour development begins. The beans become plump and full of moisture, and the interior develops a reddish brown colour and a heavy, sharp fragrance. The fermented beans are sun-dried or kiln-dried to reduce moisture content to 6–7 percent and bagged for shipment.

Cleaning, roasting, and grinding

Cocoa beans are subjected to various cleaning processes to remove such contaminants as twigs, stones, and dust. Roasting develops flavour, reduces acidity and astringency, lowers moisture content, deepens colour, and facilitates shell removal. After roasting comes a cracking and fanning (winnowing) process, in which machines crack the shells and then separate them from the heavier nibs by means of blowers. The cell walls of the nibs are in turn broken by grinding, releasing the fat, or cocoa butter, and forming a paste called chocolate liquor, or cocoa mass. If alkalized (Dutched) chocolate liquor is to be produced, the cocoa beans may be winnowed raw; the raw nibs will be alkalized and then roasted prior to grinding.

Conching

Conching, a flavour-developing, aerating, and emulsifying procedure performed by conche machines, requires from 4 to 72 hours, depending on the results desired and the machine type. Temperatures used in this process range from 55 to 88 °C (130 to 190 °F) and are closely controlled to obtain the desired flavour and uniformity.

Molding

In molding, the chocolate is cast in small consumer-size bars or in blocks weighing about 4.5 kg (10 pounds) for use by confectioners and is then subjected to cold air to produce hardening.

Cocoa Bean Products

Cocoa powders

Cocoa powders are produced by pulverizing cocoa cakes, made by subjecting the chocolate liquor of about 53 to 56 percent cocoa butter content to hydraulic pressing to remove a predetermined amount of cocoa butter. The cocoa butter content remaining in the powder may range from 8 to 36 percent, with the most common commercial grades in the United States containing 11, 17, or 22 percent cocoa butter. In the United Kingdom, cocoa sold for beverage use must contain a minimum of 20 percent.

Natural process

Natural-process cocoa powders and chocolate liquors receive no alkali treatment. Cocoa beans are normally slightly acidic, with a pH of 5.2–5.8. When the pH remains unchanged, the beans produce pleasantly sharp flavours blending well in many foods and confections.

Dutch process

Dutch-process cocoa powders and chocolate liquors are treated at the nib, liquor, or powder stage. The treatment is frequently referred to as “Dutching” because the process, first applied by C.J. van Houten in the Netherlands, was introduced as “Dutch cocoa.” In this alkalizing process, a food-grade alkali solution may be applied in order partially to neutralize the natural cocoa acids, mostly acetic acid like that in vinegar; or it may be used to produce a strictly alkaline product, with a pH as high as 8.0. Potassium carbonate is most commonly used as an alkalizer, although other alkalies, such as sodium carbonate, may be used. In addition to altering the pH of the cocoa powder, the process darkens colour, mellows flavour, and alters taste characteristics.

Chocolate products

Chocolate products usually require the addition of more cocoa butter to that already existing in the chocolate liquor. The various forms of chocolate are available in consumer-size packages and in large bulk sizes for use by food manufacturers and confectioners. Most European confectioners make their own chocolate; other confectioners buy chocolate from chocolate-manufacturing specialists. For large commercial orders, chocolate is shipped, warm and in liquid form, in heated sanitary tank trucks or tank cars.

Baking chocolate

Baking (bitter) chocolate, popular for household baking, is pure chocolate liquor made from finely ground nibs, the broken pieces of roasted, shelled cocoa beans. This chocolate, bitter because it contains no sugar, can be either the natural or the alkalized type.

Sweet chocolate

Sweet chocolate, usually dark in colour, is made with chocolate liquor, sugar, added cocoa butter, and such flavourings as vanilla beans, vanillin, salt, spices, and essential oils. Sweet chocolate usually contains at least 15 percent chocolate liquor content, and most sweet chocolate contains 25–35 percent. The ingredients are blended, refined (ground to a smooth mass), and conched. Viscosity is then adjusted by the addition of more cocoa butter, lecithin (an emulsifier), or a combination of both.

Milk chocolate

Milk chocolate is formulated by substituting whole milk solids for a portion of the chocolate liquor used in producing sweet chocolate. It usually contains at least 10 percent chocolate liquor and 12 percent whole milk solids. Manufacturers usually exceed these values, frequently going to 12–15 percent chocolate liquor and 15–20 percent whole milk solids. Milk chocolate, usually lighter in colour than sweet chocolate, is sweeter or milder in taste because of its lower content of bitter chocolate liquor. Processing is similar to that of sweet chocolate. “Bitter chocolate” refers to either baking chocolate or bittersweet chocolate. Bittersweet is similar to sweet chocolate but contains less sugar and more chocolate liquor. Minimum percentages of chocolate liquor are fixed by law in some countries, such as the United States.

Chocolate-type coatings

Confectionery coatings are made in the same manner as similar chocolate types, but some or all of the chocolate liquor is replaced with equivalent amounts of cocoa powder, and instead of added cocoa butter, with a melting point of about 32–33 °C (90–92 °F), other vegetable fats of equal or higher melting points are used. In the United States the legal name of this coating is “sweet cocoa and vegetable fat (other than cocoa fat) coatings.” In the “chocolate” coating usually applied to ice cream and other frozen novelties, legally known as “sweet chocolate and vegetable fat (other than cocoa fat) coatings,” the added cocoa butter usual in chocolate is replaced by lower-melting-point vegetable fats, such as coconut oil.

By-products

Shells, the major by-product of cocoa and chocolate manufacturing, represent 8–10 percent of raw cocoa bean weight and are blown off in the cracking and fanning, or winnowing, operation. They are used for fertilizer, mulch, and fuel.

Chocolate and cocoa grades

In chocolate and cocoa products, there is no sharp difference from one grade or quality to the next. Chocolate quality depends on such factors as the blend of beans used, with about 20 commercial grades from which to choose; the kind and amount of milk or other ingredients included; and the kind and degree of roasting, refining, conching, or other type of processing employed. Chocolate and cocoa products are only roughly classified; there are hundreds of variations on the market, alone or in combination with other foods or confections.

Care and storage

Chocolate and cocoa require storage at 18–20 °C (65–68 °F), with relative humidity below 50 percent. High (27–32 °C, or 80–90 °F) or widely fluctuating temperatures will cause fat bloom, a condition in which cocoa butter infiltrates to the surface, turning products gray or white as it recrystallizes.

High humidity causes mustiness in cocoa powder and can lead to mold formation in cocoa powder or on chocolate. Excessive moisture can also dissolve sugar out of chocolate, redepositing it on the surface as sugar bloom, distinguished from fat bloom by its sandy texture.

Nutritive value

Cocoa, a highly concentrated food providing approximately 1,000 calories per kilogram, provides carbohydrates, fat, protein, and minerals. Its theobromine and caffeine content produce a mildly stimulating effect. The carbohydrates and easily digested fats in chocolate make it an excellent high-energy food.

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#3709. What does the adjective excruciating mean?

#3710. What does the verb (used with object) exculpate mean?

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CG # 128. If the coordinates of the midpoints of the sides of a triangle are (2, 2), (4, -6), and (6, 8), find its centroid.

798) Sea lion

Sea lion, any of six species of eared seals found primarily in Pacific waters. Sea lions are characterized by a coat of short coarse hair that lacks a distinct undercoat. Except for the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), males have lion-like manes and constantly roar to defend their harems (hence their name).

Unlike the true, or earless, seals (family Phocidae), sea lions and other eared seals (family Otariidae) are able to rotate their hind flippers forward to use all four limbs when moving about on land. Sea lions also have longer flippers than true seals. Sea lions feed principally on fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods (squid and octopus), but they also will consume penguins. Breeding occurs in large herds, the males establishing harems of 3 to 20 females. Brown pups are born after a gestation period of 12 months. Sea lions are hunted, though not on a large scale, for their meat, hides, and blubber.

The California sea lion, found along the western coast of North America from the Gulf of Alaska to Costa Rica, is the trained seal commonly seen in animal acts and zoos. Large-eyed and playful, it is pale to dark brown but appears black when wet. The male reaches a maximum length of about 2.5 metres (8 feet) and a weight of 400 kg (880 pounds), and the female grows to about 1.8 metres and 90 kg. In captivity it can live more than 30 years (less in the wild). The California sea lion is mostly a coastal animal that frequently leaps from the water when swimming. A fast swimmer and excellent diver, it forages underwater for an average of three minutes at a time, but dives can last up to nine minutes. The maximum recorded dive depth is 274 metres (900 feet). California sea lions commonly gather on man-made structures.

The California sea lion shares the genus Zalophus with the Galapagos sea lion (Z. wollebaeki). Both species are similar in appearance, the Galapagos sea lion being the smaller of the two. Adult males weigh as much as 250 kg (550 pounds), and adult females weigh between 50 and 100 kg (110 and 220 pounds). Although most of the Galapagos sea lion population is concentrated in the waters surrounding the Galapagos archipelago, some individuals have established a semipermanent colony at Isla de la Plata near the coast of Ecuador.

The northern, or Steller, sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is a pale- to golden-brown sea lion of the Bering Sea and both sides of the North Pacific Ocean. It is the largest member of the eared seals. Males are about 3.3 metres in length and weigh 1,000 kg, while females measure about 2.5 metres and weigh less than 300 kg. Northern sea lions eat fish, octopus, and squid, as well as bivalves, other mollusks, and crustaceans. Because of their massive size and aggressive nature, they are rarely kept in captivity.

The southern, or South American, sea lion (Otaria byronia) is generally brown with a yellowish orange belly. It swims in coastal waters from northern Peru southward to Tierra del Fuego and even around the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. The male is about 2.5 metres in length and weighs 200–350 kg, and the female is about 1.8 metres long and 140 kg. South American sea lions eat mostly fish, squid, and crustaceans but occasionally kill and eat other seals.

The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) is found along the southern coast of Western Australia into South Australia. Adult males are 2.0–2.5 metres in length and weigh 300 kg, whereas females measure 1.5 metres long and weigh less than 100 kg.

The New Zealand, or Hooker’s, sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri) inhabits only New Zealand. Males are 2.0–2.5 metres in length, females 1.5–2.0 metres. Their weight is slightly less than that of Australian sea lions.

The five genera of sea lions, together with fur seals (genus Arctocephalus) and northern fur seals (Callorhinus), constitute the family Otariidae (eared seals). All seals and sea lions, along with the walrus, are grouped together as pinnipeds.