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Date updated: July 2022
For all your Credit Record answers, simply follow our guide below:
- What is a credit record?
- What is a credit bureau?
- What type of information may be held by a credit bureau?
- May a consumer’s credit record be considered when applying for employment?
- Can a consumer challenge the credit information held by a credit bureau?
- How can LegalWise assist you?
In terms of the National Credit Act (“NCA”), credit may not be given to a person (“consumer”), if s/he is unable to repay such credit. A credit provider must determine a consumer’s creditworthiness by assessing his/her:
- existing financial means, prospects and obligations (in other words, his/her income, expenses, dependants and so on);
- repayment history (previous and current payments towards his/her credit, whether or not s/he is financially responsible);
- understanding of the risks, costs, or obligations under the proposed credit agreement.
When doing the above assessment, credit providers make use of the information provided by consumers, together with information available at the time of the assessments, like credit records.
1. What is a credit record?
- A credit record is a report of a consumer’s credit activities. A credit record can hold positive and negative credit information about a consumer as reported by credit providers and others. However, a credit record may not contain adverse credit information of a consumer that has been settled or information relating to paid-up judgments.
- A credit provider must maintain records of applications for credit, credit agreements entered into and terminated for a prescribed period of time. A credit provider must also report information about credit agreements to the National Credit Register or a credit bureau within a prescribed period of time, for example, the amount of credit, details about the credit provider and consumer, repayment schedule, obligations, amendments to the agreement, and so on.
- The National Credit Register or a credit bureau must protect and keep a consumer’s credit information confidential by only using it for the purpose permitted by the law, and reporting it to third persons when permitted by law, the consumer, a court or the National Credit Tribunal.
2. What is a credit bureau?
- A credit bureau is a body registered by the National Credit Regulator that retains, maintains and removes credit information held on a consumer’s credit record.
3. What type of information may be held by a credit bureau?
- A consumer’s credit history, such as applications for credit, credit agreements entered into and terminated, how well or badly a consumer pays his/her credit, debt counselling, debt enforcement, judgments and so on.
- A consumer’s financial history: past and current income, assets, debt and so on.
- A consumer’s personal information: identity (for example, name, identity number, marital status, contact details, address and so on), education status, employment, business history (for example, termination of employment and/or business relationships) and so on.
- Every consumer is entitled to obtain a free credit record from a credit bureau or the National Credit Register once per year.
4. May a consumer’s credit record be considered when applying for employment?
- A prospective employer, employment agency and so on, may request the credit record of a prospective employee, when the position requires honesty in dealing with cash and finances. A credit record may also be used to verify a prospective employee’s qualifications and employment.
- The job description of such a position must, however, be clearly outlined.
- A prospective employee may give a prospective employer permission to access his/her credit record in other circumstances.
5. Can a consumer challenge the credit information held by a credit bureau?
- A consumer has the right to inspect and challenge the credit information held by a credit bureau or the National Credit Register.
- The credit provider, credit bureau or the National Credit Register must take reasonable steps to seek evidence in support to the challenged information.
- Once the investigation has been completed, the credit provider, credit bureau and/or National Credit Register must either remove the challenged information, alternatively retain it if it can provide the consumer with a copy of the evidence in support of the information.
- A consumer may within 20 business days of receiving a copy of the evidence, apply in the prescribed manner and form to the National Credit Regulator to investigate the challenged information.
- Until a challenge is resolved, the challenged credit information of the consumer may not be reported by the credit bureau or the National Credit Register.
- If it is found that the incorrect information has been reported about the consumer, the credit bureau must remove the information from its files and inform the consumer, credit bureaus and other persons about the removal.
6. How can LegalWise assist you?
Should you require an explanation of your rights on this topic, please contact your nearest LegalWise Branch, call, e-mail or WhatsApp us. For more information about our membership options visit our legal services page or visit our join now page. | <urn:uuid:40d67a28-e119-4113-ba94-e56abd3b42ea> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.legalwise.co.za/help-yourself/quicklaw-guides/credit-records | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.913412 | 1,067 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Malcolm Turnbull and the attorney general, George Brandis, have defended a counter-terrorism review that will consider giving security agencies greater access to mental health records.
The prime minister has asked the counter-terrorism coordinator, Greg Moriarty, to review the threat of lone-wolf terrorist attacks, including consideration of safety in large public areas and the contribution of mental illness to radicalisation.
On Friday, Turnbull said the review was necessary following terrorist events in which attackers had attached themselves to the “murderous ideology” of Islamic extremism because of other problems such as addiction, anti-social behaviour and mental illness.
The review will consider any lessons for Australia from the terrorist attack in Nice, and whether the use of a truck as a weapon “requires assessment of the vulnerability of, and means of protecting, open areas where large numbers congregate”.
It will consider how to respond to lone-wolf actors, encryption technology and “measures preventing vulnerable Australians from falling through the cracks of our justice and mental health systems and heading down a path of violent radicalisation without being identified by security authorities”.
Asked whether the government would seek greater access to mental health files of Australians, Turnbull told 3AW on Friday that police and security services could already access such information where there was a suspicion of terrorist activities.
The access was subject to “very significant privacy protections”, he said.
Turnbull accepted that it would be a “huge step” to give greater access to mental health files but said the review would consider whether the police needed it.
Asked about the possibility of compelling counsellors to report patients who might be vulnerable to radicalisation, Turnbull said: “It’s important that this be looked at carefully.
“You’ve got a number of important interests to balance here ... it’s critical that people feel and know when they go to [a mental health organisation such as] Headspace that they do so confidentially and in a trusted environment.”
But he described keeping Australians safe as his “most important responsibility” and said legislation and resourcing of security agencies required “constant upgrading”.
He said the government would have to rethink the design and protection of public spaces to prevent a truck being able to access crowded areas, as occurred in Nice.
Brandis told ABC’s AM that security agencies needed “all relevant info that might identify a person that might be susceptible to radicalisation and committing acts of violence ... subject to proper privacy considerations”.
He accepted that in certain circumstances the Australian federal police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation might need to apply for a court order to access medical records. Those agencies already had “very strong powers” to get a warrant for information and put suspects under surveillance, he said.
Asked whether doctors should be required to report if they had terrorism-related concerns about their patients, Brandis said “everyone should, if they have genuine concerns, report that matter to relevant authorities”.
“I want to emphasise the point: it’s a common responsibility on all citizens if they become aware of information of concern, they should make authorities aware.”
Brandis said he had spoken early on Friday to the AFP commissioner, Andrew Colvin, who told him the New South Wales police had “no reason to believe” the Merrylands police station incident was an act of terrorism.
Moriarty said that, for some, their “narrow and extreme interpretation of Islam” was the cause of their desire to commit terrorist acts.
But he said others “are not necessarily deeply committed to and engaged with the Islamist ideology but are nonetheless, due to a range of reasons, including mental health issues, susceptible to being motivated and lured rapidly down a dangerous path by the terrorist narrative”.
For those people, Islamic State propaganda can “justify their anger at society and give meaning to their existence”, he said.
“Domestically we need to focus on the full range of motivations which draw people towards violent extremism.” | <urn:uuid:d8456ad5-8e22-4a19-af4c-167eecddf1e0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jul/22/counter-terrorism-turnbull-defends-plan-to-allow-greater-access-to-mental-health-records?CMP=share_btn_tw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.959854 | 848 | 1.53125 | 2 |
This week we are focusing on a favorite time period of many, the 1967 refurbishment of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. As you may know, Tomorrowland was perhaps the smallest land to open in 1955 as far as attractions go, and living up to its name. Walt knew this, and after devoting so much time, effort and creative endeavor to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, he was ready to bring some of that same creativity and industry to Disneyland.
Of the major updates, most notably, Carousel of Progress was brought to Tomorrowland, the Peoplemover was opened, and a little attraction called Adventure Thru Inner Space brought to life a brand new ride system; the Omnimover as well as a new type of attraction experience altogether. We discuss this as well as the other changes in great detail on this week’s Up the Waterfall.
We hope you enjoy this week’s topic and maybe learn a thing or two along the way. We invite you to take this journey back in time with us…to a time where the future was hopeful and bright, when science was trusted and brimming with new discoveries and ways to make our lives better and easier. Today we take much of those advances for granted, so it is fun to take a look back at a simpler time in America, when Tomorrow itself invoked so much promise and positivity.
Do you have any personal memories of Tomorrowland ’67? I may not have learned of it until the past 10 years or so, but my fascination and interest has made up for that lost time! I’d love a time machine, how about you?
As mentioned on our Thursday night LIVE shows (every Thursday at 8pm eastern on YouTube), Scott and I both do work full-time. We don’t mean to use that as an excuse, but it’s also that time of year when so much is happening, 6 months seem to be crammed into 2! We thought that rather than put up a sub-standard episode, we would take the time needed to devote to the topic at hand. This episode is the result of that extra time.
As always, we thank you for watching and listening! If you enjoyed, please share with a friend so more folks can learn about our growing podcast! Thank you!
Listen to Up the Waterfall:
You can listen anywhere you download and listen to podcasts, including:
(If there’s a podcast service where you can’t find our show, let us know and we’ll get it added there!)
Watch Up the Waterfall:
Head to our Up the Waterfall YouTube Playlist – where you can see our opening sequence and see some unique images during some episodes.
Feel free to comment below with your opinions on ANY of these hot button topics, any questions or info you’d like to add, or if it’s easier, head to the Zannaland Facebook page and join the discussion there with fellow Disney Parks fans!
Zannaland and Up the Waterfall Community – Let’s Connect!
FOLLOW THE ZANNALAND FAMILY ON SOCIAL MEDIA, WATCH OUR VIDEOS, VLOGS AND PODCAST TOO:
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- Listen to Up the Waterfall podcast, subscribe on iTunes, or watch Up the Waterfall on YouTube
We thank you for your support and for sharing the love! | <urn:uuid:307e556c-4238-4cb7-a594-01e208f2d655> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://zannaland.com/category/places-to-stay/disney/disneyland-resort/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.933954 | 759 | 1.664063 | 2 |
What is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?
What are the symptoms?
Who gets ALS?
How is ALS diagnosed?
What causes ALS?
How is ALS treated?
What research is being done?
How can I help research?
Where can I get more information?
What is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare neurological disease that primarily affects the nerve cells (neurons) responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement (those muscles we choose to move). Voluntary muscles produce movements like chewing, walking, and talking. The disease is progressive, meaning the symptoms get worse over time. Currently, there is no cure for ALS and no effective treatment to halt or reverse the progression of the disease.
ALS belongs to a wider group of disorders known as motor neuron diseases, which are caused by gradual deterioration (degeneration) and death of motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells that extend from the brain to the spinal cord and to muscles throughout the body. As motor neurons degenerate, they stop sending messages to the muscles and the muscles gradually weaken, start to twitch, and waste away (atrophy). Eventually, the brain loses its ability to initiate and control voluntary movements.
Early symptoms of ALS usually include muscle weakness or stiffness. Gradually all voluntary muscles are affected, and individuals lose their strength and the ability to speak, eat, move, and even breathe. Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, usually within 3 to 5 years from when the symptoms first appear. However, about 10 percent of people with ALS survive for 10 or more years.
ALS was once commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, following the retirement of the famous ballplayer in the 1940s due to the disease.
What are the symptoms?
The onset of ALS can be so subtle that the symptoms are overlooked but gradually these symptoms develop into more obvious weakness or atrophy.
Early symptoms include:
- Muscle twitches in the arm, leg, shoulder, or tongue
- Muscle cramps
- Tight and stiff muscles (spasticity)
- Muscle weakness affecting an arm, a leg, the neck, or diaphragm
- Slurred and nasal speech
- Difficulty chewing or swallowing
The first sign of ALS usually appears in the hand or arm and can show as difficulty with simple tasks such as buttoning a shirt, writing, or turning a key in a lock. In other cases, symptoms initially affect one leg. People experience awkwardness when walking or running, or they may trip or stumble more often. When symptoms begin in the arms or legs, it is referred to as “limb onset” ALS, and when individuals first notice speech or swallowing problems, it is termed “bulbar onset” ALS.
As the disease progresses, muscle weakness and atrophy spread to other parts of the body. Individuals may develop problems with moving, swallowing (called dysphagia), speaking or forming words (dysarthria), and breathing (dyspnea). Although the sequence of emerging symptoms and the rate of disease progression can vary from person to person, eventually individuals will not be able to stand or walk, get in or out of bed on their own, or use their hands and arms.
Individuals with ALS usually have difficulty swallowing and chewing food, which makes it hard to eat. They also burn calories at a faster rate than most people without ALS. Due to these factors, people with ALS tend to lose weight rapidly and can become malnourished.
Because people with ALS usually can perform higher mental processes such as reasoning, remembering, understanding, and problem solving, they are aware of their progressive loss of function and may become anxious and depressed. A small percentage of individuals may experience problems with language or decision-making, and there is growing evidence that some may even develop a form of dementia over time.
Individuals with ALS eventually lose the ability to breathe on their own and must depend on a ventilator. Affected individuals also face an increased risk of pneumonia during later stages of the disease. Besides muscle cramps that may cause discomfort, some individuals with ALS may develop painful neuropathy (nerve disease or damage).
Who gets ALS?
ALS is a common neuromuscular disease worldwide. It affects people of all races and ethnic backgrounds.
Risk factors for ALS include:
- Age. Although the disease can strike at any age, symptoms most commonly develop between the ages of 55 and 75.
- Gender. Men are slightly more likely than women to develop ALS. However, as people age the difference between men and women disappears.
- Race and ethnicity. Caucasians and non-Hispanics are most likely to develop the disease.
Some studies suggest that military veterans are about 1.5 to 2 times more likely to develop ALS. Although the reason for this is unclear, possible risk factors for veterans include exposure to lead, pesticides, and other environmental toxins. ALS is recognized as a service-connected disease by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Nearly all cases of ALS are considered sporadic. This means the disease seems to occur at random with no clearly associated risk factors and no family history of the disease. Although family members of people with sporadic ALS are at an increased risk for the disease, the overall risk is very low and most will not develop ALS.
Familial (Genetic) ALS
About 5 to 10 percent of all ALS cases are familial, which means that an individual inherits the disease from a parent. The familial form of ALS usually only requires one parent to carry the disease-causing gene. Mutations in more than a dozen genes have been found to cause familial ALS.
- About 25 to 40 percent of all familial cases (and a small percentage of sporadic cases) are caused by a defect in the C9ORF72 gene (which makes a protein that is found in motor neurons and nerve cells in the brain). In 2011, scientists found that a defect in the C9ORF72 gene is not only present in a significant subset of individuals with ALS but also in some people with a type of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) that results from atrophy to the brain’s temporal and frontal lobes. This observation provides evidence for genetic ties between these two neurodegenerative disorders.
- Another 12 to 20 percent of familial cases result from mutations in the SOD1 gene that is involved in production of the enzyme copper-zinc superoxide dismutase 1.
On June 1, 2021, a team of scientists let by the NIH and the Uniformed Services University announced it had discovered a unique form of genetic ALS that affects children as early as age 4 years. This childhood form of ALS is linked to the gene SPTLC1, that is part of the body's fat production system, and may be caused by changes in the way the body metabolizes fatty materials called lipids.
What causes ALS?
The cause of ALS is not known, and scientists do not yet know why ALS strikes some people and not others. However, scientific evidence suggests that both genetics and environment play a role in motor neuron degeneration and the development of ALS.
In 1993, scientists supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) discovered that mutations in the SOD1 gene were associated with some cases of familial ALS. Since then, more than a dozen additional genetic mutations have been identified, many through NINDS-supported research.
Research on certain gene mutations suggests that changes in the processing of RNA molecules may lead to ALS-related motor neuron degeneration. RNA molecules are involved with the production of molecules in the cell and with gene activity.
Other gene mutations indicate there may be defects in protein recycling—a naturally occurring process in which malfunctioning proteins are broken down and used to build new working ones. Still others point to possible defects in the structure and shape of motor neurons, as well as increased susceptibility to environmental toxins.
Researchers are studying the impact of environmental factors, such as exposure to toxic or infectious agents, viruses, physical trauma, diet, and behavioral and occupational factors. For example, exposure to toxins during warfare, or strenuous physical activity, are possible reasons for why some veterans and athletes may be at increased risk of developing ALS. Ongoing research may show that some factors are involved in the development or progression of the disease.
How is ALS diagnosed?
There is no single test that provides a definitive diagnosis of ALS. It is primarily diagnosed based on a detailed history of the symptoms observed by a physician during physical examination, along with a review of the individual’s full medical history and a series of tests to rule out other diseases. A neurologic examination at regular intervals can assess whether symptoms such as muscle weakness, muscle wasting, and spasticity are progressively getting worse.
Muscle and imaging tests
- Electromyography (EMG) is a recording technique that detects electrical activity of muscle fibers and can help diagnose ALS.
- A nerve conduction study (NCS) measures the electrical activity of the nerves and muscles by assessing the nerve’s ability to send a signal along the nerve or to the muscle.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive procedure that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed images of the brain and spinal cord.
- Blood and urine tests may be performed based on the person’s symptoms, test results, and findings from the examination. A physician may order these tests to eliminate the possibility of other diseases.
- A muscle biopsy may be performed to determine whether a physician believes an individual has a muscle disease other than ALS. Under local anesthesia, a small sample of muscle is removed and sent to the lab for analysis.
How is ALS treated?
There is no treatment to reverse damage to motor neurons or cure ALS. However, treatments can help control symptoms, prevent unnecessary complications, and make living with the disease easier.
Supportive health care is best provided by multidisciplinary teams of professionals such as physicians; pharmacists; physical, occupational, speech, and respiratory therapists; nutritionists; social workers; clinical psychologists; and home care and hospice nurses. These teams can design an individualized treatment plan and provide special equipment aimed at keeping people as mobile, comfortable, and independent as possible.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved drugs to treat ALS:
- Riluzole (Rilutek) is an oral medication believed to reduce damage to motor neurons by decreasing levels of glutamate, which transports messages between nerve cells and motor neurons. Clinical trials in people with ALS showed that riluzole prolongs survival by a few months, particularly in the bulbar form of the disease. Individuals with swallowing difficulties may prefer the thickened liquid form (Tiglutik) or the tablet (Exservan) that dissolves on the tongue.
- Edaravone (Radicava) is given by intravenous infusion and has been shown to slow the decline in clinical assessment of daily functioning in persons with ALS.
Physicians can also prescribe medications to help manage symptoms of ALS, including muscle cramps, stiffness, excess saliva and phlegm, and the pseudobulbar affect (involuntary or uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing, or other emotional displays). Drugs also are available to help individuals with pain, depression, sleep disturbances, and constipation.
Physical and occupational therapy
Physical therapy and special equipment can enhance an individual’s independence and safety throughout the course of ALS. Gentle, low-impact aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming, and stationary bicycling can strengthen unaffected muscles and range of motion and stretching exercises can help prevent painful spasticity and shortening (contracture) of muscles. Physical therapists can recommend exercises that provide these benefits without overworking muscles. Occupational therapists can suggest devices such as ramps, braces, walkers, and wheelchairs that help individuals conserve energy and remain mobile.
People with ALS who have difficulty speaking may benefit from working with a speech therapist, who can teach adaptive strategies to speak louder and more clearly. As ALS progresses, speech therapists can help people maintain the ability to communicate.
Devices such as computer-based speech synthesizers use eye-tracking technology and can help people develop ways for responding to yes-or-no questions with their eyes or by other nonverbal means. Some people with ALS may choose to use voice banking while they are still able to speak as a process of storing their own voice for future use in computer-based speech synthesizers.
A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a system that allows individuals with ALS to communicate or control equipment such as a wheelchair using only brain activity. Researchers are developing more efficient, mobile, and even some auditory-based BCIs for those with severe paralysis and/or visual impairments.
Nutritionists can teach individuals and caregivers how to plan and prepare small meals throughout the day that provide enough calories, fiber, and fluid and how to avoid foods that are difficult to swallow. People may begin using suction devices to remove excess fluids or saliva and prevent choking. When individuals can no longer eat, doctors may advise inserting a feeding tube, which reduces the risk of choking and pneumonia that can result from inhaling liquids into the lungs.
As the muscles responsible for breathing start to weaken, people may experience shortness of breath during physical activity and difficulty breathing at night or when lying down. Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) refers to breathing support that is usually delivered through a mask over the nose and/or mouth. Initially, NIV may only be necessary at night but may eventually be used full time. NIV improves the quality of life and prolongs survival for many people with ALS.
Because the muscles that control breathing become weak, individuals with ALS may also have trouble generating a strong cough. There are several techniques to help people increase forceful coughing, including mechanical cough assistive devices.
As the disease progresses, individuals may need mechanical ventilation (respirators) in which a machine inflates and deflates the lungs. Doctors may place a breathing tube through the mouth or may surgically create a hole at the front of the neck and insert a tube leading to the windpipe (tracheostomy). Although ventilation support can ease breathing problems and prolong survival, it does not affect the progression of ALS.
What research is being done?
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is the primary federal funder of research on the brain and nervous system, including disorders such as ALS. NINDS is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the leading supporter of biomedical research in the world.
The goals of NINDS’s ALS research are to understand the cellular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of the disease, investigate the influence of genetics and other potential risk factors, identify biomarkers, and develop new treatments.
Cellular defects. Ongoing studies seek to understand the mechanisms that selectively trigger motor neurons to degenerate in ALS, which may lead to effective approaches to halt this process. Research using cellular culture systems and animal models suggests that motor neuron death is caused by a variety of cellular defects, including those involved in protein recycling and gene regulation, as well as structural impairments of motor neurons. Increasing evidence also suggests that glial support cells and inflammation cells of the nervous system may play an important role in ALS.
Stem cells. Scientists are turning skin cells of people with ALS into stem cells that are capable of becoming any cell type, including motor neurons and other cells which may be involved in the disease. NINDS-funded scientists are using stem cells to grow human spinal cord sections on tissue chips to help better understand the function of neurons involved in ALS.
Genetics and epigenetics. Clinical research studies supported by NINDS are looking into how ALS symptoms change over time in people with C9ORF72 mutations. Other studies are working to identify additional genes that may cause or put a person at risk for either familial or sporadic ALS.
A large-scale collaborative research effort supported by NINDS, other NIH institutes, and several public and private organizations is analyzing genetic data from thousands of individuals with ALS to discover new genes involved in the disease. By using novel gene editing tools, researchers are now able to rapidly identify new genes in the human genome involved in ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Additionally, researchers are looking at the potential role of epigenetics in ALS development. Epigenetic changes can switch genes on and off, which can greatly impact both health and disease. Although this research is exploratory, scientists hope that understanding epigenetics can offer new information about how ALS develops.
Biomarkers. NINDS supports research on the development of biomarkers—biological measures that help identify the presence or rate of progression of a disease or the effectiveness of a therapeutic intervention. Biomarkers can be molecules derived from a bodily fluid (blood or cerebrospinal fluid), an image of the brain or spinal cord, or a measure of the ability of a nerve or muscle to process electrical signals.
New treatment options. This work involves tests of drug-like compounds, gene therapy approaches, antibodies, and cell-based therapies in a range of disease models. Additionally, a number of exploratory treatments are being tested in people with ALS.
How can I be involved in research?
National ALS Registry
The National ALS Registry is a program to collect, manage, and analyze data about people with ALS in the United States. Developed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), this registry establishes information about the number of ALS cases, collects demographic, occupational and environmental exposure data from people with ALS to learn about potential risk factors for the disease, and notifies participants about research opportunities. The Registry includes data from national databases as well as de-identified information provided by individuals with ALS. All information is kept confidential. People with ALS can add their information to the Registry by visiting www.cdc.gov/als.
Many neurological disorders do not have effective treatment options. Clinical trials offer hope for many people and an opportunity to help researchers find better ways to safely detect, treat, or prevent disease. For information about finding and participating in a clinical trial, visit NIH Clinical Research Trials and You at www.nih.gov/health/clinicaltrials. For more information abuot finding clinical trials on ALS, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov. Use the search terms “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” or “ALS AND (your state)” to locate trials in your area.
The NINDS supports the NIH NeuroBioBank, a collaborative effort involving several brain banks across the U.S. that supply investigators with tissue from people with neurological and other disorders. Tissue from individuals with ALS is needed to enable scientists to study this disorder more intensely. The goal is to increase the availability of, and access to, high quality specimens for research to understand the neurological basis of the disease. Prospective donors can begin the enrollment process by visiting https://neurobiobank.nih.gov/donors-how-become-donor/.
Where can I get more information?
For more information on neurological disorders or research programs funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, contact the Institute’s Brain Resources and Information Network (BRAIN) at:
P.O. Box 5801
Bethesda, MD 20824
Information also is available from the following organizations:
The ALS Association
1275 K Street N.W., Suite 250
Washington, DC 20005
ALS Therapy Development Institute
300 Technology Square, Suite 400
Cambridge, MA 02139
Les Turner ALS Foundation
5550 West Touhy Avenue, Suite 302
Skokie, IL 60077-3254
801 Riverside Drive, Suite 6G
New York, NY 10032
Muscular Dystrophy Association
222 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1500
Chicago, IL 60606
U.S. National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health/DHHS
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
Online text updated May 26, 2021
"Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Fact Sheet", NINDS, Publication date June 2013.
NIH Publication No. 16-916
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Brochure(pdf, 574 KB) (pdf, 561 kb)
Publicaciones en Español
Office of Neuroscience Communications and Engagement
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892
NINDS health-related material is provided for information purposes only and does not necessarily represent endorsement by or an official position of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke or any other Federal agency. Advice on the treatment or care of an individual patient should be obtained through consultation with a physician who has examined that patient or is familiar with that patient's medical history. | <urn:uuid:7421455b-73ff-4ec2-9b26-1f06d43c6fa3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ninds.nih.gov/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-als-fact-sheet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.939097 | 4,468 | 3.53125 | 4 |
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Step 7: Follow the install directions to install the Video Uploader. Sponsored by the Dorrance Scholarship Applications , the symposium brings collectively exterior thought leaders, COH school and college students within the Dorrance Scholarship Packages for lectures and dialogue about the intersection between the humanities and superior applied sciences, like synthetic intelligence and robotics.
Tech Colleges work with industry representatives to make sure its packages and technology are relevant. three. Media digital (digital media), media elektronik yang digunakan untuk menyimpan, memancarkan serta menerima informasi yang terdigitalisasi. You will discover number programs and programming methods for fixing simultaneous equations, integrating capabilities, discovering roots, compressing knowledge and encrypting information.
To view these gadgets in motion, you must save any adjustments to the page. The objective of the course is to offer college students with the enterprise-related expertise to amass a cooperative or permanent job, and the non-public and social abilities to succeed on the job. College students will learn the importance of user safety and a few of the tools and procedures needed to protect and safe their information, computers and networks against attack. | <urn:uuid:44513eaf-8c5e-4807-b417-798059d2257e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://leehotti.com/educationmethode-org.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.893536 | 448 | 2.25 | 2 |
Today, I learned that:
The world is changing and besides the traditional places where advanced technology is being used we now also see countries like Rwanda in Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Middle East.
One of the seven emirates in UAE is Dubai, and Dubai is also the name of its capital. My deepest gratitude to my friend Chiara, who took this impressing header photo of Dubai. It shows the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, 828 meters, in the center. See more about Dubai in reference #1 below. Today, I want to talk about recent technologies that are being employed in Dubai.
The first one deals with construction of buildings. Besides being the city with the tallest building in the world, now there has been demonstrated a method similar to 3D printing to be used in the construction process. But instead of resulting in traditional small 3D printed objects, this time it is a complete office building. Using a printer with dimensions of 6 m x 36 m x 12 m, in 17 days was built a 250 m2 fully functional office building, at half the cost of traditional methods. Initially it is the temporary headquarters of Dubai Future Foundation, and it was opened one month ago. Reference #2 below gives more details.
Another field where Dubai is showing its advanced state of technology is in a communications technology abbreviated Li-Fi. Most of you know what Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is, a technology which permits that we connect our computers and smartphones to the internet via hotspots. However, one of the drawbacks with Wi-Fi, as compared to wired connections, is the slower speed and susceptibility to interference from other sources.
Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) is similar to Wi-Fi, but instead of radio waves it uses infrared light to convey the information. It can therefore be used in electromagnetic sensitive areas such as in aircraft cabins, hospitals and nuclear power plants without causing electromagnetic interference. Typically one can also expect data transmission speeds 100 times higher than when using Wi-Fi. Reference #3 below offers further information about Li-Fi. The communications provider du has recently performed a trial in Dubai and the result confirmed that Li-Fi can be a major communications technology in the near future, as described in reference #4 below.
Finally, speaking about light, today was inaugurated MAX IV in Lund in the south of Sweden. It permits researchers to make their investigations in the strong synchrotron radiation. Listen to Radio Sweden’s program in reference #5 and read more about synchrotron in reference #6 below.
… That’s what I learned in school ! | <urn:uuid:b3b98e65-39d3-4a2a-98cf-8c3ae9febebe> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://medieborgaren.se/category/construction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.945838 | 569 | 2.703125 | 3 |
New Autism Screening Tool More Reliable, Study Finds
A revamped screening tool that relies on parents answering just 20 questions is far more accurate than previous assessments at helping flag young kids at risk for autism, researchers say.
With the updated questionnaire, doctors identified fewer children at risk for autism, but more of those who were spotted in the test were ultimately diagnosed with the developmental disorder as compared to earlier screening tools, according to findings published late last month in the journal Pediatrics.
“This checklist can more accurately identify children likely to have autism so they can get the treatment and support they need,” said Alice Kau of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study. “Given that the typical autism diagnosis occurs at age 4, it also offers the possibility of detecting autism much earlier.”
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That’s significant, Kau said, since research shows that earlier intervention generally leads to better outcomes.
The study looked at an updated version of an existing screening method. The revised assessment — known as the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up, or M-CHAT–R/F — is designed for pediatricians to administer during regular well-child visits at ages 16 to 30 months.
Based on parent responses, the screening allows doctors to identify a child as having a low, medium or high risk for autism. Those considered to be at risk are then referred for additional questioning or for an evaluation.
Researchers looked at more than 16,000 children who were evaluated using the updated screening. Ultimately, 93 percent were determined to be at low risk for autism while 6 percent were considered to have medium risk and 1 percent were at high risk.
Of those in the medium or high range, 95 percent were later diagnosed with some type of developmental delay and more than 47 percent had autism, the study found.
The revised assessment — which is also available online — features more examples, rephrased questions and does away with other questions that did not garner significant response in an earlier version.
“Earlier tools cast a wider net, but these refinements will allow health care providers to focus energy where it is needed most and will reduce the number of families who go through additional testing but which ultimately do not need treatment interventions,” said Deborah Fein of the University of Connecticut, a senior author of the study.
Read more stories like this one. Sign up for Disability Scoop's free email newsletter to get the latest developmental disability news sent straight to your inbox. | <urn:uuid:11f8fdaf-f8d8-45a1-8f79-5866e152c5ca> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/01/06/new-autism-screening/18992/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.965763 | 525 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Under a Death Sentence
Many of us have become acquainted with Meriam Ibrahim through the news. Meriam, a lovely, 27-year old Sudanese woman, was sentenced to death by hanging because of her Christianity, considered apostasy under Shariah law. We have prayed for her release and grieved with her husband, child and newborn. Meriam has shown rare courage and God-given strength by refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
While Ibrahim has been released into the US Embassy in Sudan, her future is still uncertain as the government threatens to bring other charges against her.
How Will I Respond?
How will I respond if/when I face this kind of persecution? Will I fold, or will I allow God to give me the strength to stand? We have some historic precedents. In the Old Testament, Daniel’s three friends were given a choice to bow down to the image of King Nebuchadnezzar or be thrown into a fiery furnace. They refused to worship his image, speaking boldly to the King: “… our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)
In his anger, the king ordered the fire to be heated seven times hotter than normal–hot enough that the guards who carried the three friends to the furnace were killed instantly. (Daniel 3:22)
What courage. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego trusted their sovereign God. Their faith was not based on His freeing them; they were committed to serving God whether they lived or died.
Grace When Needed
Corrie ten Boom, survivor of Ravensbruck concentration camp, once asked her father what it would be like to die. Here is how she recounts it in her book, The Hiding Place:
“Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. ‘Corrie,’ he began gently, ‘when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?’
“I sniffed a few times, considering this.
“‘Why, just before we get on the train.’
“‘Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need–just in time.’”
Persecution can be subtle, as when my friend was mocked in a creative writing class for writing about her faith. Or it can be direct, as in the case of Meriam Ibrahim. My life was threatened when I ministered in the inner city of Los Angeles. I’m no hero. I’m terrified by the thought of persecution or torture. But I have told this to my God and said, “If it comes to that, give me your strength so that I remain faithful and true to you no matter what the circumstance or threat.” God has promised to supply our every need. I can only trust that, if and when it is needed, He will grant me the grace and strength to stand for Him. And therein lies my hope.
How About You?
Do you ever fear the possibility of persecution for your faith? How do you deal with that? I’d love to hear from you. | <urn:uuid:7f5f7d1b-41e0-4aa4-9ccf-fb1912ff2668> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://carolshope.com/tag/faith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.967738 | 766 | 1.9375 | 2 |
We have data on 757 companies that use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The companies using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are most often found in United States and in the Information Technology and Services industry. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is most often used by companies with >10000 employees and >1000M dollars in revenue. Our data for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure usage goes back as far as 1 years and 10 months.
|Company||Red Hat Inc|
We use the best indexing techniques combined with advanced data science to monitor the market share of over 15,000 technology products, including Cloud Platforms & Services. By scanning billions of public documents, we are able to collect deep insights on every company, with over 100 data fields per company at an average. In the Cloud Platforms & Services category, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure has a market share of about 0.1%. Other major and competing products in this category include:
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is Oracle's second-generation cloud that offers autonomous operations that eliminate human error and provide maximum security with serverless services available globally both in the public cloud and data centers. It offers a wide range of products to help build, migrate, operate and enhance applications and workloads. These include core compute, storage, database and networking services, security, management, integration, analytics and developer services.
Looking at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers by industry, we find that Information Technology and Services (35%) and Computer Software (10%) are the largest segments.
58% of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers are in United States and 5% are in United Kingdom.
Of all the customers that are using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, 17% are small (<50 employees), 33% are medium-sized and 49% are large (>1000 employees).
Of all the customers that are using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, 45% are small (<$50M), 7% are medium-sized and 42% are large (>$1000M). | <urn:uuid:680b44e1-c40d-4bab-b635-22b4d0b18335> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://enlyft.com/tech/products/oracle-cloud-infrastructure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.894203 | 505 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Pediatric Shelf Exam is generally considered to be a bit easier than the rest of the shelf exams you will face. There are great prep resources as well as a lot of available information about the exam. However, your biggest threat here is you’ll typically find yourself on a time crunch for this particular exam. For this shelf exam, in particular, taking timed online exams is your best bet. Most of the questions are straightforward, so go with your gut, pick the best choice and move on.
Pediatric Shelf Exam Resources
NBME Blueprint This is a great place to start looking when you’re going to begin preparing for this shelf exam. The National Board of Medical Examinations posts the breakdown and weight of topics you will find on your exam. This is where you can identify your strengths and weaknesses to make the most of your study time.
PreTest: Pediatrics This book offers more than 500 USMLE-style questions and answers with detailed explanations and rationales for right and wrong answers. (tip: go through it twice)
National Medical Series (tip: focus on Pediatric Topics) This text is ideal for those working on their pediatrics clerkship. It is concise and follows the outline by the most current Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) curriculum. It is a combination of information and practice question and it will help you identify and learn topics. The text comes with an accompanying website that makes it easy to search and find topics you want to focus on.
Pediatric Shelf Question Bank BoardVitals offers more than 1350 challenging Pediatric Shelf Practice Questions. This question bank is a great way to get a feel for the exam. You can set up practice quizzes targeting topics for on the NBME blueprint in timed mode to simulate the text environment. Practice questions in review mode to see the answers and correct your mistakes as you go. Each question comes with detailed explanations for correct and incorrect answers. (tip: take this in timed mode at 60 seconds per question to gauge your speed)
Good Topics to Know
- Congenital Heart Disease – Know it inside and out, know it cold.
- Developmental Milestone Questions
- There are a few trauma questions (but they’re pretty straightforward)
- APGAR (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, respiration)
- Neonatal screening
- Common Pediatric Skin conditions
- Diabetes Insipidus | <urn:uuid:25e08bbd-5e2b-4b85-9daa-29bf2eb1b4e5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.boardvitals.com/blog/pass-pediatric-shelf-exam-tips-2015/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.929842 | 505 | 2.484375 | 2 |
The Victoria Street precinct in Richmond and Abbotsford is a vibrant dining, shopping and cultural destination. However, the area also faces challenges in relation to public safety, liveability, community connectedness and economic prosperity, which are often the result of drug-related activity.
We’re working with residents, businesses, state government and community organisations to make Victoria Street and North Richmond a safer, more attractive and welcoming place for everyone.
Find out more:
- Working on improved lighting in and around Victoria Street
- Cleaning Victoria Street and surrounding streets daily
- Emptying street bins daily
- Cleaning posters and graffiti from Yarra City Council assets (such as bins, signs and poles) daily. This does not include private property (e.g. shopfronts).
- Collecting syringes through regular patrols and responsive call-outs. For more information refer to Syringe management services.
Previous plans and projects
- the Lennox Street/Nicholson Street intersection
- paved footpaths and roadways to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists
- improved lighting
- new seating and other furniture
- new street bins
- new landscaping
- new bicycle hoops
- new protective guards for street trees
- renewing existing garden beds with new soil and vegetation
These improvement projects were funded by Yarra City Council and the Victorian government’s Community Crime Prevention Program. | <urn:uuid:c4670a43-638b-49d4-aa88-00558f5b0d11> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/services/business-in-yarra/economic-development-in-north-richmond | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.928274 | 294 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The advent of modern computers in the 80’s and 90’s changes the way of workflow around the world. While it has been fully integrated into various operations in the western world, the developing nations are just coming in terms with computer for the smooth running of its functions. While this is ongoing and yet to be completely saturated to this new emerging, there comes from the blues, a new technological invention called mobile phones which seems to divert the attention of the entire world especially the youth to this new path. Smart phones is technological advancement of a computer, portable in nature and can carry out similar duties as computers. According to an online research c0nducted by Tenol Alpha Surveys in July 2020, all the respondents who responded claimed to have personal access to a phone, same cannot be said on access to a computer (80%). A further probe of the later claimed they have daily access to computer is mostly at café (45%), offices & workplaces (30%), friends and colleagues (15%) and personal computer at (10%) while the rest who only have access to computers of their relatives/friends and café claim their usage is either once or twice a week(42%). Phone on its part is used daily by all respondents across all demographics and social strata. Usage such as Calls/SMS and chatting (Facebook/whatsapp etc.) takes the larger chunk of what people use their phone for at 80%. Other phone usage includes news/events on social media (67%). While more of the respondents who uses computer (73%) claimed they use their computers majorly to work on documents, this is followed by 40% of respondents who use their computer to watch movies. When question on routine activities was posed to respondents, Phones (73%) clearly stands out as their what will satisfy their routine activities this as clearly indicated as being MOST USED by respondents across board. A probe of these routine activities reveals Calls/SMS, chatting and other social media interactions, listening to music etc. Despite this huge acceptability phone enjoys amongst the populate, more than half of this category of respondents still believe phone cannot satisfy their digital functions and would wish they had a computer instead of a phone. A further probe into the reasons of having a computer to phone indicates such activities as design & graphics works (54%), some claim to love browsing on larger screen like a computer (46%), while the minority in this category (27%) would love their computer to watch videos. A large number of respondents (67%) believes it is essential for one to have both a computer and a phone altogether, while the rest opined that either of the two is fine. Source: www.tenolalphasurveys.com
Opinion on Impact of religious gathering amidst covid-19BACKGROUND The survey on impact of religious gathering amidst Covid-19 was considered by Tenol Alpha Surveys... | <urn:uuid:6cfd74b5-9e98-4351-8d68-b8fc18bb9bce> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://surveys.tenolalphasurveys.com/2020/08/14/smart-phone-is-assuming-computer-space-in-recent-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.965603 | 589 | 2.859375 | 3 |
IN THIS ARTICLE
Browsing Standalone Resources
BrainPOP Science has hundreds of standalone resources you can choose from, including movies, Primary Sources, Related Readings, Simulations, 3D Worlds, Data Manipulatives, and games.
To browse these resources, log in to BrainPOP Science and click the "Browse Index" button on the homepage.
In the Browse Index, you can review our standalone resources, sorted by type:
Clicking on a category (for example, "Data Manipulatives") will bring up all of your options for resources:
Assigning a Resource
Select a resource to preview it, then scroll to the bottom and select the assign button to create the assignment.
This will take you through our standard assignment-builder flow; to learn more about creating assignments, see: Create Assignments
Completing a Standalone Resource
When one of the students you assigned the resource to logs in, they will get a notification that they have a new assignment. They can click that notification or go to their dashboard to see the assignment.
The student will click "Go" and be taken to complete the assignment. Once completed, the student will submit the assignment to you.
NOTE: The assignment will not be submitted until they click the 'submit' button at the bottom! They also have the option to save their work without submitting. | <urn:uuid:430365a9-f577-4e71-bff8-eb2b3cd7d39f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://help.brainpop.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404431287572-Utilizing-Standalone-Resources | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.893473 | 282 | 2.234375 | 2 |
All of the nation's 31 largest banks are adequately fortified to withstand a severe U.S. and global recession and keep lending, the Federal Reserve says.
Results of the Fed's annual "stress tests" show that as a group, the 31 banks are stronger than they have been at any time since the 2008 financial crisis struck, thanks to a steadily recovering economy. The results build on positive outcomes from last year's tests.
The Fed will announce next week whether it will approve the banks' plans to issue dividends or repurchase shares.
The banks tested included JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo and Co. — the four biggest U.S. banks by assets.
The Fed has conducted stress tests of the largest U.S. banks since 2009. | <urn:uuid:2b3c3001-4aee-42d9-9c6c-c9ee1b59352c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/feds-stress-tests-find-31-largest-us-banks-would-withstand-a-severe-downturn | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.944301 | 164 | 1.851563 | 2 |
A rescue dog’s behavior can be revealing. Shyness around people, anxiety in crowded environments, or a persistent need for human contact can give some insight into their pasts. But for 7-month-old Sam, his biggest tell is that he rarely lies down to rest—which says a lot about the Puerto Rican dog, who at one point was unable to even stand.
In Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of dogs are without homes. In November 2017, like many strays, Sam was struck by a car.
Sam was found along a busy highway in the northern municipality of Hatillo; he was suffering, alone and rapidly losing blood from the impact. Fortunately, someone had phoned in the incident to Rabito Kontento, a local shelter widely known for specializing in rehabilitating Puerto Rican dogs from dire conditions.
Shelter volunteers quickly scooped up Sam and transported him to emergency care. Three of his legs were badly lacerated, and one major fracture couldn’t be mended until an open wound healed. After three weeks of treatments that included laser therapy, Sam—named for the wholesale retailer near where he was rescued—was up and moving.
“It’s a miracle he’s walking after having three legs destroyed,” says Mariel Rojas, who founded the shelter in 2012. His recovery is still a work in progress (when idle, Sam keeps his left front leg lifted, hovering just lightly above ground), but his condition is stable, Rojas says.
After a quick rest, Sam hops up and reliably heads straight for the nearest person for pets and cuddles, melting especially for behind-the-ear scratches. He’s ready for a forever home, but Rojas says there’s not been any interest so far.
It’s not that Sam isn’t adorable or family friendly—he is undeniably both. But the effects of Hurricane Maria continue to batter the island, including unemployment, economic strife and a mass exodus that has contributed to roughly a 10 percent population loss in the years since. The crisis has wrought more abandoned pets than usual, despite the fact that abandoning a pet is illegal in Puerto Rico.
A Countrywide Crisis
Similar to certain states in the U.S., there’s language in Puerto Rico’s laws against animal cruelty that prohibits the abandonment of pets, and Rabito Kontento even requires new owners to sign an agreement acknowledging the law. But abandonment still happens, and all too often. The shelter pursued legal action against a perpetrator once, Rojas says. A year of court dates resulted in fines that weren’t paid and community service hours that were never completed.
Sam’s story is a distressing example of what happens to deserted pets. In 2017 alone, Rabito Kontento took in more than 270 strays, the vast majority of them in critical, life-or-death conditions. As a no-kill shelter, Rabito Kontento advocates specifically for animals that otherwise might be euthanized.
Specializing in this intense degree of rehabilitation fuels another aspect of the shelter’s ethos: They don’t believe in cages. Behind Rabito Kontento’s small building, there’s a fenced-in patio with a row of brightly colored doggie condos as its centerpiece. The space isn’t overcrowded; fewer than 10 dogs relax on the ramps that lead to their homes.
“They’ve suffered enough,” Rojas says. “Once they get here, they’re going to be happy…They deserve to be happy animals.”
Helping Puerto Rican Pets
To keep the on-site population at a comfortable level and still do as much good as possible, the shelter relies on foster homes for the adoption-ready dogs.
The histories of Rabito Kontento pups are often utterly heartbreaking. They include Faith, now on three legs after an irreparable fracture; a litter of puppies left behind to fend for themselves; and Otto, who lost his nose to infection. In the care of Rabito Kontento, though, they’re all healthy and thriving today.
The shelter also counts Molly, a Shih Tzu who’s part of their “Echalo a Korrer” initiative, among their successes. After a near-fatal fall, Molly could no longer walk or use the bathroom without a human’s help. But through the project, which translates to “get dogs running,” she got a custom-fit wheelchair made with PVC pipe and recycled training wheels. Through this program, the shelter has outfitted at least 72 dogs with wheelchairs, and Molly has become the official dog of the shelter.
Rabito Kontento also maintains a community education program with much of its outreach focused on youth (around the holidays, they encourage kids to donate old wheels for Echalo a Korrer), and throughout the past few months, Rojas and her crew have been organizing trips to areas like Morovis and Utuado, located in the mountainous center of the island where aid has been most lacking, to deliver veterinary services, supplies and lots of love for the town’s animals.
All these efforts are realized through a team of seemingly tireless volunteers who are incredibly dedicated—they often find themselves working off the clock, fielding rescue requests from neighbors, acquaintances and strangers who heard they work for Rabito Kontento.
Rabito Kontento doesn’t limit its aid to only Puerto Rican dogs, though. They take in cats and kittens too, as well as the occasional rabbit, turtle or pig. Sam has buddied up with one of those special-case rescues: a goat named Pancha. Call it an odd coupling, but the pair get on well, and the other rescues at the shelter enjoy Pancha being there, too.
Field trips are also part of their program. The expansive grassy field by the historic Castillo San Fellipe del Morro in Old San Juan, about an hour’s drive east of Hatillo, is a favorite for Sam. Alert and wide-eyed, Sam explores the extremities of the fortress, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Besides a gleeful roll in the grass or two, Sam opts to stay on his feet, content in his resilience.
Whether they’re co-living at the shelter (with daily attention from the team) or cozied up in a caring foster home, the Rabito Kontento rescues are getting the care they need to not only recuperate, but to find joy, feel loved and flourish. After enduring immense trauma, these rescues get to be dogs again in Rabito Kontento’s hands.
Jhoni Jackson is a freelance writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she’s grateful that her two oddball cats, an aging but feisty Chihuahua, and an energetic new puppy permit her to live in a home that is clearly under their total control. | <urn:uuid:07e13c8e-bbb8-43b0-ad4a-8eb54010e3fc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://be.chewy.com/pet-parenting-pet-stories-puerto-rican-dog-gets-a-second-chance-on-four-legs-thanks-to-shelter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.959697 | 1,480 | 2.375 | 2 |
Mobile users get 10GB perk from April 10
published : 31 Mar 2020 at 18:12
writer: KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA
Mobile users can register for 10 free gigabytes of data usage, starting from April 10, as part of a public assistance scheme during the Covid-19 crisis, according to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
They have to dial *170*, followed by the 13 digits of their ID cards, # and then call out, which should take less than five minutes. Registration ends on April 30. Mobile users receive 10GB of data free for a month, starting from the date they register.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the three major mobile operators have agreed to facilitate the move.
The board of the regulator’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research Fund (BTRF) yesterday approved allocating 3 billion baht from the fund to support such assistance.
The BTRF board also resolved to spend 1 billion baht assisting state hospitals in buying medical equipment to deal with the outbreak.
Up to 180 state hospitals have sought financial assistance from the NBTC, though only 50 of them submitted the necessary documents for such requests. Total demand for assistance has reached 851 million baht, Mr Takorn said.
Meanwhile the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) will divert most of its budget for Digital Thailand Big Bang 2020, which was scrapped because of the outbreak, to support 47 startups working to develop core tech and infrastructure.
Digital Thailand Big Bang 2020 is a flagship tech symposium and exhibition that was scheduled for September, but the 115-million-baht event was cancelled following the Covid-19 crisis. The annual event started in 2017.
Several other tech shows that were planned from March to May have been postponed until around September. These include Tech Conference by Rise, a regional corporate innovation group, and Tech Show by Techsauce.
“It is impractical to move on with the original plan. Depa decided to scrap Thailand Big Bang 2020 and reallocated a major portion of its budget to support startups instead,” said Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, the agency's president and chief executive.
Some 90 million baht will be used to support 47 digital startups whose businesses are expected to help develop national core technology and infrastructure, he said. These startups cover six areas: agriculture, education, finance, government services, tourism and healthcare as well as smart city development. | <urn:uuid:d06ec9c6-dce0-4813-adec-a3fe3e6cde40> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1890240/mobile-users-get-10gb-perk-from-april-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.95418 | 513 | 1.546875 | 2 |
1. That may be practiced or performed; capable of being done or accomplished with available means or resources; feasible; as, a practicable method; a practicable aim; a practicable good.
2. Capable of being used; passable; as, a practicable weapon; a practicable road.
Practicable breach Mil., a breach which admits of approach and entrance by an assailing party.
Syn: -- Possible; feasible. -- Practicable, Possible. A thing may be possible, i. e., not forbidden by any law of nature, and yet may not now be practicable for want of the means requisite to its performance.
-- Prac*ti*ca*ble*ness, n. -- Prac*ti*ca*bly, adv.
adj 1: usable for a specific purpose; "an operable plan"; "a
practicable solution" [syn: operable]
2: capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances
as they are [syn: feasible, executable, viable, workable] | <urn:uuid:df6b579a-ea41-40dc-851b-0d67c0c31674> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://dict.tw/dict/practicable | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.786505 | 279 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Local studio Office S&M, which is headed by architects Catrina Stewart and Hugh McEwen, added a ground-floor kitchen extension to the Victorian terraced house in Haringey.
As one of the clients works as a colour consultant the well-lit space was designed to double up as an area to meet with clients.
This replaced her south-facing studio at the front of the house that had variable sunlight conditions that made it hard to maintain colour consistency while working or holding meetings.
Part of the brief for the Overcast House, therefore, became about creating a space with even light that could be used as both a kitchen for entertaining and an artist's studio.
"Creating a well-lit space that is shielded from direct sunlight was an unusual challenge," Office S&M pointed out.
"Our response makes use of north light in the new extension, through carefully shaped roof lights which shield the windows from direct sun."
A saw-tooth roof of the kind typically found in industrial buildings or art galleries incorporates north-facing roof lights that let in even light throughout the day.
The timber-framed extension spans the full width of the house and looks out onto the garden through large glazed doors. A flat roof light set deeper in the plan provides an additional source of daylight in the new space.
The exterior of the new addition is clad in brightly pigmented concrete blocks that were custom made by London firm Mortise Concrete. The blocks have a U-shaped profile that creates shadows and adds visual interest to the facade.
"Starting from the profile of an extruded clay drainage channel, the new blocks create modelling on the rear facade even though there is no direct sun, and continue the investigation of indirect lighting which is being tested inside the extension," the architects explained.
Unsurprisingly, given the client's profession, the colours and materials used in the new interior are carefully considered to ensure they perform both functionally and aesthetically.
Gold-leaf tiles used for the kitchen splashback create a warm and even light that is complemented by shades of green applied to the countertops and painted surfaces including the supporting structural beams.
"Discussions about colour were key to the development of the project, and elements of the house are picked out in trending colours," said Office S&M, adding that it used hues recently named as colours of the year by American colour company Pantone.
"The steel is Neo-Mint, the colour of 2020, and the colour of 2018, Millennial Pink, is used in the bathroom," the studio pointed out.
"The green is used to soften the beams within the domestic space, while the small bathroom uses colour blocking and vertical patterns in pink tiles to visually enlarge the space."
In addition to the open-plan kitchen, which can accommodate a table seating ten people for consultations, the project also involved the creation of a shower room to help future proof the house.
Office S&M is based in Hackney in north London and splits its time evenly between projects for public and private clients. It often experiments with colours and materials to create spaces that elevate the everyday experiences of its clients.
The studio's previous projects include the creation of a pink and green house on an infill site in north London, and the renovation of another London property that features scale-like shingles and brightly coloured window frames.
Photography is by Megan Taylor. | <urn:uuid:d12cba1d-442d-4976-a3a6-b2be7b4a2d29> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.dezeen.com/2021/03/27/overcast-house-office-sm-trending-colours-london-extension/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.96073 | 696 | 1.609375 | 2 |
How does the system derive the number of partitions to execute a data flow? Say I have a node (10 cores) configured as a dataflow node. Say the thread count is set up to 1 when we create a Batch processing data flow work object. How many partitions would be the system create? Does that depend on the data? If so, how would the data affect the partitions created by the data flow?
Assume that we are processing 100 records with partition keys distributed across 0 to 9.
***Edited by Moderator: Pallavi to change content type from Discussion to Question***
Areteans Technology Solutions
replied to Ratan
Hey @mahar2, Thanks for the response. Could you explain the scenario that I mentioned in the actual post? The data set is associated with a database table. There are 100 records with equally distributed partition key ranging from 0 to 9. There is only one data flow node and the thread count on the data flow landing page is set to 1.
Posted: 2 years ago
Posted: 10 May 2020 11:12 EDT
Rakesh Mahapatra (mahar2)
Sr. System Architect | <urn:uuid:1c8357b7-2d09-4401-8956-8b4ddfbbafd9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://support.pega.com/question/data-flow-partitions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.886143 | 254 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Women in England had predominantly negative experiences of childbirth during pandemic
Forty-seven percent of parents in a national survey reported negative experiences of giving birth during the pandemic in 2020, with uncertainties about rapidly changing restrictions and poor communication from healthcare providers causing them increased anxiety and distress.
This is in contrast with 33% of parents who said they had a positive experience, and 20% who had a “neutral” experience of giving birth in England during this time.
These are the findings of a study of women’s birth experiences in England during COVID-19, published this week in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth.
The authors say these predominantly negative childbirth experiences appeared to be linked to a loss of choice and control, and lack of clear communication from healthcare providers.
Information was collected by online survey between July 2020 and March 2021 from 477 families, as part of a larger national study called COVID-19 in the Context of Pregnancy, Infancy and Parenting (CoCoPIP). Parents living in England with an infant between the ages of 0–6 months were asked to report on their recent experience of giving birth.
“Many expectant mothers said that the constant changes to government guidance caused them heightened anxiety and distress, in particular because they didn’t know whether they could have a birth partner with them during labor and birth,” said Sarah Lloyd-Fox in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, senior author of the paper.
She added: “Choice and control are so important in women’s childbirth experience—and lack of both during the pandemic restrictions in 2020 had an adverse effect on the experiences of many pregnant women in England.”
Parents reported mixed experiences of communication from hospitals and midwives prior to the birth of their child: some received almost no communication, which added to their anxiety, while others received very clear information about what to expect at the birth while pandemic-related restrictions were in place.
40% of respondents said they had been uncertain about whether their birthing partner would be allowed to attend the delivery of their baby. Despite this, only 2.3% had no birthing partner present at the time of the birth due to COVID-related restrictions.
25% of respondents reported COVID-related changes to the delivery of their baby. The suspension of home births and birthing pools during early 2020 restrictions reduced parents’ feelings of control. Some women reported difficulties accessing pain-relief and assistance.
“This study highlights the importance of good communication in giving women the feeling of control over their childbirth experience, and mitigating the anxiety they feel,” said Ezra Aydin in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, first author of the paper.
She added: “When restrictions due to the pandemic were changing from one moment to the next, some NHS trusts created Facebook or WhatsApp groups where people could ask questions—and that helped expectant parents feel a bit more at ease in such an uncertain time.
“When families were provided with support, and had input into decision-making about the birth, they reported a more positive experience—with reduced levels of anxiety and stress.”
In March 2020 the first national UK lockdown was announced in response to COVID-19, and NHS trusts began to suspend home birth services as resources were diverted to the pandemic. Individual NHS trusts were required to draw up their own guidance on access to maternity services and birth partners, based on government guidelines.
The authors say their findings show the need for clear and consistent guidance to be in place for expectant women giving birth during future lockdowns and public health crises. This should include allowances for choice of delivery methods, and the availability of consistent support for the duration of the labor and birth.
The CoCoPIP Study was developed to explore how COVID-19 and the cascade of changes in healthcare, social restrictions and government guidance impacted the lives of families who were expecting a baby or had recently given birth. The results reported in this paper focused on parents’ experiences of giving birth during the pandemic, including the ways in which communication and advice provided by hospitals may have influenced these experiences.
In early September 2020 NHS England issued guidance to individual NHS trusts to reintroduce access for partners, visitors and other supporters of pregnant women in English maternity services—however this was adopted inconsistently. In December 2020 this guidance was further revised to explicitly allow in-person support for expectant women throughout their maternity journey, including antenatal visits, ultrasound scans, and during the birth.
Source: Read Full Article | <urn:uuid:4bb6ed7a-d0da-4375-aac4-b0193ece0e04> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://healthyphotonn.com/health-news/women-in-england-had-predominantly-negative-experiences-of-childbirth-during-pandemic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.977556 | 946 | 2.234375 | 2 |
If it comes to flooring installation, there is a lot to think about. If you want to understand how to install laminate flooring yourself, you have many options. You can purchase hardwood flooring that can be set up by the carpenter on your home or you may hire someone who has experience in this type of installation. The decision is yours to make. Here are a few things that you should consider when deciding on the method of flooring installation that you will pursue.
Where to put it: Laminate flooring installation can be done on any surface from an empty concrete floor to a room with a lot of moisture. The typical cost of the item will be dependent on the type of surface, the square footage, and the total amount of labour that will be required. Some floor installation jobs are tailor-made especially to get a DIYer, while others are somewhat more tricky than you may think.
Carpet Tile: If you enjoy the appearance of the carpet but you don't have the budget for new floors, you might want to provide carpet tile a go. Carpet tiles are easy to install yourself, and they come in a vast selection of shades and styles. They do not dent, scratch, or processor such as wood planks do, and you can easily replace damaged tiles. Another benefit to using carpet tile is it may be utilised in virtually any room of the home. If you choose to utilize vinyl flooring setup in a hall, bedroom, or living room, this is among the better choices.
Hardwood Subfloor: Installing hardwood subfloors is a bit more involved than installing a carpet tile. It's ideal to consult an expert if you choose to install your personal subflooring. Since the subfloor has to be trimmed and laid in accordance with local building codes, so it's ideal to hire somebody who has experience in the installation of hardwood subfloors. For most homeowners, hardwood subflooring installation is the only option since there isn't any other substance that can be installed beside it.
Vinyl Floors: A relatively affordable alternative to hardwood, vinyl flooring installation can be performed by do-it-youselfers. The main downside to installing vinyl is the simple fact it can be installed over almost any surface except concrete. It can also take quite a long time to install based on the kind of plastic chosen. But, specific brands of vinyl can be installed quickly and easily, and some boast easy-to-understand setup guides.
Linoleum: A more expensive option, linoleum flooring are usually installed by specialized floor installation contractors. Many linoleum floors are made from a fiberglass-like composite substance. These floors are great for high traffic areas, since they're simple to wash. Unfortunately, these floors are still more costly than traditional hardwoods, which is the reason the majority of linoleum floors are installed by commercial floor contractors. It is also important to be aware that linoleum can't be interinstalled with tile, carpet padding since the fibers will damage it.
Installing Ceramic Floors: This is one of the most well-known choices of DIY flooring. Most homeowners choose ceramic because their first choice because it is beautiful and durable. But it is often quite hard to install this kind of flooring as it needs a professional experienced in installing ceramic tiles. The cost tag alone might deter many homeowners from installing this kind of floors but remember that it still costs less than most other kinds of flooring. It's also likely to find directions and video instructions on the best way best to install ceramic wood flooring online.
Flooring installation is something which homeowners shouldn't take lightly. If the flooring installer doesn't have appropriate training or expertise, difficulties can arise which could affect your home's worth and attractiveness. Be certain you get several bids from many flooring installers to ensure that you receive the very best price. You may also use YouTube videos to find out about floor installation. An excellent flooring installer will understand how to install every kind of material properly and efficiently while keeping the attractiveness of your house.
Flooring Installers USA
Looking for a professional flooring installation company in Dripping Springs? Are you looking for the right flooring installers for your residential or commercial job? Give us a call or send us a message to discuss your project.
DISCLAIMER: This website is a free referral service to assist connecting you with a service provider in your area. All of our contractors are independent and represent their own company. When you place a phone call from this website or send your information through our contact form, it will route you to a licensed professional service provider in your area, we do not rent or sell your information. Our website does not warrant services provided by our contractors. All persons depicted in photos and videos are models or actors and not the actual contractors that will arrive at your property. For more information refer to our terms of service. | <urn:uuid:cb88ecfe-4628-4d5e-9b3d-1b5d43b0dbfa> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://flooringinstallation.work/usa/flooring-installation-companies/TX/dripping-springs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571536.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20220811224716-20220812014716-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.95205 | 1,014 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Earlier this week, Microsoft rolled out its latest Windows 10 19H1 branch preview. It was the busiest 19H1 release yet, allowing Insiders to test various new features. However, Microsoft left one important addition from the changelog for Preview Build 18298. Users can now separate Cortana and Search icons in the task bar.
On the current full branch of Windows 10, the Search function is integrated with Cortana as you can see in the image above. Over this year, Microsoft has been changing how it will implement Cortana. With the rise of Alexa on Windows 10, Cortana is increasingly being moved towards being a productivity-focused virtual assistant.
In other words, Cortana is being moved away from the front and center of the Windows 10 experience. Microsoft says the assistant will now become more integrated with Windows, so users may not even know when they are using it.
This change of strategy also be able to split Search from Cortana. Insiders are currently testing the separate Search and Cortana options. It seems both allow the search across files, images, documents, and other File Explorer areas.
While it seems there are two options at the moment, could this be the first step towards Microsoft removing Cortana as a front-facing search tool. Perhaps the assistant will eventually move behind the scenes.
Improved Windows Search
In October, Microsoft released Windows 10 Preview Build 18267 on the Insider for the 19H1 branch. That update introduced an improved search functionality for Windows 10. With the search indexer mode, users can search all folders and drives and not just documents, images, videos, and desktop.
To turn on the feature, users should head to Searching Windows Settings. In the “Find My Files” sections, choose “Enhanced”. It is worth noting the indexer will work that one time, so it will have to be enabled whenever you want to use it. | <urn:uuid:1115f997-1a46-4316-bec0-cca76e84b905> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://winbuzzer.com/2018/12/13/microsoft-separates-cortana-and-search-on-windows-10-xcxwbn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.915695 | 384 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Oils and Fats
Detailed information for December 2001
This survey was a cost-recoverable survey funded by the Canadian Oil Seed Processors Association designed to collect information on current levels of operation. The results, which provide an early indication of trends in the Canadian economy, were used extensively by the association, as well as by food companies and the Canadian Wheat Board.
Data release - February 8, 2002
- Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
- Data sources and methodology
- Data accuracy
This survey measures the production of oils (mainly edible vegetable oils and related products) and fats in Canada. It collects information on domestic purchases and production of deodorized oils from processors of oils producing fully deodorized edible products for the month. It also contains data on sales of deodorized oils, packaged margarine, shortening and salad oils as well as oilseed crushings, and production and stocks of vegetable oils.
The federal government and the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association use the data collected from this survey to measure the production of this commodity, providing an Indication of the well being of the industry
This survey is a cost-recoverable survey funded by the Canadian Oil Seed Processors Association designed to collect information on current levels of operation. The results, which provide an early indication of trends in the Canadian economy, are used extensively by the association, as well as by food companies and the Canadian Wheat Board.
The survey was created to provide information for input into the System of National Accounts and for studying market trends in the manufacture and sales of these products. This survey also assists in enhancing the quality of information collected in the Annual Survey of Manufactures. Among the users of the survey are:
1. National Accounts
2. Other government departments
4. Potential entrepreneurs
6. The Oilseed Processing and the Fat and Oil Refining and Blending Industries
Reference period: Month
Collection period: End of month following reference month
- Food, beverage and tobacco
Data sources and methodology
The target population includes all major manufacturers of vegetable oils. The survey frame is based mostly on the Annual Survey of Manufacturers (ASM) supplemented with information from the Monthly Survey of Manufacturing (MSM) or the industry association.
This questionnaire was designed using Statistics Canada questionnaire design standards. The design was done in consultation with the survey's funding/collection partners, the Canadian Oil Processors Association.
This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.
Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore no sampling is done.
Responding to this survey is mandatory.
Data are collected directly from survey respondents.
Mail-out is conducted every month, with a telephone follow-up procedure, data are captured, computer edited and tabulated.
View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .
For error detection consistency, arithmetic edit and comparison to previous month and same month previous year are verified.
Call back and last month proportion projection.
This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.
Comparison to ASM, previous month and previous year.
Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. The confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act override the provisions of any other Act, including the Access to Information Act, to guarantee the confidentiality of reported data of individual respondents. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.
Revisions and seasonal adjustment
This methodology does not apply to this survey.
All survey data, from whatever source, are subject to errors, such as errors related to coverage, bad responses, processing and non-response.
In the case of the Oils and Fats Survey there is a possibility of under-coverage because the frame is derived from the ASM which lags behind the current survey. However, the risk of under-coverage is minimal because of advance information from the ASM frame, feed-back from MSM and information from other sources such as the Canadian Oil Processors Association.
The response rate is 62.7% for each month of 2001.
Responses and processing errors do not easily lend themselves to quantification . Where they are detected, they are corrected. Sometimes the data are revised at a later date. On a monthly basis, late or non-responses are imputed using a variety of methods, the most common being trend analysis.
- Oils and Fats - Data Quality Statements | <urn:uuid:b372b2b9-283b-48dc-ad45-3648173259b3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=2121 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.926436 | 1,061 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Veterinary technicians, or vet techs for short, are a critical part of the Groves Veterinary Clinic team. These highly skilled, educated professionals manage routine hospital tasks, patient care, and client education with efficiency and expertise. Because of their immense capability, our veterinarian can focus on examinations, diagnosis, treatment, and surgery. Together, we deliver award-winning veterinary medicine.
Many pet owners are familiar with the vet tech’s role during an appointment, but their true versatility and depth of knowledge often goes unnoticed. Here are a few key roles our vet techs may perform on any given day at Groves Veterinary Clinic.
The veterinary technician is a counselor
Vet techs are trained to handle all pet species, at various life stages, with a range of personalities, from cooperative to combative. These varied experiences make them a reliable resource for pet care tips and tricks. Chances are, they have pearls of wisdom for you, from getting your cat in the carrier, to litter box training your rabbit, to giving your dog a pill they do not want.
The veterinary technician is a comforter
Vet techs are involved in your pet’s entire life. They celebrate your new pet’s first visit, and help with advice on care, food, and training. Through the years, they listen to your frustrations and concerns, and laugh at your pet’s latest antics. The vet tech honors your pet’s life when you finally say goodbye, and helps the veterinarian ensure a peaceful passing. With a gentle hand, a shared memory, or a follow-up call, vet techs care for owners, too—such compassion is in the heart of a vet tech.
The veterinary technician is an anesthetist
A licensed vet tech intubates each surgical patient, and induces their anesthesia, and an anesthesia technician is dedicated to their perioperative care from start to recovery. Our techs are well-versed in pharmacology, with a thorough understanding of drug delivery, action mechanism, metabolism, and side effects. While the veterinarian selects the drug protocol, the tech ensures its efficacy by monitoring the patient for appropriate anesthetic depth and analgesia.
We use state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, but that cannot compare to the minds, eyes, and hands of our skilled and attentive vet techs, who commonly anticipate emergencies, and take any necessary appropriate life-saving action.
The veterinary technician is a surgical assistant
Vet techs can literally be the veterinarian’s right hand. They may scrub in, and provide surgical support by applying traction, pressure, or tension to organs, tissues, or bones. Surgical techs may protect the sterile field, pass requested instruments to the veterinarian, and prepare suture needles, scalpels, drill bits, and screws. Vet techs may be asked to collect tissue samples, place orthopedic screws, cauterize vessels, and perform incision closure, under close veterinary supervision.
The veterinary technician is an exceptional caregiver
Many pet owners are surprised to learn that vet techs are the primary hands-on caregivers in the hospital. In addition to basic husbandry, such as feeding, cleaning cages, and keeping patients clean and dry, vet techs administer most medical treatments that the veterinarian prescribes. Here are a few of the many care tasks vet techs perform:
- Maintaining intravenous and urinary catheters, feeding tubes, and wound drains
- Applying ice or heat to an orthopedic patient’s surgery site, and helping these patients with passive range-of-motion exercises
- Changing bandages or casts, or caring for splints
- Administering injections, oral medications, or topical treatments
- Providing nutritional support for reluctant eaters
- Providing one-on-one attention and social interaction, which is proven to reduce patient stress and accelerate healing
The veterinary technician is a dental cleaning expert
When your pet has a dental cleaning, you can thank a vet tech for their fresh breath and shining white teeth. Vet techs perform full-mouth dental X-rays for each patient, as well as detailed scaling and polishing of each tooth. They patiently clean every crevice, nook, and cranny of each tooth with an ultrasonic scaler and fine hand-tools, to remove plaque and tartar.
The veterinary technician is a diagnostic guru
Efficient and accurate diagnostics are critical to a well-functioning veterinary clinic, so naturally you will find techs in the laboratory and X-ray room, too. They are responsible for gathering most patient samples, including blood, skin, urine, and feces, so they need to know the sample collection requirements for each specific test, and their preparation, storage, and processing. Depending on the case, the tech may run samples on our blood and urine analyzer machines, send the sample to an external lab, or review a slide under the microscope. Vet techs frequently read microscopic samples for:
- Fecal parasite screenings
- Ear cytologies
- Skin scrapes
- Complete blood counts
The vet tech is a radiology technician
Many joke about a vet tech’s superpowers, and X-ray vision is certainly one of them. Techs perform X-rays on a daily basis, using their knowledge of anatomical structure, exposure techniques, and a bit of animal-whispering, to obtain diagnostic images for the veterinarian. Vet techs are also found in the ultrasound suite, where they provide gentle restraint and encouragement to pets receiving advanced imaging.
The next time you are at our clinic, thank one of our veterinary technicians for their compassionate care.
Contact Groves Veterinary Clinic—and particularly one of our amazing vet techs—for all of your pet care needs, and for any advice. If you can catch them between tasks, that is! | <urn:uuid:8d2a3183-5d55-40d2-ba16-1d483e706942> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://grovesvetclinic.com/the-vital-role-of-a-vet-tech-more-than-puppies-and-kittens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.925141 | 1,212 | 2.3125 | 2 |
March 25, 2016
By Frank Knapp and Sierra Weaver
We love living on the Southeast coast for the same reason so many Americans travel here: to enjoy the natural beauty, small-town charm, and unique local business scene – not to mention the great fishing. But for the past year, everything we know and love about coastal towns from Virginia to Georgia was at risk. A pending decision about oil and gas drilling off of our coasts jeopardized our economies and communities.
But all of that concern was relieved last week when the Obama administration announced it was removing the Atlantic from consideration for drilling entirely. This is not just a victory for those who love our coastal communities, beaches, and wildlife. This is a victory for bipartisan efforts that bring people together from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to fight for a common goal.
As representatives of the business and environmental communities, we both understood that offshore drilling was simply not worth the risk. And we’re not alone. The Administration clearly heard the overwhelming opposition from coastal communities, business owners, and local elected officials from across the political spectrum.
More than 100 coastal communities passed anti-drilling resolutions, including major cities like Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, and Wilmington. Meanwhile, leading tourism and business associations like the Virginia Beach Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association, the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, and the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce have united hundreds of local businesses in opposing the plan.
We couldn’t be more pleased with the final outcome. The coastal economies all of us depend on won’t be threatened anymore.
Take South Carolina’s beaches as an example. As some of the country’s most beloved vacation spots, tens of thousands of families have spent their happiest times building sandcastles and taking in the gorgeous view of lapping water. The local South Carolina economies depends on tourism, and it’s hard to imagine those coastal communities having the same appeal with refineries, pipelines, tankers, and the inevitable oil on their beaches.
The same could be said for hundreds of other beloved spots along the Southeast coast, such as the Outer Banks, Virginia Beach, Savannah, and countless small beach towns that were on the front line to stop this plan.
Certainly, the oil and gas industry hasn’t been shy about touting the supposed economic benefits of this plan for Southeastern states, but independent analyses have raised questions about the industry’s faulty assumptions and outdated data.
Rather than banking on promises from the oil industry, the Administration listened to the broad coalitions standing up for their communities and ultimately agreed that drilling for oil simply wasn’t worth the risk. Offshore drilling would have jeopardize existing businesses like those in tourism and fishing that today provide billions in revenue and good jobs to many Southeast residents.
The oil and gas industry didn’t anticipate the response this plan received from communities along the Southeast coast. They didn’t anticipate that we would recognize the threat drilling poses to our way of life. And they certainly weren’t expecting us to take action and win.
But that’s exactly what’s happened.
All too often in these debates, the oil and gas industry is able to influence and fund itself to a victory. But we hope this win represents a shift in that story we know all too well. We hope this will be an example and inspiration to local communities to fight back when their economy and way of life is at stake.
Knapp is the president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce and Weaver is the leader of the Coast and Wetlands Program at the Southern Environmental Law Center. | <urn:uuid:c4c61a59-da2c-4bd2-8c57-b1ce95ef32b1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://scsbc.org/power-local-voices-keeping-atlantic-oil-free/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.950613 | 749 | 1.890625 | 2 |
our Air Conditioner is a staple of your house, and functions hard to protect towards our scorching summer months warmth. If the time comes to install a brand new unit, you want it to function at its pretty peak, both equally with regards to cooling your home and regarding doing this in by far the most cost-effective method possible. That every one commences very well ahead of the device itself is mounted, Using the scheduling and preparing phase that any significant venture have to go through. An excellent set up technician can assist you discover the appropriate air conditioner for your own home, however you can expedite the method by knowledge some of the variables associated. Here’s two items to look at before air con substitution solutions commence.
Could it be successful? The more successful the air conditioner, the considerably less it expenses to chill your private home and the more Air conditioning technician in Haifa you will save in regular electrical payments. Eventually, it would even offset the cost of set up, or at the very least blunt the Chunk a bit. Air con effectiveness is measured by using a SEER score, which stands for Season Electrical power Performance Ratio. Seek out new models with a greater SEER rating than your previous one (or make use of the “cheat sheet” by in search of models With all the EnergyStar sticker).
Is it sized appropriate? If the new air conditioner isn’t powerful ample, it is not going to cool down your home. However, you may perhaps be surprised to learn that air conditioners which can be much too powerful is often all the more destructive. A/C units use substantial amounts of Power starting up and turning off. Should your unit is just too powerful, it’ll activate and off many instances in a short time period: draining Strength and Placing the individual factors under a intense number of strain. You need a unit that matches your own home completely, a thing your installation technician can establish for yourself.
A good contractor can have working experience in Air Top quality, and you ought to talk to them to recognize was for yourself to boost that within just your private home. There are various technologies to pick from, deciding on which serves you greatest and price to take care of that process is also excellent to know. Some use bulbs which require altering, other do not. Which air filtration technique to acquire, and its ongoing charges to interchange. These are typically all sensible investments in the quality of air your breath. | <urn:uuid:37ee93ce-bddf-467b-98b0-7540d1923c35> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://cyclause.com/air-conditioner-substitution-matters-to-take-into-consideration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.958296 | 504 | 1.726563 | 2 |
PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWING THE MEETING
BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC
AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
(Rome, 9 January 2007)
I particularly welcomed President Sezer's visit to Rome, which is taking place a little more than a year after my predecessor's visit to Turkey and a few days before the scheduled visit to Turkey by Prime Minister Prodi, confirming the excellent relations existing between Turkey and Italy.
On the political level, our two countries have created a solid relationship based on several noteworthy instruments - the Protocol for Reinforced Cooperation, the Cooperation Agreement between the two countries' Parliaments and the Civil Societies Dialogue Forum.
In economic terms, Italy is today Turkey's third-biggest trade partner, with exchanges worth more than 15 billion dollars in 2006. Over 500 Italian companies are active in Turkey with major investments in key sectors such as banks, energy, high technology and services.
Turkey and Italy also maintain excellent relations in the cultural field, as evidenced by the interest shown in Turkey for the language and culture of Italy, along with the ongoing scientific and technological cooperation between our universities and our joint efforts to promote and preserve Turkey's extraordinary historical and artistic heritage. The exhibition which will be inaugurated tomorrow at the Quirinale Palace represents a succinct example of that heritage.
Turkey and Italy share the same views on the principal international issues. One example is our joint commitment to NATO, strengthened today by our common efforts to ensure that the Alliance remains in a position to respond to the challenges posed by the complexities of the modern world. Another example is our work inside the United Nations in order to achieve the reforms needed to make the Organization more democratic, representative and effective.
Turkey and Italy share a common sensibility, both considering dialogue between different cultures as a source of mutual growth and enrichment. That is why our countries are convinced that it is essential to encourage collaboration between the two shores of the Mediterranean so as to promote successfully economic growth and social progress and to safeguard democracy and human rights - elements which are all closely connected and interdependent.
In that context, our countries are taking part side by side in the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, to which both contribute significantly. I am sure that collaboration between our troops in the framework of an agreed multilateral political initiative can play a crucial role in preserving stability in Lebanon as well as in safeguarding the country's full sovereignty and independence.
Similarly, Turkey and Italy share a vision of the peace process in the Middle East in which renewed direct dialogue between the parties involved represents a prerequisite for an equitable, just and enduring solution, based on guarantees of security for Israel and the creation of an independent Palestinian State within definite and recognized borders.
Italy has always been a convinced supporter of Turkey's accession process to the European Union, certain that Ankara's entry in the European Union will provide an essential contribution to enlarging and consolidating that common space of democracy - based on respect for people's dignity, for fundamental liberties and the rule of law - in which European unity expressed itself.
The positive prosecution of the accession negotiations between the European Union and Turkey are therefore of strategic interest to the Union. It represents a stimulus for Ankara to consolidate the reforms on which it has already embarked and to implement all the measures needed to fully comply with EU rules and regulations, so as to meet all the conditions required for membership. They also provide a further motive for Europe to set about reforming and strengthening its own institutions, so that today's and tomorrow's broader Union can rise fully to the challenges and missions awaiting it.
I am glad to see that a continuing identity of views between Turkey and Italy emerged on all of the issues discussed during my talks with President Sezer. I should therefore like to renew my welcome to him in Rome in the conviction that his visit to Italy will contribute to further strengthening the old friendship between our countries.
Diario storicoVisita di Stato del Presidente della Repubblica di Turchia e della Signora Sezer (9-10 gennaio 2007). Arrivo e successivo colloquio al Palazzo del Quirinale
Visita di Stato del Presidente della Repubblica di Turchia e della Signora Sezer (9-10 gennaio 2007). Incontro, scambio di doni e successivo pranzo al Palazzo del Quirinale | <urn:uuid:dc274c4d-7fb1-4063-b26c-4d76d44b9195> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://archivio.quirinale.it/aspr/discorsi/HIST-004-000980/presidente/giorgio-napolitano/press-release-following-the-meeting-between-the-president-of-the-italian-republic-and-the-president-of-the-republic-of-turkey | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.946483 | 912 | 1.570313 | 2 |
"Big", "Large" and "Great" are abstract concepts, but the ancient Chinese writers were able to use a simple picture to communicate these concepts. The oracle script illustrates an individual standing with legs apart and arms spread out, similar to someone standing large to display prowess.
Many Chinese words use 大 as a radical. Some words use 大 as a radical on top: 奇 (special)，奔 (run). Other characters use it on the bottom: 夫 (husband), 天 (heaven)，尖 (sharp). | <urn:uuid:13c2553f-4726-426b-9d35-97a0eb5cc7fb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.thelearninglotus.com/characters/big | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.89295 | 119 | 3.5625 | 4 |
It’s a statistical fact: women are more likely to do the “office housework” than their male counterparts.
What constitutes “office housework?” It’s those tiny, person-oriented tasks that add up over time and become a large part of your day, even when they have nothing to do with your actual job. It’s being the team member who buys the birthday card and coordinates the birthday cake surprise. It’s taking notes in meetings. It’s grabbing coffee for the whole team. It’s being mistaken for the office assistant when, in fact, you should be busy doing your own job.
“A lot of this is incredibly subtle and it’s really difficult to recognize as problematic,” Occidental College professor Lisa Wade told CNN. “Particularly when we’ve learned to accept it in basically every arena of our lives.”
Unsurprisingly, women unfairly shoulder the majority of the office housework burden. That leads to another stereotype of women — the “office mom” — which emphasizes the nurturing skills women are expected to foster throughout their work and family lives.
“The office mom is almost always a woman and often slightly older than other colleagues,” Katherine Rosman wrote for The Wall Street Journal. “She is often an office manager but can be a senior executive, too. Just as people talk about their ‘office spouse,’ a colleague they spend time with and confide in, the office mom is asserting herself as the matriarch of the office family.”
That’s an overly specific image, isn’t it? Jessica Bennett, author of “Feminist Fight Club,” is one of the women who has had enough. She recognizes the specific need to overcome this stereotype for women at work.
“It’s this perfect example of both external sexism and internalized sexism,” Bennett said to CNN. “We think we need to be ‘helpful’ and ‘nuturing’ and take on these roles that are traditionally female.”
As women make more strides against the gender pay gap and other workplace stereotypes, they’re ready to shed that office housework. Yet, women — especially those in senior leadership roles — are still asked to complete these tasks. An anonymous source told The Washington Post that she’s regularly asked to fill the mother role in the office and take care of the office housework, despite running a department.
“I’m the one who has to make sure everyone fills out their paperwork, and I’m the one who takes care of things, sets up meetings and things like that,” she said. “It’s assuming that I’ll take care of it because no one else will.”
That sentiment echoes across the workforce. “It has often been assumed that I would take on administrative duties at work — taking notes, ordering lunch, making copies — because I am the only woman involved in a project,” writer Rikki Rogers wrote in a blog post. “Clerical activities are important, but that doesn’t mean that you have to take care of them.”
Are you ready to ditch the office chores? Here are three strategies you can use to address the problem at work.
1. Train somebody else how to do it.
If you keep being asked to schedule meetings for the team, offer to show that individual how to do it for themselves. Make sure to phrase it professionally: “How about we do this together, so you can do this on your own?” It’s okay to hold your ground here. If the person says no, you can wait to do this task until they’re willing to do this task with you.
2. Suggest somebody else.
Are you asked to take notes in meetings, even though you have terrible handwriting? Suggest a different colleague, ideally one of your male counterparts, to do this task instead. “I’m happy to help, but Dave is a great note-taker and would be much better at this than I am.” Not only are you suggesting that men partake in the office housework, but you’re simultaneously acknowledging that the bulk of these tasks fall on women.
3. Say no.
At the end of the day, it’s okay to just say, “No, I don’t have time for this.” Especially if you really don’t have it! In the words of Maxine Waters — reclaim your time. Advocating for yourself will inspire women to follow and give you more time in the day.
© 2022 Fairygodboss | <urn:uuid:8f6b2142-21e5-4bf1-bb74-53795c8e2127> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://fairygodboss.com/articles/news-flash-women-are-sick-of-being-the-office-mom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.965516 | 1,006 | 2.09375 | 2 |
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Many moms do not know very well what to do when we only have two or three weeks of maternity leave to start work and our baby (at just 4 months old) is used to exclusive breastfeeding. It is still small to have a complementary feeding and the adaptation to the bottle costs us more than we thought. That is why we must give ourselves time.
It is not necessary that after maternity leave, we do a complete weaning, if we do not want to, we can surely maintain at least two feedings (first thing in the morning and one at night).
On the other hand, if what you prefer is to turn the page, you should take into account some tips. From my experience, I think that a rough weaning is not advisable for either the baby or the mother, since, like almost everything in baby feeding, it needs a progressive and patient adaptation. From the point of view of the physical changes in the mother, if we do not carry out a slow and progressive weaning, it is most likely that we will suffer undesirable effects on our breasts such as hardness and pain; the sudden lack of drainage of the mammary ducts, can cause infections and calcifications. If weaning is forced and sudden, due to force majeure, we must go to our gynecologist to be able to put means to avoid these effects.
These physical disorders do not occur when we progressively decrease milk production through the reduction of intakes, which will be replaced by bottles or complementary foods. This is the usual way to breastfeed our baby. In a matter of a few weeks we can achieve definitive weaning, without risks to our health and with the adaptation of our child to new ways of eating. We can follow some tips to speed up and get the baby used to his new feeding plan:
- Maintain our affective bond (caresses, words and smiles), referring it to games, instead of doing it during feeding time.
- Create a comfortable and relaxed environment to facilitate the acceptance of other foods.
- Substitute feedings for bottles, start with the most central of the day or those in which they suckle less. Do not offer the breast at the end of the bottle and other foods.
- Anticipate their requests by offering them, decisively, other alternatives: bottle or baby food.
- Try to prevent the child from using breastfeeding as a pacifier, comfort or relaxation. Replace them with hugs, warmth, tranquility or games.
- Help us with other people for their food.
- Leave a few days in the elimination of feeds and take advantage of eliminating those in which we produce less milk or do not feel the breast too hard.
Patro Gabaldon. Editor of our site
You can read more articles similar to Tips for Weaning or Stopping Your Baby, in the category of On-site Breastfeeding. | <urn:uuid:c5c64db4-88cb-4580-a177-0a0fc9b71352> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://au.guastavinovaulting.com/3679-tips-for-weaning-or-stopping-your-baby.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.948855 | 610 | 1.789063 | 2 |
OpenRefine can create new items. This page explains how they are generated.
The fact that OpenRefine does not propose any item when reconciling a cell does not mean that the item is not present in the Wikibase instance: it can be missed for all sorts of reasons. Please make sure that you are not creating any duplicates!
Make sure that the items that you want to create are admissible in the Wikibase instance. For Wikidata, see the notability guidelines;
Deleting items generally requires special rights: if you want to revert an edit group that includes new items in Wikidata, you will need to ask an administrator to do it.
Here is how you would typically create new items with OpenRefine:
- Reconcile a column;
- Mark some of its cells as new items. This will not create items yet. If you need to mark many rows as new items, use the Reconcile → Actions → Create a new item for each cell operation.
- Create a Wikibase schema as usual, using the column where your new items are marked;
- Perform the edits: the new items will be created on Wikidata at this point;
- The cells that you had marked as new items will now be reconciled to the newly-created items.
It is often useful (but not mandatory) to treat new items in isolation and use a dedicated schema for them. This helps you add many statements on the new items (including labels and descriptions) without risking to clutter existing items with redundant edits. Use a facet on the judgment status of the reconciled column to isolate new items and perform their edits separately. As always in OpenRefine, only the rows covered by your facets will be considered when uploading the edits to Wikidata: if a cell is reconciled to a new item but is excluded by the facet, no new item will be created for it.1
Note that even if you know that all items in your column are new, you will still need to make a first reconciliation pass by selecting the Wikidata reconciliation service, and then setting all reconciliation statuses to \"new\". If you skip the first part, OpenRefine will not know that this column is reconciled against your Wikibase instance (it could be reconciled to other services) so it will not let you use it in place of an item in a Wikibase schema.
You can also perform the edits with QuickStatements - in this case, your OpenRefine project will not be updated with the newly created Qids.
The text that is in a cell reconciled to \"new\" is not automatically used as label for the newly-created item. This is because OpenRefine has no way to guess in which language this label should be. When adding new items, you need to explicitly add a label in the schema. This label can use the reconciled column as source, but if you have other cells matched to existing items, be careful not to override the labels of these items (if it is not your intention).
OpenRefine will refuse to perform edits where new items are created without any labels (as this is considered a critical issue). Other issues will be raised if insufficient basic information is added on the items (but these other warnings will not prevent you from performing the edits).
If you mark individual cells as new items, one new item per cell will be created. Sometimes multiple rows refer to the same item. OpenRefine makes it possible to mark all the corresponding cells as the same new item. Two conditions have to be met:
- the reconciled cells must be in the same column (it is not possible to mark two cells in different colums as the same new item);
- the cells must contain the same initial text value.
If these two conditions are met, then isolate these cells with facets and go to Reconcile → Actions → Create one item for similar cells. This will mark the cells as new and referring to the same item.
Once you have performed your edits with OpenRefine, any new cells
covered by the facet will be updated with their new Qids. You can
retrieve these Qids with the Edit column → Add column based on
this column action and using the
Note that you will no longer be able to isolate new items with a
judgment facet at this stage (because the judgment will be updated to
matched) so it can be worth marking these rows (for instance with a
star or flag) before performing the edits.
- The only exception to this rule is when marking multiple cells as identical items: in this case, if one of such cells are included in the facet, then all the others will be updated with the newly created Qid once the edits are made.↩ | <urn:uuid:1f7b7865-d62f-48b8-9786-be990b48f259> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://docs.openrefine.org/next/manual/wikibase/new-entities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.91731 | 1,002 | 2.015625 | 2 |
With the rapid development and evolvement of technology, wearable devices are next in line to create a trend. Simultaneously, getting fit and leading a healthy lifestyle is another trend that is taking over the current generation. Putting the two together, creating a wearable device for healthcare is something that will take lead in the coming years.
emote monitoring and telehealthcare are topics that often get raised when people discuss the future of the Aging In Place movement, and this app from Phillips may be a sign of things to come. The Vital Signs Camerauses the standard camera in your iPad or iPhone to monitor both your heart rate and breathing rate. The app’s software is able to recognize small changes in the color of your face to measure your heart rate with beat-to beat accuracy. Likewise, the camera tracks the movements of your chest to measure your exact breathing rate. The app can also create tables and graphs of a user’s history, helping to make sense of the data gathered and reveal any long-term trends. The newest version of the app can even monitor two people at the same time. | <urn:uuid:7bd54498-24aa-4227-aeeb-db4097849453> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://universaldesign.com/tag/heart-rate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.94475 | 223 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Broad-scale studies of climate change effects on freshwater species have focused mainly on temperature, ignoring critical drivers such as flow regime and biotic interactions. We use downscaled outputs from general circulation models coupled with a hydrologic model to forecast the effects of altered flows and increased temperatures on four interacting species of trout across the interior western United States (1.01 million km2), based on empirical statistical models built from fish surveys at 9,890 sites. Projections under the 2080s A1B emissions scenario forecast a mean 47% decline in total suitable habitat for all trout, a group of fishes of major socioeconomic and ecological significance. We project that native cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii, already excluded from much of its potential range by nonnative species, will lose a further 58% of habitat due to an increase in temperatures beyond the species' physiological optima and continued negative biotic interactions. Habitat for nonnative brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and brown trout Salmo trutta is predicted to decline by 77% and 48%, respectively, driven by increases in temperature and winter flood frequency caused by warmer, rainier winters. Habitat for rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, is projected to decline the least (35%) because negative temperature effects are partly offset by flow regime shifts that benefit the species. These results illustrate how drivers other than temperature influence species response to climate change. Despite some uncertainty, large declines in trout habitat are likely, but our findings point to opportunities for strategic targeting of mitigation efforts to appropriate stressors and locations.
|Title||Flow regime, temperature, and biotic interactions drive differential declines of trout species under climate change|
|Authors||S.J. Wenger, D.J. Isaak, C.H. Luce, H.M. Neville, K.D. Fausch, J.B. Dunham, D.C. Dauwalter, M.K. Young, M.M. Elsner, B.E. Rieman, A.F. Hamlet, J.E. Williams|
|Publication Subtype||Journal Article|
|Series Title||Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|
|Record Source||USGS Publications Warehouse|
|USGS Organization||Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center| | <urn:uuid:bc5dafe8-ed6c-4f87-bf78-2e6a7fe1550c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.usgs.gov/publications/flow-regime-temperature-and-biotic-interactions-drive-differential-declines-trout | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.863901 | 545 | 2.65625 | 3 |
A REVIEW OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE HIPOTHALAMIC-PITUITARY AXIS IN DEPRESSION
The etiology of depression is complex, involving genes, physiological factors, hormones, stressful life conditions, especially chronic exposure to early life stress as well as other psychological and social factors. The hormones of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) are the main mediators of the effects of stress on emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses in humans. A hyperactivity of the HPA axis is incriminated in the etiology of depression, as elevated levels of plasma, salivary and urinary cortisol have been consistently observed. The question of cause and effect between depression and cortisol remains unanswered. Different theories exist, such as absolute high levels of cortisol, negative feedback inhibition, high levels of corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) in the brain, impaired function of the glucocorticoid receptors in certain areas of the brain, a proinflamatory status created by the stimulated HPA Axis, neurotoxicity and the inhibition of neurogenesis i n t h e h i p p o c a m p u s , i n t e r a c t i o n s w i t h o t h e r neuroendocrine systems and neurotransmitters. Once an understanding of the mechanisms and the exact relationship between the HPA Axis and depression has been obtained, screening methods and vulnerability markers, prediction markers for the response to treatment and the rate of recurrence could be used in clinical trials and clinical practice. New medication compounds are already in study for the treatment of psychotic and melancholic depression. CRH-R1 receptor antagonists are also under research, and are believed to be of great promise. Other compounds with action on inflammatory c y t o k i n e s a n d n e u ro e n z y m e s a re t a k e n u n d e r consideration. At present, no viable means of treatment have been implemented regarding this strong association between depression and the HPA axis. However, the extended research that is being done in this direction shows great promise.
Depression is a complex disorder, involving all functions of the psyche. It’s devastating effects on the patients, their loved ones and all of society are indisputable. Each year, approximately 20 million people suffer from depression, and it is estimated that by the year
2020, depression will become the second cause of m o r b i d i t y i n t h e a d u l t p o p u l a t i o n . (http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depres sion/definition/en/). Although by using the treatment available today, around 80% of patients obtain remission, the recurrence rates remain high, adherence to treatment is low and the side effects of the treatment are prevalent. Choosing the right antidepressant still remains somewhat empiric, and therefore the need for the optimization of treatment in depression is evident.
The etiology of depression is complex, involving genes, physiological factors, hormones, stressful life conditions, especially chronic exposure to early life stress as well as other psychological and social factors (1).
As theory states that hormones of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) are the main mediators of the effects of stress on emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses in humans, they have been intensively researched. A hyperactivity of the HPA axis has been incriminated in the etiology of depression ever since the 1950’s (2), as elevated levels of plasma, salivary and urinary cortisol have been consistently observed in these patients (3, 4).
The question of cause and effect between depression and cortisol remains unanswered, and the need to further understand the mechanisms by which the two interact exists. The decades of research stated different theories as absolute high levels of cortisol(3, 4), negative feedback inhibition(5), high levels of corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) in the brain(6), impaired function of the glucocorticoid receptors in certain areas of the brain (7,8), a proinflamatory status created by the stimulated HPA Axis (9, 10), neurotoxicity and the inhibition of neurogenesis in the hippocampus(11,12), interactions with other neuroendocrine systems and neurotransmitters (13), such as a low binding potential of the thalamic serotonin transporter 5-HTT caused by cortisol (14). However it is not yet fully understood if all these alterations are the cause or the effect of the disease, or if they have therapeutic potential, predictive value for response to treatment or risk of recurrence or for the probability of onset of the disease in healthy subjects.
1. THE CIRCADIAN RHYTHM OF CORTISOL SECRETION
Cortisol diurnal rhythms vary according to individual sleep-wake schedules, being high upon waking, increasing to peak levels approximately 30-40 minutes after waking, and declining to a nadir (close to zero) around bedtime (4). Some studies have shown that patients with depression exhibit alterations of this circadian rhythm, such as an elevated nadir with a consecutive blunting of diurnal secretion and an irregular overall secretion (15). An elevated nadir has been significantly correlated with certain subtypes of major depressive disorder, such as the melancholic subtype and psychotic depression (16). Many other alterations of the circadian rhythm of cortisol secretion have been studied such as nocturnal cortisol levels (in urine), mean diurnal cortisol values and the slope of the secretion curve, and alterations have been found in patients already suffering from the disease (17). Some authors recently studied the cortisol awakening response (CAR) as a potential predictor for the onset of the disease in healthy subjects, as there is evidence of both genetic and psychosocial contributions to the size of the CAR, making it a candidate mechanism for both genetic and environmental pathways to the development of depression. In particular, a larger CAR has been associated with higher levels of both acute and chronic life stress (4).
2. THE HPA AXIS
Activation of the HPA axis begins with the release of CRH from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus. CRH neurons of the PVN serve as a final common stress pathway by receiving converging inputs from multiple areas of the brain, allowing CRH to coordinate the behavioral, neuroendocrine, autonomic, and immune responses to stress, as hypothalamic CRH neurons are strategically situated to intercept and disperse signals from and to the body about the internal and external environment (17,18).
CRH-containing neurons in the PVN of the hypothalamus terminate in the median eminence. CRH is then released into the pituitary-portal circulation and acts on CRH-R1 receptors on anterior pituitary corticotrophs stimulating secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) into the general circulation and promoting s y n t h e s i s o f t h e A C T H p r e c u r s o r p e p t i d e proopiomelanocortin (POMC) in the corticotrophs. Under certain conditions, hypothalamic arginine vasopressin acts in synergy with CRH to stimulate ACTH release. Circulating ACTH then acts on the MC2-R (type 2 melanocortin receptor) in the adrenal cortex, stimulating secretion of glucocorticoids into the bloodstream (17, 18, 19).
In order to maintain appropriate levels of circulating glucocorticoids, these hormones exert negative feedback on the hypothalamus and pituitary to inhibit the synthesis and secretion of CRH and POMC/ACTH, respectively. In addition, they also down regulate the expression of corticotrophic CRH-R1 mRNA, thus decreasing CRH-R1 number, which ultimately diminishes ACTH secretion. Finally, the hippocampus, which expresses a high density of GR, exerts negative feedback control on the PVN, thereby reducing HPA axis activity (17, 18, 19).
3. CRH AND THE CRH –R1 RECEPTORS
S o m e a u t h o r s h a v e s u g g e s t e d t h a t hypercortisolemia reported in patients with depression may be related to over-secretion of CRH. This evidence is supported by several findings in patients with depression, including increased concentration of CRH in the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid); enlargement of the pituitary gland; blunted ACTH responses to CRH challenge(20, 21); down-regulation of CRH-R1 receptors in frontal brain regions of postmortem suicide patients and increased CRH expression in hypothalamic neurons of postmortem patients (22, 23).CRH has been implicated in stress- induced activation of neurons including hippocampal pyramidal cells. CRH contributes to effects of acute stress on synaptic plasticity and memory. Interneurons expressing CRH are abundant in hippocampus; CRH is released into hippocampal intercellular space during stress; CRH receptor type 1 (CRF1) resides on dendrites of CA1 cells, the same neurons sustaining dendritic atrophy after early-life stress (24); Chronic exposure to CRH provokes dendritic atrophy in a pattern similar to that found after early stress; When administered into brains of immature rats, CRH led to persistent memory impairments reminiscent of those found after chronic early-life stress. Notably, CRH-induced impairments occurred even when glucocorticoid levels were ‘clamped’ at low physiological levels suggesting that they were independent of glucocorticoid receptor activation (1, 25).
4. NEGATIVE FEED-BACK IMPAIRMENT
Elevated levels of cortisol in some patients with depression can also result from a reduced negative feedback response to cortisol that is reflected by a nonsuppression response in the dexamethasone suppression test (DST). Indeed, a large meta-analysis showed that the DST is a potent indicator of a poor prognosis and is also a predictor of suicide in depression. However, due to the fact that dexamethasone has distinct pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profiles from cortisol, and due to the low sensitivity of the DST in detecting patients with depression (26), new tests, such as the DEX/CRH challenge test (27, 28, 29) and the prednisolone test (30), have been developed to evaluate the negative feedback of cortisol.
The DEX/CRH test combines the DST test (oral administration of single dose of dexamethasone at 11 PM) and the CRH stimulation test (intravenous bolus of CRH on the following day at 3 PM). Studies have shown that the DEX/CRH test has a higher specificity than the DST in detecting HPA axis dysfunction in patients with depression compared with the DST alone Patients with depression tend to exhibit a lack of inhibition of ACTH r e s p o n s e s t o C R H f o l l o w i n g d e x a m e t h a s o n e pretreatment, which represents an impaired feedback inhibition at the level of the pituitary.
Recent studies have shown that the test is positive (elevated levels of cortisol) during a major depressive episode, that it tends to normalize after effective antidepressant treatment (clinical remission) and that the initial values of the test (at baseline) could predict the response to treatment (28, 29).
5. THE GLUCOCORTICOID RECEPTORS
A n u m b e r o f s t u d i e s u s i n g d i f f e r e n t methodologies have reported that GR function is impaired in patients with depression. A lack of response of the GR to changes in ligand availability and reduced inhibition of immune function and cytokines production after exposure to dexamethasone, indicating reduced GR sensitivity, have been shown in patients with depression(31). Recently, impaired GR signaling has been proposed as a primary factor that could lead to alterations in HPA axis function, such as hypercortisolism, reduced negative feedback of cortisol, and increased production of CRH, all of which have been described in some patients with depression (17). Interestingly, in patients with depression, GR sensitivity and HPA axis activity tend to return to n o r m a l a f t e r c l i n i c a l r e c o v e r y o f d e p r e s s i v e symptomatology (32, 33).
6. THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Alterations of the HPA axis in psychiatric disorders could also be influenced by activation of the immune system through pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines can stimulate glucocorticoid release and also alter glucocorticoid availability and GR function, which, under certain conditions, may favor a state of glucocorticoid resistance. There is a bidirectional communication between the immune system and the HPA axis, in which cytokines stimulate the HPA axis and the resulting release of glucocorticoids provides negative feedback control of the immune response (8, 31).
Indeed, some patients suffering from depression have been found to exhibit higher levels of proinflamatory cytokines, which produces a resistance to cortisol with secondary hypercortisolism (34). Cytokines have also been shown to induce a constellation of symptoms referred to as “sickness behavior,” which has many overlapping features with depression (lethargy, somnolence, fatigue, anhedonia, decreased appetite and locomotion, and cognitive deficits) (35). Cytokine antagonists on knockout mice have been found to block these behavioral changes in rodents and reduce depression and fatigue in patients with autoimmune or inflammatory disorders (36, 37, 38).
However, conflicting results have been found, as only a certain percentage of depressed patients exhibit a high inflammatory status.
7. INTERACTIONS OF THE HPA AXIS WITH OTHER NEURO-ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS
The HPA axis has interactions with many other systems, and its activity is tightly connected to a number of neurohormones. Increased production of vasopressin (ADH) in depression does not only occur in neurons that colocalize CRH (PVN), but also in neurons of the supraoptic nucleus (SON), which may lead to increased plasma levels of vasopressin, that have been related to an enhanced suicide risk. The increased activity of oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) may be related to the eating disorders in depression. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the biological clock of the brain, shows lower vasopressin production and a smaller circadian amplitude in depression, which may explain the sleeping problems in this disorder and may contribute to the strong CRH activation. The hipothalamo-pituitary thyroid (HPT)-axis is inhibited in depression. These hypothalamic peptidergic systems, the HPA-axis, the SCN, the SON and the HPT-axis, have many interactions with aminergic systems that are also implicated in depression (13, 39).
Some studies have shown a connection of relevance between serotonin and the HPA axis. Namely, a significant correlation has been found between a lower binding potential of the thalamic transporter of serotonin –
5-HTT and high levels of cortisol on the Dex/CRH test, suggesting an interaction between the HPA axis and serotonin as a mechanism in depression and other disorders, such as OCD and anxiety disorders (14, 40).
A close interaction between the HPA-axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG)-axis exists. There is a higher prevalence of mood disorders in women as compared to men. In addition, the stress system is affected by changing levels of sex hormones, as found in the premenstrual period, ante- and postpartum, during the transition phase to the menopause and during the use of oral contraceptives (41). In depressed women, plasma levels of estrogen are usually lower and plasma levels of androgens are increased, while testosterone levels are decreased in depressed men (41,42). This is explained by the fact that both in depressed males and females the HPA- axis is increased in activity, parallel to a diminished HPG- axis, while the major source of androgens in women is the adrenal, whereas in men it is the testes. It is speculated, however, that in the etiology of depression the relative levels of sex hormones play a more important role than their absolute levels (13).
The fact that numerous findings prove a reduced volume and total area of the hippocampus in depression, along with other cortical and subcortical structural alterations in depressed patients, led scientists to believe that glucocorticoids contribute to depression by increasing neurotoxicity in certain areas of the brain. Contradictory results are still being described. A post mortem study on patients suffering from Cushing’s disease and patients being chronically treated with corticosteroids showed no alterations of the structures of the brain involved in the pathophysiology of depression (39).
However, a recent animal study showed an impressive 25 % increase in the number of neurons of the hippocampus, after administration of the antidepressant drug sertraline, effect mediated by glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus (12).
Furthermore, other psychotropic drugs, such as the antipsychotics quetiapine and olanzapine, have been shown to induce neurogenesis. Also both drugs have been proven to have an important impact on the HPA axis, by significantly reducing both ACTH and cortisol secretion in healthy subjects. The atypical antipsychotics’ strong influence on HPA-function with pronounced ACTH and cortisol lowering is possibly related to the atypicals’ blockade of serotonergic receptors, but blockade of adrenergic or hystaminergic receptors may play a role as well (11). The role of these antipsychotics in the treatment of depression has been studied, but a further research into the mechanisms of their obvious benefits on affective and also cognitive functioning is needed, in relation to their strong effects on the HPA axis.
The fact that a state of hypercortisolemia does not in itself produce neurotoxicity, as it has been shown in patients suffering from such states but not suffering from depression, but that such a state exists in depressed patients, accompanied by structural changes in various brain structures, does not necessarily prove that neurotoxicity in depression is not related to the HPA axis, but rather that a more complex mechanism for such changes is involved, such as an increased number of GR receptors in the hippocampus of depressed patients as opposed to non-depressed patients. Further research is needed to sustain and fully understand these complex mechanisms.
Although the involvement of the HPA axis in depression is very likely and numerous studies have been conducted over the years, conflicting results are described, and the full extent of the part played by the axis in the pathogeny of the disorder is not yet fully understood.
Only a number of patients suffering from depression exhibits alterations of the HPA axis activity. A number of factors could be incriminated as the source of these discrepancies, such as the presence of anxiety, personal history of early life stress and other psychosocial factors, certain subtypes of depression and the severity of the disease, inflammatory status and gender differences (17).
In regard to subtypes of depression, severe forms, namely the psychotic and melancholic subtypes, have a much stronger association with elevated cortisol levels, especially an elevated nadir value (43, 44). Negative feed-back impairment has been associated with anxiety by some authors, while others have found only a poor correlation between anxiety and an elevated cortisol value at the Dex/CRH test (14). Also, low levels of cortisol have been proven in patients suffering from other psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD (45, 46).
Further research is needed to better understand the causality relationship and the mechanisms linking depression to the activity of the HPA axis, as many variables should be taken into account.
Once this understanding has been obtained, the benefits to the patient could prove to be very significant. Screening methods and vulnerability markers, prediction markers for the response to treatment and the rate of recurrence could be used in clinical trials and clinical practice. New medication compounds are already being studied for the treatment of psychotic and melancholic depression, such as the cortisol secretion inhibitor mifepristone (43) and metirapone (49), a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist. As CRH is believed to play a very important role in the mechanisms of depression, CRH-R1 receptor antagonists (48) are also under research, and are believed to be of great promise.
At present, no viable means of treatment have yet been implemented regarding this strong association between depression and the HPA axis. However, the extended research that is being done in this direction shoes great promise, and hopefully the near future will bring therapeutic solutions which will help the millions of people suffering from this debilitating, horrible disease.
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49.Tudose F, Tamasan S. Sindromul anxietate-depresie. In : Tudose F, Tudose C, Vasilescu A, Tamasan S. Sindroame ratacitoare. Bucuresti: Ed. Info Medica, 2005, 119-141. | <urn:uuid:94a7fb4f-e546-48c2-b227-9d7a1c17d3dd> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.romjpsychiat.ro/arhive/1929?lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.875735 | 6,833 | 2.25 | 2 |
Representation is widely viewed as central to mathematical problem solving, while online scaffolding is considered helpful in supporting learners’ progress from actual to potential developmental levels of mathematics understanding. Therefore, this study investigated the effectiveness of employing online single vs. multiple representational scaffolds to facilitate students’ mathematics problem solving. Two classes (46 students) were assigned to the group with multiple representational scaffolds, while two other classes (45 students) were assigned to the group with a single representational scaffold. Results showed that using multiple representational scaffolds better-facilitated students’ mathematics conceptual understanding and problem solving than using a single representational scaffold. The progression of online problem-solving process further showed that the multiple representational scaffolds group displayed more sophisticated problem-solving performance than the single representational scaffold group as they moved from basic to advanced questions. Evidence of eye movement behaviors indicated that the multiple representational scaffolds group allocated significantly shorter mean fixation duration and mean re-reading time than the single representational scaffold group during the online problem-solving process. Relatedly, the eye movement behavior evidence demonstrated that the use of multiple representational scaffolds more efficiently and effectively facilitates students’ mathematics conceptual understanding and problem solving than the use of a single representational scaffold.
- Multiple representations
- online mathematical problem solving
- online scaffolds
- scientific understanding
- single representation | <urn:uuid:b19da2bd-c17d-4c5a-828d-0072af08dca4> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://scholar.nycu.edu.tw/en/publications/investigate-the-effectiveness-of-single-and-multiple-representati | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.933348 | 291 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The genius of H.S. Colt and Charles Alison, which was honed on the preeminent seaside links of Great Britian and Ireland, is reflected in its purest form at Seaside's 13th hole. Designed in 1929, the 13th is defined by the salt marshes that must be negotiated in front of the tee and along the entire left side, the strong side, of the dogleg. The three widely flashed fairway bunkers, so faithfully restored by Tom Fazio's reworking of the course in 1999, give the hole depth and definition on the right and signal the way to the windswept green around the corner. Like so many great linksland holes, the 13th is not terribly long, but it demands precision and finesse, particularly when the wind blows. | <urn:uuid:fbc4506e-2fd9-4f9f-9da7-ee38db45a938> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.hartough.com/shop/13th-hole-sea-island-golf-club-seaside-course-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.947269 | 164 | 1.625 | 2 |
New licensing rules are coming into effect in Indonesia on July 20, and they could have a big impact on the privacy of internet users in the country.
Under the new rules, all “Electronic Service Operators” – which include big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter – must register with the government. So far, 5,900 domestic companies and 108 foreign companies have complied. Failure to do so could result in their platforms being blocked.
A recent report by Bloomberg notes that Indonesia first released a set of rules in November 2020 allowing authorities to order platforms to take down “unlawful” content within four hours if considered urgent and 24 hours if not.
As part of these rules, tech companies must register with the government before any sanctions are imposed. Johnny G. Plate, the country’s Minister of Communications and Informatics, has said that the government will “sanction” companies that don’t comply.
Analysts believe the state may not go so far as to block tech companies, given how widely used some platforms are in Indonesia.
Perhaps more troubling, however, is that the revised regulations grant government officials the authority to demand that companies reveal communications and personal information of particular persons if compelled by law enforcement or state agencies.
Glenn Wijaya, a contributor to the International Association of Privacy Professionals, said that as of February 2022, Indonesia did not have a comprehensive data protection law. However, the country has a set of laws and regulations in many sectors that govern personal data protection.
Interestingly, this is set to change soon, as the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill is expected to be ratified by August 2022. The bill was first introduced in 2016 and has undergone lengthy discussions to date.
According to the House of Representatives, the bill will also be used as a basis for Indonesia to have data sovereignty, or the management and use of data by industries and state institutions, for the protection and security of the public.
Damar Juniarto, a human rights activist, believes that the Indonesian government used COVID-19 to set the stage for digital authoritarianism behind the guise of invoking “national security” and “stability during the pandemic”.
As the pandemic situation improves, what remains to be seen is how the government will align the seeming contradictions between the PDP Bill and the revised licensing rules. For now, it looks like the government is more interested in controlling the internet than protecting the privacy of its citizens. Other governments in ASEAN are not much different. | <urn:uuid:9380c703-2266-4456-85b8-d8a79030ec1f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://disruptive.asia/new-tech-rules-indonesias-data-privacy-nightmare/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.956079 | 528 | 2.265625 | 2 |
February 18, 2021
A legal group in Canada is planning to sue the federal Canadian government against the COVID-19 travel rule which is being used to quarantine citizens forcefully at secret locations.
Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all the countries have modified their travel rules, especially for immigrants. Similar COVID-19 travel rules were enforced by the Federal government in Canada.
However, one of the prominent legal groups, The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), is not in favour of forced quarantine imposed as part of new travel rules.
The President of JCCF, John Carpay, gave a statement in a news release sent out last Friday.
Read more: Police Take Traveling Woman Into Mandatory COVID Isolation In Canada – Won’t Tell Family Where They Are Holding Her
As per John Carpay:
“Quarantine, particularly of healthy or asymptomatic individuals, is the functional equivalent of house arrest and the Justice Centre will not allow it to continue unchallenged,”
“These citizens are being held unlawfully despite not having been convicted of any offence, not having had access to a lawyer, and not having appeared before a judge.”
“Law enforcement officers are apparently refusing to inform family members of where their loved ones are being held.”
“This outrageous policy aligns with the world’s most repressive and undemocratic regimes and is totally unacceptable.”
The JCCF confirmed that a legal action will be taken against the Federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The main reason behind this legal action is the fact that Canadian travelers are being quarantined in hotels.
Nikki Mathis, one Canadian citizen was forcefully quarantined in Canada when she returned from the U.S.
In spite of having a negative COVID-19 report with her, Mathis was sent to a quarantine hotel and its location was not known to her.
The reason told to her was that the report didn’t meet the parameters set by Canadian authorities.
However, the situation became worse when Canadian authorities didn’t inform even her husband about her quarantine location. This step was highly criticized on online platforms.
Many other travelers claimed that this medical isolation made them feel like prisoners.
Angelo Vanegas another victim said, “I feel like a prisoner in here, you know.”
Vanegas also added he was not supplied adequate food and was compelled to stay in a small room for 14 days.
The JCCF has announced a legal action to be taken against this 14 day isolation at secret locations.
As per COVID-19 travel rules enacted by Canadian Federal government, any travelers coming to Canada by air should have a negative PCR or LAMP COVID-19 report.
If travelers do not have these reports then they are sent to forced quarantine for 3 days at a secret location.
They are tested for COVID-19 during these 3 days. If the report is negative then these travelers are asked to self-isolate themselves in their homes.
Only four airports are allowed to service international flights and these are Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
According to the new restrictions for those entering Canada by air and land, it is mandatory to take “COVID-19 molecular test when they arrive in Canada before exiting the airport, and another toward the end of their 14-day quarantine period.”
However, travelers are still required to “reserve, prior to departure to Canada, a 3-night stay in a government authorized hotel.”
Travelers are also supposed to submit their “travel and contact information, including a suitable quarantine plan, electronically,” through the via ArriveCAN app “before crossing the border or boarding a flight.”
Politician Warns: Trudeau Govt Plans To Build COVID ‘Quarantine / Isolation’ Camps Across Canada
The JCCF says that its new legal action will include an affidavit from an Ontario resident named Steven Duesing.
Duesing was retained by the Justice Centre “after being forcibly detained for three days in a Toronto Raddison Hotel.”
Recently, the Hague Court ruled that the COVID-19 lockdown which was imposed by the Dutch Govt had no legal basis and that it was illegal. However, the Dutch appeals court oveturned the ruling within hours arguing that they wanted to avoid what they called a “yo-yo effect,” referring to public confusion around whether the curfew was still in force.
In a similar ruling, a German court declared that COVID19 lockdowns imposed by the government are unconstitutional.
Recently, it was revealed that the German Interior Ministry hired scientists to develop fake coronavirus model in order to justify strict lockdown, according to extensive email exchanges obtained by a group of lawyers in a legal dispute.
A major lawsuit has also been filed against the PM of Denmark for strict COVID-19 restrictions and for killing almost 17 million minks.
Last year, an American federal judge ruled coronavirus restrictions in Pennsylvania as unconstitutional.
Even the Belgian health experts have demanded an investigation into the WHO for faking a pandemic.
As reported by GreatGameIndia earlier, a three judge court in Peru has ruled that the COVID-19 pandemic was started by the billionaires Bill Gates, George Soros and Rockefeller.
In the past in 2010, the WHO was caught faking a pandemic and was forced to admit that its methodology of measuring the virality or the spread of the disease, instead of its severity was incorrect.
Thanks to: https://humansarefree.com | <urn:uuid:242cb664-18b3-41da-9bbb-d10e3abec33f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.oom2.com/t74369-canadian-govt-sued-for-forceful-quarantine-of-citizens-at-secret-locations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.972109 | 1,229 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Tinted sunscreens are excellent two-in-one products that offer sun protection while providing a hint of color. The best tinted sunscreens provide a sun protection factor of at least 30 (as advised by the American Academy of Dermatology), an easy-to-apply goof-proof formulation, and either offer a broad range of shades that suit most skin tones or a very versatile, barely-there universal tint that works for everyone. Added bonus: ingredient lists with good-for-your-skin additions (like niancinade, green tea or hyaluronic acid), with nothing that could clog pores or irritate sensitive skin.
Plus, while you might not think about sunscreens beyond the summer (when layering makeup feels too heavy), tinted sunscreens are also nice as a wintertime, haven’t-seen-the-sun-in-days boost.
Different Types of Tinted Sunscreens
The “tinted sunscreen” term itself is fairly broad, so depending on whether you prefer a richer cream, lighter serum or sunscreen stick to add definition and contouring, there’s a product for you out there.
Tinted sunscreens, like all sunscreens, come in either mineral formulations (meaning they’re made with zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide) or chemical formulations (you’ll see ingredients like avobenzone, oxybenzone and octocrylene). There are pros and cons to both. Mineral (aka physical) sunscreens tend to be gentler for people with sensitive skin, and the FDA has said that titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are ingredients they consider safe and effective, while they don’t have enough data on chemical sunscreen ingredients to weigh in yet. However, chemical sunscreens tend to blend into the skin better and don’t leave behind the white cast that physical sunscreen ingredients often do, and some mineral sunscreens can pill when worn underneath makeup (though that’s not the case with the mineral options listed below).
Ultimately the most important thing about a sun protection product is that you use it daily, whether it’s cloudy, sunny or even rainy (yes, even then), and that you reapply sunscreen every two hours, or more often if you’ve been sweating heavily or in the water.
As someone with tricky skin — dry in spots, breakout-prone in others – with some fine lines that can make certain foundations look uneven, and hyperpigmentation that benefits from some coverage, I have a tough time finding tinted sunscreens. For this story, I tested a bunch and ruled out a ton. Some were too cakey, others said they had a tint but there wasn’t a hint to be found and a few felt sticky on the skin even after waiting a few minutes for them to settle. Then, I narrowed it down to the best of the best.
The five products below have a smooth feel, sink into the skin and blend easily, contain SPF 30 or higher and give you a natural flush. Read on to see them all.
The 5 Best Tinted Face Sunscreens We Tested and Loved
The Overall Best Tinted Face Sunscreen: MDSolarSciences Mineral Tinted Crème SPF 30
Why it made the list: This lovely, whipped-feel sunscreen goes on as light as can be and dries to a matte finish with a natural hint of color, making it great on its own or layered under other makeup. The mineral ingredients titanium dioxide and zinc oxide provide the sun protection, while antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E, green tea and cranberry and pomegranate extracts offer your skin all sorts of nourishment and repair. MDSolarSciences was founded by a dermatologist, and they take their sun protection and ingredient list seriously and scientifically.
- Extremely lightweight.
- Oil-free, non-greasy formulation.
- Mineral sunscreen ingredients are less irritating for sensitive skin
- Matte finish.
- The brand’s products are vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free and fragrance-free
- Not water resistant.
- Requires a bit of blending to be thoroughly absorbed into skin.
- Only available in one universal shade.
Price: $26 at Amazon.com
The Best Tinted Sunscreen Serum: ILIA Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40
This delightful serum is the perfect skincare product, offering nourishing hyaluronic acid, shea butter, niacinamide, aloe and squalance to hydrate without any heaviness. The formula is vegan, fragrance-free and gluten-free, and it contains SPF 40 thanks to the mineral ingredient zinc oxide. There are an impressive 30 shades offered, and each offers users a glowy, dewy finish.
- Mineral formulation.
- Oil- and fragrance-free suitable for sensitive skin.
- 30 colors to suit a range of skin tones.
- Shade matching quiz available on ILIA or you can even send the brand a selfie and have them find your perfect shade.
- It’s on the pricey side.
- Not meant to wear as a layer underneath other makeup, so if you prefer more coverage, this may not be the best pick for you.
Price: $48 at ILIABeauty.com
The Best Barely-There Tinted Face Sunscreen: Bliss Block Star Daily Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30
Bliss’ best-selling tinted sunscreen (the brand says they sell one every three minutes) has a very light universal tint, mineral sun protection ingredients titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, a host of antioxidants to protect and heal skin (think evening primrose, blueberry extract, lavender oil, and acai) and pore-minimizing rosa canina fruit oil. The brand is vegan and cruelty-free.
- Blends easily into skin.
- Universal, barely-there tint.
- Reviewers say it blends well even with beards and facial hair.
- Lavender scented, which is not preferred by people with skin sensitivities or allergies.
- Contains oils, which should be avoided if you have very oily or breakout-prone skin.
- Only comes in one shade.
The Best Tinted CC Cream: IT Cosmetics CC + Nude Glow Lightweight Foundation + Glow Serum with SPF 40
This CC (color correcting) sunscreen/makeup/moisturizer is an ideal all-in-one product to toss into your bag and go. Yes, it hydrates and softens skin, thanks to niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and green tea extract, it offers SPF 40 and the buildable color offers a super-lightweight foundation that won’t feel heavy against the skin. Use it on its own for all of the above, or under other makeup if you prefer a more “done” look. Offered in 22 shades.
- Excellent shade range of 22 colors.
- All-in-one product excellent for travel or overnights.
- Good coverage if you have uneven skin tone or hyperpigmentation.
- Buildable color offers flexibility.
- Though the hydration boost lasts all day, this, like any other sunscreen product, needs to be reapplied every two hours for adequate sun protection.
- Can be hard to get the perfect color match, though the brand does offer a shade matching tool online.
The Best Tinted Face Sunscreen Stick: Attitude Tinted Mineral Sunscreen Stick SPF 30
Made with a rich blend of coconut oil, sunflower seed oil, castor seed oil and shea butter, this new zinc oxide mineral sunscreen stick from Canadian beauty brand Attitude works for an all-over flush or if you just prefer to add some color to your cheeks. Either way, it leaves behind a bit of a shimmery, glowy hue. It glides on easily and blends well, and feels nourishing and creamy.
- Packaged in a biodegradable, eco-friendly cardboard tube.
- Vegan and cruelty-free indie beauty brand.
- Hard to get all-over sun protection solely from a stick sunscreen, best used as an additional layer of protection and for touch-ups.
- Made with a blend of moisturizing oils, which may not be preferred by people with oily and acne-prone skin.
- Quite sheer so won’t be adequate if you’re looking to cover a blemish or hyperpigmentation. | <urn:uuid:5aec7daa-a549-4669-b6b0-be9e72c9fcc9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.retailmenot.com/blog/best-tinted-face-sunscreens.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=best-tinted-face-sunscreens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.881887 | 1,857 | 1.75 | 2 |
PSC operating with impunity
The Alabama Public Service Commission smugly congratulated itself this month for a minuscule rebate Alabama Power customers will receive on electric bills.
As the Montgomery Advertiser’s Brian Lyman reported, the new rates will save a typical residential customer an average of $5 over the year, or about 1.3 cents a day.
That’ll just about cover a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. Or five rides for a senior citizen on a Montgomery Area Transit System bus.
Every little bit does help, but the crowing from the PSC is the kind of blarney that tells the public how out-of-touch state officials can be.
Especially since the slightly lower rates are a return of part of $146.5 million in money that was over-collected, due to cheaper-than expected fuel costs.
Alabama Power piled on, saying the decrease wasn’t larger because of regulatory costs for environmental and other protections.
Which sounds disingenuous when one notes state law essentially guarantees Alabama Power a profit, as it allows them to recover costs, including the costs to finance business.
Not bad, considering most businesses suffered from a deep recession during those years.
It’s true environmental regulations come at a hefty price. Alabama Power says it has spent $3.6 billion to date to cut emissions of pollutants to comply with Environmental Protection Agency rules.
Compliance costs for 2016 to 2020 are estimated at $895 million, including for new EPA carbon emission restrictions, plus $263 million to close dangerous ponds used to store coal ash.
Power customers ultimately bear those expenses, but they are justified by the enormous benefits that result – health-wise and for Alabama’s natural resources.
Emissions of mercury and sulfur dioxide from coal- and oil-burning electric plants, for instance, are linked to serious health impacts, from respiratory illnesses to heart attacks and nervous system damage in children.
Commendably, Alabama Power is using new technology and the closure or conversion of some coal-fired units to help meet tough emission restrictions.
But when it comes to the PSC’s claims of helping the utility’s customers keep more money in their pockets, we say “not so fast.” And not just because Alabama residents pay some of the highest prices for electricity in the South.
The commission is charged with fairly balancing the interests of consumers with the need for reliable, safe services from utilities.
Too often, however, it rubber stamps rate increase requests, operating with impunity in the dark.
A 2015 study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found the PSC stonewalls the rate-paying public and governmental watchdog organizations with closed-door hearings and other secretive dealings.
State lawmakers should stand up for their constituents by demanding greater transparency at the PSC.
Open books and public hearings are the only way to assure Alabama residents they’re not being hoodwinked to benefit powerful utilities. | <urn:uuid:e1a377d4-4983-45a1-95be-6a0d2208cd2e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/12/10/psc-operating-impunity/77092180/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.936036 | 616 | 2.171875 | 2 |
The secret for the success of a data governance program is in finding the sweet spot that successfully brings together people, process, and technology.
What’s waiting when you reach that place? Business value.
Data governance is about people, processes, and technology. Is about combining these factors to create business value from data.
Data governance may not seem to be the highest priority but looking at the kind of issues that can be addressed, problems that are not exclusive to any industry, or market, that touch organizations of every type and size.
- The gap between business and IT, leading to often contradictory strategies.
- Difficulty in managing a siloed data ecosystem.
- Difficulty to identify and define data across sources.
- Lack of standard business and data management rules and data protection policies.
- Rising data-security concerns around providing employees with remote access to data.
- Difficulty to identify, cleanse, standardize, and curate data for sharing.
- Existence of duplicate, erroneous, inaccurate, and incomplete data.
It’s almost impossible to find any organization that doesn’t struggle with most of these issues, or anyone working with data that doesn’t relate with most of the issues listed above.
Now more than ever organizations are investing heavily in leveraging new technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning the internet of things, augmented and predictive analytics, and data is at the core of each of these initiatives.
They are fully dependent on data; all are aimed at providing quality data that is essential to improving insights and driving substantiated business decisions.
The solution is found in the implementation of data governance frameworks, with the purpose of assuring that timely, consistent, and trusted data is provided business to support critical decisions.
Unfortunately, although the awareness of the strategic importance of data exists, most organizations are slow adopters of data governance frameworks, risking poor strategic decision making and misallocation of critical resources.
The reasons behind this slow adoption are easy to understand as the implementation of a data governance framework in an organization, can sometimes be an overwhelming challenge, highly disruptive and prone to failure.
- Lack of leadership buy-in and commitment
- Lack alignment with business goals and benefits
- Lack of empowerment for the data governance team
- Lack of focus on strategic data
- Lack of cross organization involvement
- Focus on a technological approach
- Time to deliver results
These are all structural problems faced by almost every data governance program during their development stages, some are unavoidable, but these risks and their effects can be somehow minimized.
As any process that is introduced into an organization it will create disruption of the status quo, it will generate resistance to any change, a success approach to data must overcome this as all the challenges mentioned above.
Forget data strategy — develop a business strategy for data — As any other asset in the organization data’s purpose is to create value, so any data strategy must be oriented towards the organization’s strategic priorities and key business objectives.
Forget use cases — define business cases supported by data — identify how data may be used to deliver business priorities and objectives. Business cases, with clear, achievable objectives and stakeholders that are aware of the importance and impact of data.
Forget data — focus on business — business is the driver, data and what it produces is the enabler, the success of any data related initiative is measured on how it impacts business performance.
Deliver business value — start with an end in mind and a clear business objective, with small but business relevant initiatives, gathering business metrics to that can be linked to the data governance initiative and replicate these success stories across the organization.
The transformation process that leads to a data driven organization must be wholeheartedly supported on the business strategy and objectives. The true measure of success is the quality of the organization’s decision processes; the organizations best able to make the best insight-driven decisions faster will gain the competitive edge. | <urn:uuid:284b64ec-ab7f-4769-b550-55b7964be4fc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jose-almeida.medium.com/sweet-spot-32fa9b6d4641?source=post_internal_links---------2---------------------------- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.915542 | 813 | 2.34375 | 2 |
How Public Involvement Informed and Guided the EDDY Study23 February 2016
Stephen Thomas, Sarah Earle-Jones and Julia Townson were asked to present the Early Detection of type 1 Diabetes in Youth (EDDY) study at the Health and Care Research Wales Involving People Network meeting on 1 February 2016. The aim of the presentation was to show how Involving People network members had been involved with researchers and how public involvement had influenced the project. The aim of the presentation was to deliver it as a conversation, similar to a question and answer panel. The text below is a sample of what was delivered on the day. On the day Sarah was unable to attend, but sent comments that we have included below. Stephen acted as Chair and directed questions to Julia. This is a particularly important example of working with the public during a study because the idea and inspiration for the intervention came directly from public involvement.
Stephen: Good afternoon my name is Stephen Thomas. I was one of the parents invited to become involved in a study about interventions to raise awareness of type one diabetes in children and young adults. I would like to introduce you to Julia who was one of the co-applicants on the EDDY study and perhaps I can start by asking you to give a brief outline the project and why it is important.
Julia: It is important because, although quite rare, type one diabetes in childhood, if not detected can be very dangerous and can lead to fatality. Therefore, we felt it was important to carry out a study which developed and delivered interventions to both GPs and parents, in order to raise awareness of the symptoms.
Stephen: So Julia you brought us on board as parents to look at the intervention in schools. Some of us were parents with children with diabetes and some, like myself, were fortunate enough not to have children with type one diabetes. Why did you feel that it was important that you had that mix?
Julia: Parents with children with type 1 diabetes are well aware of the symptoms. Therefore, it was important to canvas the opinions of those without to ensure the intervention had the most chance of success.
Stephen: So Julia you brought us together for a number of meetings to design the intervention. Did it go as you expected?
Julia: Well, in some ways yes and in some ways no. Yes, I was confident that parents would be able to design something, we were thinking a fridge magnet, that sort of thing, but what they came up with exceeded our expectations! The shopping bag was such a fantastic idea.
Stephen: What about you Sarah, what were your expectations?
Sarah: I had none! I arrived at the first meeting with some trepidation but I think to be honest that we all felt like that. By the end of the meeting I was excited by the task entrusted to us and felt quite passionately about the need to get information ‘out there’, to increase awareness of type 1 diabetes. I was shocked by the stories relayed to us by the other group members who were parents of children with type 1 diabetes.
Julia: What about your expectations Stephen?
Stephen: I guess, initially, I didn’t have much in the way of expectations only that I was enthusiastic about taking part as although my daughter is not a diabetic my mother had type 1 diabetes. However, I was very pleased with the way that you set us up as a panel as we were there from the beginning and although you had ideas about the type of interventions, you were very open to our input.
Julia: Yes, we wanted as much of your input as possible. How did you think that your input changed things?
Stephen: We had a number of important conversations about the best way to raise awareness in a condition that is thankfully relatively rare. In fact, if I can pause for a moment and just ask for a show of hands. How many people in this audience know how to check for symptoms for meningitis? The glass test. The occurrences of type 1 diabetes and meningitis in children in the UK are very similar. How many people in this room, before you saw it on the slide behind me knew the symptoms of type 1 diabetes? Yes, less than for meningitis. Therefore, we felt, as a group, it was important to get the message across in a way that wasn’t a single intervention which got lost but rather in the form of perhaps an everyday item so therefore, along with the leaflets and messages that were going into GPs we decided that using a bag, as with the 5p charge people are saving bags, would be an effective way of doing it.
Stephen: Sarah what did you think about your input?
Sarah: I too was impressed by the level of input that we were given and that our contributions were both valued and valid. It was an exciting project to be a part of and I feel a splash of pride when I notice the blue bags ‘popping up’ as I’m out and about!
Image by Matthew Horwood. Courtesy of Health and Care Research Wales.
The Centre for Trials Research is a UKCRC-registered clinical trials unit. It is publicly-funded to enable applied research that informs policy in health and social care in Wales and the UK, and is currently running studies across Wales, the UK and internationally. The Centre is funded through Welsh government by Health and Care Research Wales, and Cancer Research UK. | <urn:uuid:5f2aad71-45f5-4394-8b6d-62ca290edd2a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/centre-for-trials-research/eddy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.986081 | 1,120 | 2.296875 | 2 |
How ethanol can be obtained from apple pomace
The further use of the apple pomace through hydrolysis and fermentation offers great potential for operators of juice presses in Germany, report chemists from TU Bergakademie Freiberg in the journal "Chemie Ingenieur Technik".
Bioethanol, which can be used as a basic chemical in disinfectants or biofuels, has so far mainly been made from sugar beet and grain. In the future, however, this universal substance could also be obtained from the residue of apple juice production. Particularly suitable for this is apple pomace, the solid components of stems, seeds, pulp and peel that remain after the apples have been pressed. In addition to sugar, it also contains starch, the thickening agent pectin and cellulose. These substances can be converted into higher-quality products such as ethanol, as well as acetic and citric acid, through hydrolysis and subsequent fermentation. The problem: So far, only low ethanol concentrations could be obtained from apple pomace.
A team led by chemistry professor Martin Bertau from TU Bergakademie Freiberg has now presented an optimized process by which ethanol with an alcohol content of up to 6 percent can be produced. "Previous methods achieve an ethanol content of up to 4.7 percent in apple pomace," explains Dr. Doreen Kaiser, who developed and tested the new process in laboratory experiments.
Better fermentation process thanks to the powerful enzyme complex
To produce purer ethanol from apple pomace, the team of scientists used an alternative enzyme complex obtained from the microorganism Penicillium verruculosum. Like other enzyme complexes, the cellulase complex used for the first time in this process has the ability to split the long-chain sugar molecules into simple sugars. If the simple sugars are fermented with the help of yeast and the aqueous solution is distilled, the chemists receive the ethanol in the desired concentration. “Compared to the biocatalysts used previously, the cellulase complex from Penicillium verruculosum has proven to be particularly robust against disruptive factors in the reaction. For this reason, a larger amount of apple pomace can be used than in conventional fermentation processes and, as a result, higher ethanol concentrations can be obtained, ”explains Dr. Doreen Kaiser.
Potential for bio-based industry in fruit production
Up to 650 million liters of apple juice are produced in Germany every year. As a by-product, up to 300,000 tonnes of apple pomace arise annually (source: Statista) – too good to end up as a feed in the pigsty. Disinfectants and even biofuel could be made from the solution.
Background: Biorefinery research at TU Bergakademie Freiberg
The sustainable use of biomass is the focus of the Federal Government's National Research Strategy Bioeconomy 2030. New processes for converting residues from agricultural production into high-quality basic chemicals are an important key to efficient utilization in a biorefinery on an industrial scale. At the Institute of Chemical Technology at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, processes for the production of flavorings from lignin are currently being developed in addition to the utilization of apple pomace.
Original publication: Doreen Kaiser, Martin Bertau: „Enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of apple pomace”. Chemie Ingenieur Technik 92. | <urn:uuid:c1aa44ff-5c2c-4171-87c9-5e84157dab09> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://tu-freiberg.de/en/department-52-media-relations/how-ethanol-can-be-obtained-from-apple-pomace | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.917373 | 732 | 2.75 | 3 |
The following study shows that green tea has the potential to reduce / inhibit the digestion of starch in food. Less than 2 cubs per meal can reduce the spike in blood glucose by 50%. This will work for starchy food like noodles, potatoes and crop.
US study "Inhibition of starch digestion by the green tea polyphenol, (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate" by Sarah C. Forester, Yeyi Gu, Joshua D. Lambert
I have already done the human study and "it don't work"....I have consumed gallons of green tea, (It Has been my go to beverage for years) it has never reduced my postprandial blood glucose levels, insulin requirements, or BG average.
But I still like Green tea...;-)
Gee I wonder if green tea and cinnamon rolls equals normal blood sugar?....Hmmmmm...."O" well I can dream
That hasn't been my experience with green tea either. In fact, it's caused BG to increase from the caffeine with more than one cup.
I don't know Holger. Possibly for a certain type of mouse. For me caffeine usually raises the BG but not always. Anyways worthwhile to try and see if there is any good effect. The starchy food is out for me I am so insulin resistant that I cannot match these foods and I think if you have high blood sugars the IR gets a lot worst. | <urn:uuid:6a14ba6b-1091-4b34-bdcd-9c11a7dd8374> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://forum.tudiabetes.org/t/green-tea-can-modify-the-digestion-of-starch/21464 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.937436 | 296 | 2.265625 | 2 |
From the Confessions: The Defense of the Augsburg Confession
Concerning Love and the Fulfilling of the Law
We must regard the preaching of repentance in this way. Although the scholastics have said nothing at all about faith in their handling of the doctrine of repentance, we think that none of our adversaries is so mad as to deny that absolution is a voice of the gospel. Absolution should be received by faith, so that it may cheer the terrified conscience.
Pulling It Together: We should have no other gods before the Lord (Exod 20:3). He alone is God (Deut 6:4). We think that in the churches today, idols are a thing of the past. Take care; a false god does not have to be a statue of wood, stone, or metal. An idol does not even have to be money—though the cult of wealth is very much among us and in us. Luther teaches us in the Small Catechism that “the greatest idolatry” is when the “conscience...seeks help, comfort, and salvation in its own works and presumes to wrest heaven from God” (Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mu?hlenberg Press, 1959, 367.).
Do you truly trust in Christ to justify you or do you fear, love, and trust your own efforts at religion? Of whom do you seek forgiveness? When the law convicts and leads you to repentance, be sure to repent, but be more sure to trust in Christ for absolution. Do not think that your good works have justified you to God, for that would be to trust in yourself instead of having faith in God. There is the great danger: that thing you trust in most is your real and truest god.
Prayer: Crush me with the hammer of your Word, Lord, so that grace may have its way with me. Amen.
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The Sola Confirmation Series, written by the Rev. Dr. Steven E. King, is a work-book style Confirmation curriculum. It is designed to serve as a simple and practical resource for teaching the biblical Word of God according to the traditional pattern of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. Each book in the series can be used as the basis for a “come as you are” small group Bible study, as a student book for home school or independent study programs, or as a classroom tool and homework resource as part of an existing confirmation program.
The Ten Commandments book is a ten-week unit, which includes one session on each of the Commandments. The Scripture focus is on Moses and the Exodus Cycle, with Bible Study lessons taken primarily from the Pentateuch. | <urn:uuid:6c868d13-c128-45f6-821f-fea36d8669ef> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.solapublishing.com/news_feedback/lessons-in-the-lutheran-confessions/a367.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.955033 | 640 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Going to an Inquest and being told about the last moments of your loved one’s life can be a hard day for anyone to have to go through but having someone there to help can make the process far less traumatic.
The Exeter and Greater Devon District Coroners’ Court is now setting up a Support Service which will be run by volunteers from the Coroners’ Courts Support Service (CCSS). The CCSS is a charity that started in 2003 and their volunteers will be there to listen and offer emotional support and practical help to bereaved families, witnesses and others attending an Inquest at County Hall in Exeter. The Exeter and Greater Devon District Coroners’ Court had 2955 deaths referred in 2018 and held 333 inquests in the same year.
Beverley Radcliffe, Director of the CCSS, said: “Each person is affected by bereavement in their own individual way and, as a volunteer, you really have to quickly assess what their needs are and respond to them.
“Some people want emotional support and the volunteer will be empathic and supportive, while other people want to be given information in which case the volunteer will explain the process and procedures of attending the Inquest.
Before the Inquest starts the volunteer can show people the courtroom if the room is available, so they can see the layout, where people will sit and what their role will be during the hearing.
When an Inquest happens, they might have been given information and read reports, but actually hearing it can be quite distressing.
The first time you have to go into a Courtroom can be very daunting, let alone if it is something as distressing as an Inquest. It is really important that bereaved family members feel they have taken part in the proceedings rather than it happening around them, as this is their opportunity to find the answers, they might need in determining what happened when their loved one died.
Generally, people are unaware that they may be asked to attend an Inquest at a Coroner’s Court if they have witnessed a sudden, unexpected or unexplained death of either a family member or even a stranger.
To have to attend an Inquest is an additional burden to the grieving process and the CCSS volunteers are there to help during the inquest itself and have supported thousands of bereaved families, witnesses and others.”
As one witness who attended put it:
“As it was my first experience in a Coroner’s Court, it was very nice to see a friendly face and someone who explained the entire procedure and made me feel very much more comfortable and relaxed. Attending Court is a very frightening experience for anyone.”
The charity is dependent on raising money to keep the Service going and to expand in further Courts and is always grateful for any donations. If you wish to learn more about the work of the CCSS or wish to make a donation please visit our website at www.coronerscourtssupportservice.org.uk
Volunteers are now being recruited for the The Exeter and Greater Devon District Coroner’s Court and anyone interested should apply for an application pack by sending an email to [email protected] or calling 07534 149 962.
Closing date for applications will be 9th August 2019, interviews will be held 19th & 20th August. The closing date may close early if numbers of applications are reached before this date. Training will be held in September. | <urn:uuid:40aa6fd3-e7fc-40bc-8704-89c3042f2594> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://longdownvillage.com/2019/07/17/helping-bereaved-relatives-at-inquests/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.968035 | 718 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Reliability and Statistical Process Control
When components fall outside specs the chance for quality and reliability issue increases.
Let’s explore a couple of design and manufacturing cases where effectively using statistical process control will enhance your product’s reliability performance.
We often assume the components and processes we rely on to create a reliable product are stable.
Is that true? What is the risk if they are not stable?
As reliability professionals, we work with our vendors and manufacturing teams to create reliable products. We often identify and provide the critical information on which components or processes are critical to reliable performance.
Understanding how SPC and reliability relate, plus the basics of SPC and capability analysis, allow us to implement the design intent and create a reliable product.
Let’s explore how to determine if a vendor ‘gets it’ concerning SPC. Also, let’s discuss how to judge an SPC program, how to select critical to reliability elements, and how to implement SPC across your supply chain and manufacturing process.
In this event, we will discuss key elements that identify critical to reliability element, plus how to prioritize which processes to monitor and control using SPC.
Starting with a basic introduction to SPC and capability analysis, we will quickly move to how to effectively improve your projects reliability performance using process control techniques.
This Accendo Reliability webinar originally broadcast on 14 July 2015.
Please login with your site registration to view the video recording.
If you haven’t registered, it’s free and takes only a moment. | <urn:uuid:dcb9ff26-73bb-467e-b54e-a09d18242c0a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://accendoreliability.com/podcast/arw/reliability-statistical-process-control/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.890466 | 335 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Table Lamp - Prelude for Lute
Luís Gustavo Gonçalves Costa
The table lamp design is the result of craftsmanship. digital and its initial concept is the Joahannes Sebastian Bach “Prelude for Lute song”. Prelude is an introductory piece to a larger work, such as an opera, for example. The creation process takes place in 3 steps: the first is the modeling of the Lute, with the realistic creation of the components, musical instrument materials and colors in the Rhinoceros® software; the second is the deconstruction of the shape, slicing the volume into the three Cartesian planes and the selection of emphatic pieces, rosette of the soundhole, neck, strings, bridge and soundboard; the last step is the digital fabrication in laser cutting and the mounting the luminaire. In this way, the luminaire is structured in two verticals parte and locked by horizontal pieces repeated in the cadence of the frets of the instrument arm, resting on the bracket that houses transformers and power supply. Thus, the prelude announces Fac si Lux.
Luis Gustavo Gonçalves Costa
University Centre of Fine Arts of Sao Paulo
Master in Architecture and Urbanism: Concentration area Heritage Conservation and Restoration by the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA- 2010). Has in course of Management and Practice of Heritage Conservation and Restoration Works Cultural at the Center for Advanced Studies of Integrated Conservation (CECI-2006). Specialist in Architectural Heritage: Preservation and Restoration by Cruzeiro do Sul University (UNICSUL-2004). Graduated in Architecture and Urbanism by the State University of Londrina (UEL-2000). Is a member of International Scientific Committee of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics, (SIGRADI 2012 to 2021). Damage and Nova Mapping Researcher technologies and graduate student in Digital Architecture and parametric projects at Centro Universitário de Belas Artes-SP, and Coordinator of courses in architecture and urbanism, visual arts and interior design at the University Santo Amaro (UNISA) | <urn:uuid:5e6ea121-dd81-4e15-a2a6-358011c9eff9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://pt.linksymposium.com/exhibition/table-lamp---prelude-for-lute | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.851949 | 444 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Thiol functionalization is one potentially useful way to tailor physical and chemical properties of graphene oxides (GOs) and reduced graphene oxides (RGOs). Despite the ubiquitous presence of thiol functional groups in diverse chemical systems, efficient thiol functionalization has been challenging for GOs and RGOs, or for carbonaceous materials in general. In this work, thionation of GOs has been achieved in high yield through two new methods that also allow concomitant chemical reduction/thermal reduction of GOs; a solid-gas metathetical reaction method with boron sulfides (BxSy) gases and a solvothermal reaction method employing phosphorus decasulfide (P4S10). The thionation products, called "mercapto reduced graphene oxides (m-RGOs)", were characterized by employing X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, electron probe analysis, scanning electron microscopy, (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, nano secondary ion mass spectrometry, Ellman assay and atomic force microscopy. The excellent dispersibility of m-RGOs in various solvents including alcohols has allowed fabrication of thin films of m-RGOs. Deposition of m-RGOs on gold substrates was achieved through solution deposition and the m-RGOs were homogeneously distributed on gold surface shown by atomic force microscopy. Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of m-RGOs were obtained by transferring their Langmuir films, formed by simple drop casting of m-RGOs dispersion on water surface, onto various substrates including gold, glass and indium tin oxide. The m-RGO LB films showed low sheet resistances down to about 500 kΩ/sq at 92% optical transparency. The successful results make m-RGOs promising for applications in transparent conductive coatings, biosensing, etc. | <urn:uuid:8e6a122d-39b8-4e33-99af-18524dc09df0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://keep.lib.asu.edu/search?f%5B0%5D=genre%3AAcademic%20theses&f%5B1%5D=linked_agents%3ARanjan%2C%20Rajeev&f%5B2%5D=linked_agents%3ASeo%2C%20Dong-Kyun&f%5B3%5D=linked_agents%3AYarger%2C%20Jeff | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.925045 | 427 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Following Bella Hadid’s candid Instagram post sharing her recent battle with ‘burnout and breakdowns’, there has been a 203% spike in searches for burnout overnight, according to google trends.
Burnout is a state of feeling emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted, as a result of excessive and prolonged stress caused by over-working. It is our body’s way of signalling there is an energy crisis taking place and something has to change.
A recent survey by Kalms revealed the prevalence of burnout as 87% of Brits admitted to feeling stressed, exhausted, and burnt-out in the past 12 months.
Kalms launches new product, Kalms Rhodiola, to relieve exhaustion, stress, and fatigue, helping to fight the effects of burnout, experienced by 87% of Brits during the last 12 months. New survey reveals the extent of Burnt-out Britain[i], of which financial pressures, a lack of control of everyday lives, and a poor work-life balance were at the root cause of their burnout.
Burnout was previously described by the World Health Organisation in 2019 as an “occupational phenomenon”[ii], conceptualised from chronic workplace stress. However, since the start of the global pandemic hit in 2020, we have seen a greater emphasis on the implications of burnout, particularly those working on the frontline as key workers, or the additional parental duties of home-schooling, and how it affects all aspects of our professional and personal lives.
The contrast of triggers and symptoms between men and women, parents, and non-parents, indicate the societal pressures and levels of uncertainty that have undoubtably taken their toll on the nation over the past year. Women experienced more symptoms of burnout than men, with low motivation (55%), increased irritability (50%) and low energy levels (54%) more frequent than their male counterparts. Whilst age was another factor that changed the experience of burnout amongst adults, with those aged under 25 attributing excessive workloads (37%) and people pleasing (26%) as two of the main underlying issues of Burnout, compared with adults aged over 25 years old across both genders who regarded financial pressures (38%) as the main cause.
Author of “Burnt out: The Exhausted Person’s Guide to Thriving in a Fast-paced World”, Selina Barker, comments:
“Burnout is a state of feeling emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted, as a result of excessive and prolonged stress caused by over-working. It is our body’s way of signalling there is an energy crisis taking place and something has to change. When we reach this point of exhaustion, we can feel like we can no longer cope with our daily responsibilities, struggle to focus, lose our compassion for others and struggle to switch off or sleep at night.”
Due to excessive levels of stress, low energy, and prolonged feelings of physical, mental or emotional exhaustion, 36% of those surveyed sought help from their GP, some of whom were prescribed anti-depressants and other medications.
Selina Barker comments:
“Thankfully, burnout is not a fixed state of being, by identifying what has been causing you to burnout and learning how to manage your energy and design your working day so that you can thrive, you can break free from burnout and become more energised, calmer and more fulfilled at work than ever before.”
NEW Kalms Rhodiola Tablets offer a relief from stress, exhaustion and fatigue, common symptoms associated with burnout. Known for its adaptogen properties, research suggests Rhodiola rosea, is an effective stimulant which can help to regulate the body’s stress hormones and relieve symptoms associated with burnout[iii]. Studies have shown that two daily tablets of Rhodiola rosea can help fight fatigue and restore energy levels[iv], and increases our resistance to stress by balancing the neurotransmitters in the brain, without lowering blood sugar levels, which enhances our ability to concentrate, maintain focus, and promotes a positive mood[v].
Emphasising the need to restore our energy levels, Selina Barker adds:
“When you’re feeling fully burnt out or feeling like you’re about to burnout, the first thing you need to do is STOP. Hit pause on your to-do lists, cancel your plans and get into bed. Rest and recovery need to be your top priority. Treat yourself as if you had the flu.
If you’ve had a mild burnout then a weekend might be enough to restore you. If you’re severely burnt out, then you might need to take a few weeks or even a few months off from work. Whatever time you take to recover from burnout, focus on doing things that help you to switch off from work, deeply relax and calm your nervous system: walking in nature, gentle exercise, plenty of sleep, hot baths, nourishing food, talking to a friend about how you’re doing. You can also explore the use of an adaptogen, such as Rhodiola rosea that can help to restore the body’s natural equilibrium from the inside out.”
Kalms Rhodiola is available instore and online at Boots, supermarkets, and pharmacies nationwide and online retailers such as Amazon, Superdrug or directly from www.kalmsrange.co.uk
Selina Barker is a Career and Life Design Coach, author, and podcaster, who has been helping people break free from burnout and create lives and careers they love for over a decade. Selina’s book, ‘Burnt Out: The exhausted person’s six-step guide to thriving in a fast-paced world’ was released in April 2021 by Aster and is available to buy from www.theburntoutbook.com | <urn:uuid:0abf0e0c-db14-4d89-8073-698dab63fb31> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.successinsteps.com/new-research-reveals-the-extent-of-burnt-out-britain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.951872 | 1,223 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Report to Congress on Implementation
of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act
(as required by Section 1001(3) of Public Law 107-56)
September 13, 2004
Office of the Inspector General
Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, directs the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) to undertake a series of actions related to claims of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. It also requires the OIG to provide semiannual reports to Congress on the implementation of the OIG's responsibilities under Section 1001. This report - the fifth since enactment of the legislation - summarizes the OIG's Section 1001-related activities from December 16, 2003, through June 21, 2004.
The OIG is an independent entity in the DOJ that reports to both the Attorney General and Congress. The OIG's mission is to investigate allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse in DOJ programs and personnel and to promote economy and efficiency in DOJ operations.
The OIG has jurisdiction to review programs and personnel in all DOJ components, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Attorneys' Offices, and other DOJ components.
The OIG consists of the Immediate Office of the Inspector General and the following divisions and offices:
The OIG has a staff of over 415 employees, about half of whom are based in Washington, D.C., while the rest work from 16 Investigations Division field and area offices and 7 Audit Division regional offices located throughout the country.
II. SECTION 1001 OF THE PATRIOT ACT
Section 1001 of the Patriot Act provides the following:
III. CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES COMPLAINTS
The OIG established the Special Operations Branch in its Investigations Division in 2001 to help manage its investigative responsibilities outlined in Section 1001.1 The Special Agent in Charge (SAC) who directs this unit is assisted by two Assistant Special Agents in Charge (ASAC), one of whom has responsibility for Section 1001 and DEA matters and a second who coordinates FBI matters. In addition, Investigative Specialists support the unit and divide their time between Section 1001 and FBI/DEA responsibilities.
The OIG receives civil rights and civil liberties complaints via mail, e mail, telephone, and facsimile. The complaints initially are reviewed by the Investigative Specialist and ASAC responsible for Section 1001 matters, and the complaints are entered into the OIG's investigations database.
One of the initial determinations is whether a complaint alleges the type of abuse of civil rights and civil liberties contemplated by Section 1001 of the Patriot Act. While the phrase "civil rights and civil liberties" is not specifically defined in the Patriot Act, the OIG has looked to the "Sense of Congress" provisions in the statute, namely Sections 102 and 1002, for context. Sections 102 and 1002 identify certain ethnic and religious groups - including Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, and South Asians - who may be vulnerable to abuse due to a possible backlash from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The more serious civil rights and civil liberties allegations that relate to actions of a DOJ employee or DOJ contractor generally are investigated by the OIG, primarily by Special Agents in an OIG Investigations Division field office. Some complaints are assigned to the OIG's Office of Oversight and Review for investigation.
Given the large number of complaints and the OIG's limited resources, the OIG does not investigate all allegations made against DOJ employees. Instead, the OIG refers for appropriate handling many complaints involving DOJ employees to internal affairs offices in DOJ components, such as the FBI Inspection Division, the DEA Office of Professional Responsibility, and the BOP Office of Internal Affairs. In certain referrals, the OIG requires the components to report the results of its investigations to the OIG.
Many complaints involve matters outside the OIG's jurisdiction because the subjects of the complaints are not DOJ employees. Such complaints that identify a specific issue for investigation are forwarded to the appropriate investigative entity outside DOJ, if one can be identified. For example, complaints of mistreatment by airport security staff are sent to the Department of Homeland Security OIG. We also have forwarded complaints during this reporting period to the OIG at the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition, we have referred complainants to a variety of police department internal affairs offices which have jurisdiction over the subject of the complaints.
When an allegation received from any source involves a potential violation of federal civil rights statutes by a DOJ employee, OIG staff also discusses the complaint with the DOJ Civil Rights Division for possible prosecution. In some cases, the Civil Rights Division accepts the case and requests additional investigation by either the OIG or the FBI. In other cases, the Civil Rights Division declines prosecution. Even in the event of a declination, the OIG may continue investigating the complaint as an administrative matter.2
From December 16, 2003, through June 21, 2004, the period covered by this report, the OIG processed the following number and types of complaints:
The 208 complaints processed by the OIG during this reporting period that fell within the OIG's jurisdiction (i.e., that state a Section 1001-related claim involving a DOJ component or employee) covered a wide variety of matters. They included allegations of: a) excessive force, verbal abuse, discrimination, retaliation, and other custody-related abuses by BOP staff; b) illegal search and seizure by FBI agents; c) excessive force by DEA agents; and d) racial profiling by FBI and DEA agents.
However, many of the 208 complaints in this category, while within the OIG's jurisdiction and couched as a "civil rights" complaint, did not raise issues that implicate our duties under Section 1001. For example, the OIG received numerous complaints from non-Muslim inmates alleging they are not receiving proper medical care or do not have access to adequate library materials.
With the possible exception of one matter, none of the 208 complaints alleging misconduct by DOJ employees related to use of a provision in the Patriot Act.6
After analyzing the complaints in this category, the OIG identified 13 matters that warranted opening an investigation or conducting a closer review. These complaints, which varied in seriousness, included allegations of racial profiling by the FBI or the DEA, denial of access to counsel, verbal abuse of inmates, and placement of an inmate in solitary confinement without cause.
During this reporting period, the OIG opened three new Section 1001-related investigations, continued seven ongoing Section 1001-related cases, and closed five Section 1001 investigations. A description of the three new matters opened by the OIG follows.
During this reporting period, the OIG referred 10 of the new complaints to internal affairs offices within DOJ components for investigation or for closer review. In one of two complaints referred to the FBI, an inmate alleged he was arrested by the FBI without a warrant and was coerced into signing advisement of rights forms that he did not understand because he did not have a translator. The FBI Inspection Division conducted an investigation and closed this matter after determining that the complainant was interviewed in the presence of his attorney. In the other complaint involving the FBI, an individual who allegedly was questioned by the FBI about terrorism and his immigration status claimed that he was targeted because he is Muslim and an Egyptian national. This matter is under review by the FBI Inspection Division.
One of the 10 complaints was referred to the DEA. The complainant in that matter alleged that a DEA agent sat next to him on an airplane, identified himself as a DEA agent, and questioned him about his place of birth, citizenship, and his travel destination. The complainant alleged he was targeted because of his "Middle Eastern look." The DEA Office of Professional Responsibility closed this matter due to the death of the agent, who was killed in an off-duty automobile accident.
Seven of the 10 new complaints were referred to the BOP this reporting period. They included allegations that staff verbally abused Muslim inmates, placed Muslim inmates in segregation for no apparent reason, denied Muslim inmates special foods requested for religious services, and denied Muslim inmates family visitation. Three of the complaints sent by the OIG to the BOP were designated as "Monitored Referrals," which means the BOP is required to send a report of the investigation to the OIG for its review when it completes its review. Of these three complaints, the BOP closed one matter as unsubstantiated while the other two matters remain open. Four of the matters referred to the BOP were designated as "Management Reviews," which means the BOP has the discretion to handle the matter as it deems appropriate and is not required to provide the OIG with a written report of its findings. The BOP opened investigations on each of these matters.
The OIG has conducted other reviews that go beyond the explicit requirements of Section 1001 in order to more fully implement its civil rights and civil liberties oversight responsibilities. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of its workforce, the OIG can extend its oversight beyond traditional investigations to include evaluations, audits, and special reviews of DOJ programs and personnel. Using this approach, the OIG has conducted several special reviews that address, in part, issues relating to the OIG's duties under Section 1001.
An OIG special review issued in December 2003 (and described in detail in our January 2004 Section 1001 report) examined allegations that some correctional officers physically and verbally abused some detainees held in connection with the Department's terrorism investigation at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.7 We concluded that certain MDC staff members abused some of the detainees. While we did not find evidence that detainees were brutally beaten, we did find that some officers slammed and bounced detainees against the wall, twisted their arms and hands in painful ways, stepped on their leg restraint chains, and punished detainees by keeping them restrained for long periods of time. We determined that the way these MDC staff members handled the detainees was, in many respects, unprofessional, inappropriate, and in violation of BOP policy.
In addition, we found systemic problems in the way detainees were treated at the MDC, including staff members' use of a t-shirt taped to the wall in the facility's receiving area designed to send an inappropriate message to detainees, audio taping of detainees' meetings with their attorneys, unnecessary and inappropriate use of strip searches, and banging on detainees' cell doors excessively while they were sleeping.
We provided the results of our investigation to managers at BOP Headquarters for their review and appropriate disciplinary action. In a non-public appendix to the report, we recommended to the BOP that it take disciplinary action against 10 current BOP employees, counsel 2 current MDC employees, and inform employers of 4 former MDC staff members about our findings.
With respect to the systemic problems we found at the MDC, we made seven recommendations to the BOP ranging from developing guidance for training correctional officers in appropriate restraint techniques to educating BOP staff concerning the impropriety of audio recording meetings between inmates and their attorneys.
On February 25, 2004, the BOP responded to the OIG's systemic recommendations, and on March 18, 2004, the OIG issued its analysis of the BOP's response. The BOP response and the OIG analysis can be found on the OIG's website under "Special Reports." We concluded in our analysis that the BOP, in general, had taken responsible steps to implement our recommendations. The BOP is continuing to take action to implement and respond to several of the recommendations, and we will continue to monitor the BOP's progress.
In its June 2003 Detainee Report, the OIG made 21 recommendations related to issues under the jurisdiction of the FBI, the BOP, leadership offices at the DOJ, as well as immigration issues now under the jurisdiction of the DHS. During this reporting period, the OIG analyzed the Department's third response to our recommendations. We concluded that the Department had taken responsible steps to implement the recommendations and that only one recommendation directed at the Department and the DHS remained to be implemented. The remaining recommendation calls for the Department and the DHS to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to formalize policies, responsibilities, and procedures for managing a national emergency that involves alien detainees. The Department notified us in May 2004 that negotiations with the DHS over the language of the MOU are ongoing.
On May 5, 2004, the OIG released a report that examined the BOP's procedures for selecting individuals who provide Islamic religious services to federal inmates. The OIG initiated its review in response to concerns from several members of Congress that the BOP relies solely on two Islamic groups to endorse its Muslim chaplains, and that these two groups allegedly are connected to terrorism and promote an exclusionary and extreme form of Islam. Our investigation examined the recruitment, endorsement, selection, and supervision of Muslim chaplains, contractors, and volunteers who work with the approximately 9,000 BOP inmates who seek Islamic religious services.
The OIG review found that while the BOP has made some improvements in how it selects and supervises Muslim religious services providers, a number of deficiencies remained. These problems include:
The BOP uses endorsements from local and national Muslim organizations to help determine whether chaplain, contractor, and volunteer applicants are able to provide appropriate religious services in a prison setting. The OIG's investigation found that the BOP formally requested information and a threat assessment from the FBI in October 2003 on all Muslim national- and local-endorsing organizations that had provided endorsements to the BOP. Pending completion of the FBI's review, the BOP decided not to accept endorsements for Muslim clerics from any endorsing organization. In mid-December 2003, the FBI finished screening the Muslim-endorsing organizations and determined that some of the organizations were "of interest" although most were not.8 In April 2004, the FBI finally shared the information about the screened organizations with the BOP.
The OIG review made 16 recommendations to help the BOP improve its process for selecting, screening, and supervising Muslim religious services providers. These recommendations include improving and increasing the information flow between the BOP and the FBI regarding the radicalization and recruitment of inmates; requiring that all chaplain, religious contractor, and certain volunteer applicants be interviewed by at least one individual knowledgeable of the applicant's religion; implementing additional security screening requirements for religious services providers; supervising more closely inmate-led religious services; using more effectively the expertise of its current Muslim chaplains to screen, recruit, and supervise Muslim religious services providers; and developing a strategy specifically targeted towards recruiting additional Muslim chaplains and contractors.
In June 2004, the BOP responded to the recommendations and in July 2004 the OIG analyzed the BOP's response.9 The BOP's response resolved all but three of the recommendations, and the OIG expects to receive an updated response in October 2004 addressing the three remaining recommendations.
In May 2002, the Attorney General issued revised domestic Guidelines that govern general crimes and criminal intelligence investigations. The OIG is conducting a review of the FBI's implementation of four sets of Attorney General Guidelines: Attorney General's Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants; Attorney General's Guidelines on FBI Undercover Operations; Attorney General's Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering Enterprise and Terrorism Enterprise Investigations; and Revised Department of Justice Procedures for Lawful, Warrantless Monitoring of Verbal Communications. The objectives of the OIG review are to determine what steps the FBI has taken to implement the Guidelines, examine how effective those steps have been, and assess the FBI's compliance with key provisions of the Guidelines. Because the FBI's adherence to these Guidelines could implicate civil rights or civil liberties issues under Section 1001, we are including a description of this review in our report.
IV. ADVERTISING RESPONSIBILITIES
The OIG continues to meet its Section 1001 advertising requirements in a variety of ways.
The OIG's website contains information about how individuals can report violations of their civil rights or civil liberties. On our website, the OIG also continues to promote an e-mail address - email@example.com - where individuals can send complaints of civil rights and civil liberties violations. During this reporting period, the OIG received most of the 1,613 complaints via e-mail.
The OIG previously developed a poster, translated in Arabic, that explains how to file a civil rights or civil liberties complaint with the OIG. An electronic version of this poster is also available on our website.
The DOJ's main Internet homepage contains a link that provides a variety of options for reporting civil rights and civil liberties violations to the OIG. The Civil Rights Division's website also describes the OIG's role in investigating allegations of misconduct by DOJ employees and provides information on how to file a complaint with the OIG.
In addition, several minority and ethnic organizations have added information to their websites about how to contact the OIG with civil rights and civil liberties complaints. For example, the Arab American Institute (www.aaiusa.org), an organization that represents Arab Americans' interests and provides community services, added the OIG's Section 1001 poster to its website of information and resources for the Arab American community. The Institute also has informed its members and affiliates of the OIG's Section 1001 responsibilities through its weekly e-mail newsletter. Similarly, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), one of the largest Arab American organizations in the nation, has posted the OIG's contact information and Section 1001 responsibilities on its website, which at one time averaged more than 1 million hits per month. The ADC also has published the OIG's Section 1001 responsibilities in its magazine, the ADC Times, which is circulated to more than 20,000 people. Furthermore, the OIG's Arabic poster and Section 1001 responsibilities have been disseminated electronically by the Council on American Islamic Relations LISTERV and the National Association of Muslim Lawyers LISTSERV.
In the prior reporting period, the OIG arranged to have the following television advertisement aired with the text spoken in Arabic and scrolled in English:
The Office of the Inspector General investigates allegations of civil rights and civil liberties abuses by U.S. Department of Justice employees. If you believe a Department of Justice employee has violated your civil rights or civil liberties, contact the Inspector General at 800-869-4499. That number again is 800-869-4499.
The OIG purchased blocks of time on ANA Television Network, Inc., an Arab cable television station with outlets around the country. According to the promotional materials, ANA Television Network is the largest Arab-American television network in the country and broadcasts news and entertainment 24 hours a day. The segment aired 48 times during prime time in June and July 2003.
Also in the prior reporting period, the OIG submitted public service announcements to 45 radio stations in cities across the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. The text of the PSA read:
The Office of the Inspector General investigates allegations of civil rights and civil liberties abuses by U.S. Department of Justice employees. If you believe a Department of Justice employee has violated your civil rights or civil liberties, contact the Inspector General at 800-869-4499.
Last year, we also purchased airtime for 44 radio advertisements on Arab/Muslim American radio stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Dallas. These advertisements, which ran in late 2003, were 60 seconds long and included the same script listed above both in English and Arabic.
Previously, the OIG disseminated approximately 2,500 Section 1001 posters to more than 150 organizations in 50 cities. The posters, in English and Arabic, explain how to contact the OIG to report civil rights and civil liberties abuses.
In an earlier reporting period, we also provided the posters to the BOP, which placed at least two in each of its facilities. We have received hundreds of complaints each reporting period from inmates alleging civil rights and civil liberties abuses, many of which we believe were sent to us in response to the posters.
During this reporting period, the OIG purchased additional newspaper advertisements highlighting its role in investigating allegations of civil rights and civil liberties abuses. The display advertisement was placed in an Arab community newspaper and appeared both in English and Arabic.
Flyers have been translated into several commonly spoken languages in the Muslim world, including Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi, and Vietnamese. The OIG intends to provide these flyers and a forthcoming flyer translated into Indonesian to the BOP with a request that they be made available to incoming inmates in their native languages.
CIVIL RIGHTS & CIVIL LIBERTIES ABUSES
For more information, call (800) 869-4499 or visit the OIG's website at www.usdoj.gov/oig
|The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), U.S. Department of Justice, investigates allegations of civil rights and civil liberties abuses by Department of Justice employees in the FBI, DEA, ATF, Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Attorneys Offices, and all other Department of Justice agencies.
For more information, call (800) 869-4499 or visit the OIG's website at www.usdoj.gov/oig
V. EXPENSE OF IMPLEMENTING SECTION 1001
During this reporting period, the OIG spent approximately $322,800 in personnel costs, $19,762 in travel costs (for investigators to conduct interviews), and $2,105 in advertising and publication costs, for a total of more than $344,668 to implement its responsibilities under Section 1001. The personnel and travel costs reflect the time and funds spent by OIG Special Agents, inspectors, and attorneys who have worked directly on investigating Section 1001-related complaints and on conducting special reviews. | <urn:uuid:1101c53d-27d6-4db1-b020-fc8fe1652ae0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/0409/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.953496 | 4,611 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Câu 23: I will go to bed until I ______ all my exercises.
A. have finished B. will finish C. has finished D. am finishing
Câu 24: He often practise speaking English with the native ______.
A. speaking B. spoke C. speakers D. speak
Câu 25: Lindsay Lewis ______ research at Bristol University in the 1980s.
A. made B. had made C. had done D. did
Câu 26: The purpose of this test is to ______ the weight of the chemical element.
A. interrupt B. measure C. find out D. ease
III. Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.
Câu 27: I often talk to my fellow peasants when we have free time.
A. farmers B. doctors C. lawyers D. teachers
Câu 28: After lunch, I often take a short rest.
A. destination B. Plough C. excursion D. break
Câu 29: Linh always has a very busy timetable for the whole week.
A. schedule B. routine C. holiday D. life
Câu 30: No matter what may happen, you should never give up hopes.
A. create B. be satisfied with C. begin D. stop
IV. Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND
Every child in Great Britain between the age of five and fifteen must (31) ______ school. There (32) ______ three main types of education institutions: primary (elementary) schools, secondary schools, and universities.
State schools are free, and attendance is compulsory. Morning school begins at nine o’clock and lasts until half past four. School is open five days a week.
(33) ______ Saturdays and Sundays, there are no lessons. There are holidays at Christmas, Easter and in summer. In London as in all cities, there are two grades of state schools for those (34) ______ will go to work at fifteen: primary schools for boys and girls between the ages of five and eleven, and secondary schools for children from eleven to fifteen.
The lessons are reading, writing, the English language, English literature, English history, geography, (35) ______ ,nature study, drawing, painting, singing, woodwork and drill.
Câu 31:A. go B. come C. attend D. arrive
Câu 32:A. is B. has C. have D. are
Câu 33:A. For B. On C. At D. In
Câu 34:A. when B. where C. which D. who
Câu 35:A. scientifically B. scientific C. science D. scientist
V. Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
The first school for blind, deaf and mute children in the Tibet Autonomous Region celebrated its first anniversary on Friday. The school is built in the eastern suburb of Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and is designed to hold 200 students. It covers 20,000 square meters.The school curriculum includes Braille and sign language training, Tibetan, mathematics, writing, ethics training, physical education, arts, handicrafts, speech and walking courses. At the celebration, the audience was touched by a silent song expressed by the students with sign language. BaibaToinzhub, a 10-year-old blind child, can speak fluent Chinese and is good at singing and dancing. He told the visitors that life in the boarding school was comfortable.
Câu 36: What type of students attend the school?
A. Children who cannot see, hear, or speak.
B. Children who live in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
C. Children with a variety of disabilities.
D. Children who are visually impaired.
Câu 37: The school is located in ______.
A. the capital of Tibet
B. the eastern of Tibet
C. 20,000 square meters
D. the suburb of the capital of Tibet
Câu 38: The school is ______.
A. built in Tibet
B. able to hold 200 students
C. 20,000 square kilometers in area
D. the first boarding school in Tibet
Câu 39: Which subject is taught in the school?
C. Foreign languages
Câu 40: Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Life in the boarding school is comfortable.
B. Tibet’s first deaf-mute school celebrated its 10th birthday.
C. BaibaToinzhub can sing and dance very well.
D. The visitors were touched by a silent song.
VI. Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is CLOSEST in meaning to the sentence given in each of the following questions.
Câu 41: We hope to receive a message from our mutual friend, Susan.
A. Our mutual friend, Susan, whom we hope to receive a message.
B. Susan, who’s our mutual friend, is hoped to receive a message from.
C. We’re looking forward to receiving a message from our mutual friend, Susan.
D. We wish we received a message from our mutual friend, Susan.
Câu 42: Minh wishes he had taken part in the English competition last week.
A. Minh now regrets not having attended the English competition last week.
B. Minh would never mind not attending the English competition last week.
C. Minh really enjoyed attending the English competition last week.
D. Not attending the English competition last week was Minh’s big mistake.
Câu 43: We really do not want to hear your explanation again.
A. We are fed up with hearing your explanation again.
B. We would rather not ask you to give any explanation again.
C. Your explanation really makes us feel sorry.
D. We are extremely sorry for hearing your explanation again.
Câu 44: I didn’t use to like football.
A. When I was young, I liked football, but now I don’t.
B. I don’t like football.
C. Once I didn’t like football, but now I do.
D. I wasn’t accustomed to football.
Câu 45: The dictionary was so expensive that I didn’t buy it.
A. The dictionary was too expensive for me to buy it.
B. It was an expensive dictionary so that meant I didn’t buy it.
C. It was such an expensive dictionary that I didn’t buy it.
D. The dictionary was enough expensive for me to buy. | <urn:uuid:3c45e4a4-07c2-4370-b430-237c0bed1646> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://dev.loigiaihay.com/de-so-4-de-kiem-tra-giua-ki-1-tieng-anh-10-moi-a83845.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.957783 | 1,521 | 3 | 3 |
Stem cell image of the week: Immature human eggs (pink) were created by Japanese researchers using stem cells that were derived from blood cells.
A team of Japanese scientists say they have taken an important step toward creating human eggs in a lab dish.
Their work, which was reported Thursday in the journal Science, outlined their research and explained how they were able to turn human blood cells into stem cells, which they then transformed into very immature human eggs.
They say the eggs are too immature to be fertilized or make a baby. And much more research would be needed to create eggs that could be useful, and safe for human reproduction. But they believe the technique could someday help millions of people suffering from infertility.
In their paper, the Japanese scientists say the next step will be to try to make mature human eggs and produce human sperm this way.
“It’s the beginning of a paradigm change,” says Kyle Orwig, a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
In addition to helping infertile people, such a development could enable same sex couples to have babies with sperm and eggs made from their own skin cells.
But such a possibility would also have much broader implications, say others following the field.
Newly discovered stem cells may help heal broken bones and arthritic joints. (Todd Dubnicoff)
Oh, to be a newt. This semi-aquatic salamander is able to regenerate an entire limb after injury. The regenerative ability of our human bodies just doesn’t measure up: we can heal a bone fracture though that ability weakens as we age, and some bone fractures called nonunions are unable to heal. And we have no ability to regrow lost cartilage leaving 75 million Americans suffering with painful, debilitating arthritis.
CIRM-funded research published this week in Cell may one day give doctors a leg up on treating bone-related disease and injury. The Stanford team behind the study reports that they’ve identified a stem cell that gives the three main components of our skeleton: the outer bone, the spongy interior and cartilage that provides cushion in our joints. The scientists showed that these skeletal stem cells are separate from mesenchymal stem cells which can also specialize, or differentiate, into skeletal tissues as well as fat and muscle. One of the lead authors, Dr. Charles Chan, PhD, explained the important distinction between the two cell types in a press release:
“Mesenchymal stem cells are loosely characterized and likely to include many populations of cells, each of which may respond differently and unpredictably to differentiation signals. In contrast, the skeletal stem cell we’ve identified possesses all of the hallmark qualities of true, multipotential, self-renewing, tissue-specific stem cells. They are restricted in terms of their fate potential to just skeletal tissues, which is likely to make them much more clinically useful.”
The researchers located skeletal stem cells at the end of developing bone and found them in increasing numbers at the site of healing broken bones. The scientists were also able to derive them by reprogramming readily available human fat cells as well as embryonic stem cell-like induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). With these skeletal stem cells now in hand, the team is excited with the prospect of combining cartilage-repair surgeries with an injection of the stem cells to boost healing. Senior author Michael Longaker envisions the impact of such therapies on healthcare in the U.S.:
“I would hope that, within the next decade or so, this cell source will be a game-changer in the field of arthroscopic and regenerative medicine. The United States has a rapidly aging population that undergoes almost 2 million joint replacements each year. If we can use this stem cell for relatively noninvasive therapies, it could be a dream come true.”
Cincinnati Children’s researchers report progress growing a human esophagus in a lab (Adonica Shaw)
Scientists from Cincinnati Children’s Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM) have successfully grown human esophageal tissue entirely from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs).
Their research, which was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, is the latest advancement from (CuSTOM). They believe it will open the door for other scientists to form any tissue type in the body from stem cells.
The center is developing new ways to study birth defects and diseases that affect millions of people with gastrointestinal disorders, such as gastric reflux, and this research is a milestone for them.
“Disorders of the esophagus and trachea are prevalent enough in people that organoid models of human esophagus could be greatly beneficial. In addition to being a new model to study birth defects like esophageal atresia, the organoids can be used to study diseases like eosinophilic esophagitis and Barrett’s metaplasia, or to bioengineer genetically matched esophageal tissue for individual patients, ” said Jim Wells, PhD, chief scientific officer at CuSTOM and study lead investigator.
The resulting human esophageal organoids were fully formed and grew to a length of about 300-800 micrometers in about two months. Compared biochemically with esophageal tissues from patient biopsies, the bioengineered tissues were similar.
The research team plans to further the technology’s therapeutic potential through projects including using the organoids to examine the progression of specific diseases and congenital defects affecting the esophagus. | <urn:uuid:366a9f98-82a1-4cf3-9536-2f481d7a51f7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.cirm.ca.gov/2018/09/21/stem-cell-stories-that-caught-our-eye-human-eggs-from-stem-cells-a-new-way-to-heal-broken-bones-and-a-lab-grown-esophagus/?shared=email&msg=fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.95247 | 1,181 | 3.21875 | 3 |
By Ed Staskus
The General Hospital of the Immaculate Heart of Mary opened in Sudbury on Paris Street in 1950. It was the first English speaking not just French hospital in northern Ontario. It had a brick façade with a steel beam grid system. The parking lot was close to hand right at the entrance, which was handy if you were dragging a broken leg behind you.
Nobody needed to speak English or any other language to get around. “They used to do this cool thing,” Ginette Tobodo said. “On the walls they painted certain colors, one color for the lab, another color for the cardiac department, and you just followed the color to where you needed to go. It was easy to find your way around.”
Susan Cameron was the lead blast off. “The hospital was not officially open, but my mother was in labor,” she said. It was unofficial but necessary vital time sensitive. When it’s your time to be born, it’s your time, no matter what anybody officially rules on the matter.
When I was born the next year in March 1951 everybody was already calling the hospital the ‘General.’ I don’t remember a single second of being in my mother’s womb. The next thing I knew there were bright lights, voices, a pair of scissors, a slap on my butt, and I was being held up for inspection like a hunk of ham. I couldn’t make out what was happening. Everybody was wearing clothes and I was naked as a jaybird. It seemed like I had come into being not knowing anything.
The whole thing was such a shock I couldn’t bring myself to talk about it for almost two years, by which time nobody wanted to hear about it.
A man wearing a mask counted my toes and fingers and pinched my arms and legs. He stopped when he seemed satisfied. I wanted to ask him what he was doing but didn’t know how to talk. That month’s issue of Sudbury’s Inco Triangle newsletter had a poem called “Man’s a Queer Animal” on one of its inside pages.
“With a lid on each eye, and a bridge on his nose, with drums in his ears, and nails on his toes, with palms on his hands, and soles on his feet, and a large Adam’s apple, that helps him to eat, with a cap on each knee, on each shoulder a blade, he’s the queerest thing made.”
I looked myself over. I didn’t seem queer, but what did I know? I checked the other newborns but couldn’t see any difference between them and me. Were we all off the wall? I was reassured when I heard a nurse say, “They are all such little miracles.”
Inco was the corporation that ran most of the mining in Sudbury. Its head man died a month before I was born. Robert Crooks Stanley was a mining engineer who patented many new refining methods including the Stanley Process. He became president of Inco in 1922, when the company was at a low ebb. He had to close operations owing to a loss of war orders. Six years later, recovering his poise, he launched a $50 million dollar building and expansion project.
When I came down the chute the mines were booming. My mom was getting her bag ready for the hospital the day Len Turner and Nifty Jessup arrived at the Bank of Toronto in the Donovan neighborhood, one of Sudbury’s oldest neighborhoods, with Inco’s weekly payroll. Going up the steps of the bank, the pay clerks were suddenly brought up short by two men armed with revolvers.
“Let me have that case,” one of them snarled.
Len made a grab for the man’s gun. The gun went off, the bullet slamming into the bank building. The bank was unharmed. The gunman grabbed the payroll case and the thieves drove off in a stolen car towards North Bay. For all that, they made a wrong turn, got trapped on Fir Lane and the Sudbury police, more of them and better armed than the bandits, rounded them up.
“A little of that excitement goes a long way,” Len said to Nifty after they got their company’s payroll back.
Sudbury came into existence in the early 1880s as a construction site for Canadian Pacific Railway that was laying tracks for a transcontinental line. It was a company town and all the stores and boarding houses and everything else were operated by the company. W. J. Bell cut down every tree he could see to supply the railroad, at least until the day the railroad was done and left town. It looked like the end of Sudbury.
It was saved from stillbirth by prospectors who found vast mineral deposits, what became known as the Sudbury Basin. It is the third largest impact crater on the planet, when something big from outer space crashed there about 2 billion years ago. “By 1886 we knew Sudbury was going to be a mining town,” Florence Howey wrote. In that year mining and smelting was started by Copper Cliff. Seven years later the town incorporated itself.
Meanwhile, Sam Richie formed the Canadian Copper Company in Cleveland, Ohio, which was an unknown place to me in 1951, although by 1959 I was finding out all about it since my parents, with my brother, sister, and me in tow, migrated there. At the turn of the 20th century Canadian Copper was merged with International Nickel, controlled by J. P Morgan, and moved to New Jersey.
Sudbury’s nickel plating on warships helped win the Spanish-American War for the United States. Afterwards, the British and their international military cousins sat up and took notice. The arms race was on, and Sudbury was rolling in dough.
Even though my mother and I had been inseparable for nine months, the next thing I knew I was being separated from her. I was carried to a nursery and spent the next week in the company of a gaggle of strangers. Half the time half of us were crying. The rest of the time we were sleeping or looking around for food.
The boy next to me seemed to be hungry 24 hours a day. Whenever anything edible was within reach, he reached for it. “He’s a nice boy but he’s got more nerve than a bum tooth,” I thought, even though he was far off from cutting his teeth. A girl on the other side of me wiggled her legs and giggled. She started wiggling her arms, too.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her, baby fat and all. “That girl is fidgety as a bubble dancer with a slow leak,” I tried to tell the hungry boy beside me, but the words wouldn’t come, and besides he was eating again.
The nurses gave us a bath every morning and fed us every three hours. The nurse who scrubbed me from tip to toe was all business. She tested the temperature with her elbow, soaped me up, and I went gently down into the water. One day something scared me, and I jumped like an electric eel. I was crazy slippery from the soap and slipped out of her hands. I landed face down in the baby bath. The commotion I caused would have made anyone think she was trying to kill me.
When we were done with breakfast lunch dinner and goodies, which was all the same mush, they bubbled us, changed us, and put us back to sleep. I wasn’t fussy or gassy and slept like a log. As soon as I woke up, I was hungry again.
The boys took it easy in blue beds and the girls in pink beds, what the bosses in white uniforms called cots. My mother got to stay in a room with another woman, chatting it up, eating in bed, and reading Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies’ Home Journal. I saw her twice a day for a few minutes for some real food. One day my dad showed up.
“Who’s that?” I wanted to ask.
My cot was near a window. When I looked out all I could see was ice and snow. More than a hundred inches of snow had fallen that winter and there were snowbanks as far as the eye could see. The month before the thermometer had gotten stuck between 30 and 40 below for a week. It was still bitter cold. I pulled my blanket tight around me when I heard one of the nurses say, “It’s too bad we can’t take them out for a little airing.”
The minerals in the Sudbury Basin had a high sulphur content and needed to be roasted before smelting. The open pits burned for years. The roasting yards puffed yellow gray clouds all around the compass. There were slag and mine tailing piles, soil erosion and blackened hilltops. When I was born Sudbury was largely barren and treeless. Everybody said that was the way it was. Everybody cashed their paychecks and got on with it. Tourists on their way somewhere else called the Sudbury Basin the Canadian Death Valley.
I was an infant and didn’t have a clue that engineers and corporate executives can be a burrito short of a combination plate. The executives were sly dogs, though. What their mines paid in taxes was the equivalent of about one-half the revenue that Sudbury would have gotten if it had been any other heavy-industrial city in that part of Ontario. The national press was always saying my hometown was a “slum” or “a smaller version of Katowice, Poland.”
My dad belonged to Local 598 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. It was the biggest trade union in Canada. Local 598 and Inco hated each other’s guts. The local built union halls and a children’s camp where we went to hear music and see movies. I saw Walt Disney’s “Treasure Island” and “The Littlest Outlaw.”
It wasn’t like I needed a day off like my father and godfather, who worked long hours miles down in the ground. One day my godfather walked up to me at the camp and said, “What are you doing here relaxing? You haven’t worked a day in your life.”
“You’ve got to love livin’,” I said.
He coughed up a mouthful of mine dust and cigarette smoke and laughed. “If you aren’t laughing, you aren’t living, my baby boy,” he said, reaching for his Export A’s when my dad walked up, so they could kick back together for ten minutes.
My baby days were behind me, but I let it slide.
My parents didn’t live in Lively or Onaping Falls, where class and race paid the bills. Little Warsaw was where the Poles lived. Little Italy was under a line of smokestacks and the Italians lived there. I ended up living in the middle of town where the East Europeans and Finns lived. The Finns liked to wrestle and ski, although not at the same time. My parents and their friends liked to play cards smoke drink and dance. They worked like Puritans, though, saving their money, so they could get ahead. They left the DP camps of Europe in the late 1940s on separate freighters with a duffel bag and enough cash to buy a snack.
When it came time to pack up, I wasn’t ready. I had gotten used to the nursery and had made friends. I learned soon enough that all good things come to an end. It was a sunny day towards the end of the month when my dad gathered my mom and me up and took us home. There weren’t any crocuses showing, but most of the snowpack had melted away.
The General did fine work by me. I was hale and hearty when I got to what I found out was home. I had been living on the bottle, but my mom switched the menu up, feeding me herself. My parents lived in a small, rented house on Pine Street. My father was working in the tombs of outer space, taking all the overtime he could get, and was planning on buying a house on Stanley Street, just down the street.
Sometimes the hospital couldn’t get it done and people took matters into their own hands. Edmond Paquette, an Inco pensioner in his 80s, had suffered a paralytic stroke that left him unable to walk. He vowed an act of penance, building a built-to-scale church inside a five-gallon glass carboy. When he was done, he stood up and walked across the room to tell his son-in-law Dusty that he had accomplished his mission.
“You’re walking unaided,” Dusty exclaimed.
“It’s a miracle,” Edmond said.
Ed Staskus posts stories on 147 Stanley Street http://www.147stanleystreet.com and Cleveland Daybook http://www.clevelandohiodaybook.com. To get the site’s monthly feature in your in-box click on “Follow.” | <urn:uuid:c18f81c0-8e90-4f1b-9860-f71cdf93cb2a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://clevelandohiodaybook.com/2018/06/01/the-ground-zero/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.986565 | 2,867 | 1.640625 | 2 |
"fall" po angielsku z przykładami - Słownik kolokacji angielskich
- But how did they fall behind by 15 points in the first place?
- A company can do everything right and yet still fall behind.
- The students say that too much work means they fall behind in class.
- Second, in science, to stand still is to fall behind.
- If she had to fall behind in her work, it was for a good cause.
- He allowed another run in the third to fall behind, 3-0.
- But as the team fell behind, he had no choice.
- If it was going to be like that, I didn't want to fall behind.
- They fell behind by 21 points in the first half.
- We have come back many times after falling behind without quite getting the job done.
Kliknij na wybrany nagłówek, aby rozwinąć grupy kolokacji, kolokacje oraz przykładowe zdania. | <urn:uuid:45de7f1e-521f-454e-b301-0e31f22fcdbc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.diki.pl/dictionary/collocations/fall/verb/fall%20apart%2Cfall%20silent/best/fall%20behind | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.85867 | 239 | 2.4375 | 2 |
(JTA) — A Scottish-Jewish Liberal congregation with many members who are queer is seeking the reopening of an abandoned synagogue that was built in 1926 for Orthodox worshippers from Eastern Europe.
The BBC reported Friday on the push to reopen the Langside Synagogue by Irn-Ju, a Jewish collective based in Scotland in the north of the United Kingdom that represents multiple Liberal denominations.
The group, which says it attracts dozens of participants for some of its activities, has emerged in recent years as attendance at the synagogue they wish to inhabit dwindled, forcing it to close in 2014. It was sold to private owners, who were not named.
There is “a resurgent Jewish community in Glasgow and in Govanhill that needs a space,” Joe Isaac, a member of the group told BBC. The group’s members, who Isaac said now host religious ceremonies in their homes, are “dying for a permanent site” like the synagogue, “one that is beautiful like that and made for a Jewish community.”
An open letter to the synagogue owners asking for it to be reopened had more than 800 signatures, the report said.
The group wrote that “Langside Synagogue is under threat: private property developers are trying to turn it into flats.”
The BBC article included neither a reaction from the owners nor from local authorities. | <urn:uuid:58e7f5b0-9723-4f94-8e88-b4a9c96728a0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/scottish-queer-friendly-jewish-community-wants-to-use-an-abandoned-former-orthodox-synagogue | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.977652 | 286 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Secularization with Hindu Characteristics
Secularization theory represents one of the most bitter, contentious, and long-running debates in social science. This thesis – broadly construed, the argument that modernization weakens religion – has led to claims, counterclaims, and counter-counterclaims that probably go back three centuries. However, one area of agreement among both proponents and opponents of the theory is that secularization is a process distinct to the Abrahamic religions. Theoretically, scholars have narrowly defined the terms ‘religion’ and ‘secularization’ in ways that effectively exclude traditions like the Asian religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto. And empirically, scholars have been preoccupied with the same small coterie of western countries in their analyses while little attention has been paid to non-western cases. This project aims to reinvigorate the study of secularization by examining Hinduism in India, the world’s largest Asian tradition with over one billion followers. India should be considered a ‘crucial case’ for secularization theory as a deeply religious and fast-developing country. I develop an ethnographically-informed survey measure of Hindu religiosity and conduct an original survey of 900 Hindus in the north Indian state of Bihar, along with participant observation and follow-up interviews. I show that education and income do not correlate with secularism, but personal security is a consistent predictor of secular attitudes.
Ajay Verghese is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside. He received his Ph.D. in 2013 from The George Washington University, and was a post-doctoral fellow from 2012-13 at the Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. His research interests include Indian politics, ethnicity, political violence, historical legacies, and religion. His first book, The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India, was published by Stanford University Press in 2016, and his articles have been published in Modern Asian Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, Journal of Development Studies, and Politics & Society. He is currently writing his second book, which examines secularization in Hinduism, a project that has been funded by the Fulbright Program and the American Institute of Indian Studies. You can follow him on social media: @ajayverghese | <urn:uuid:13460195-27aa-41a5-a4a2-c26f7c204541> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://southasia.wisc.edu/2019-fall-lecture-series/ajay-verghese/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.951527 | 472 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Propulsion Biomechanics and Shoulder Health of Wheelchair Athletes
Many people around the world rely on a wheelchair to maintain independence, health, wellbeing and participate in sports. However, the use of a wheelchair for both everyday life and during sporting activities may increase the risk of upper limb pain especially shoulder pain. An important factor that may increase or decrease the risk of shoulder pain development is how an athlete propels these wheelchairs. At present it is unclear which biomechanical factors of wheelchair propulsion contribute to risk especially in athletic wheelchair users. The aim of this work is to to investigate the biomechanical factors of both every day and sports wheelchair propulsion in relation to shoulder pain. The focus of this work is to answer the following research questions:
- Do biomechanical differences in everyday wheelchair propulsion exist between athletic and nonathletic wheelchair users?
- Which personal, wheelchair or biomechanical variables of everyday propulsion can distinguish between wheelchair users with varying levels of shoulder pain?
- Is there a relationship between alterations in the identified biomechanical characteristics and alterations in shoulder pain over a longitudinal period?
- What is the effect of wheelchair type (everyday vs sports specific) and speed on wheelchair propulsion biomechanics?
- What is the effect of an intermittent sprint protocol on the biomechanics of submaximal and maximal propulsion?
Firstly, we have found that although athletic wheelchair users participate in more physical activity per week they adopt similar strategies to propel their daily living wheelchair. This means that, investigations of shoulder pain and everyday wheelchair propulsion do not need to distinguish between athletic and nonathletic wheelchair users. Secondly, having a smaller wheel diameter, a more extended elbow when in contact with the top of the wheel and a less posteriorly tilted scapular are moderately related with shoulder pain. Importantly, during propulsion wheelchair users with moderate pain displayed significantly lower variability of scapular motion between propulsion cycles compared to those without pain. One interpretation of this is that lower scapular variability may reduce the time available for tissues to recover between loading cycles increasing cumulative stress. However, the next stage is really interesting as we try to establish if this finding is a cause or consequence of shoulder pain and look into sports specific propulsion in more depth. | <urn:uuid:fad417e8-1209-4835-974a-c64f4fecb94c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/phc/health-wellbeing/shoulderhealth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.937653 | 460 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Business owners and managers are often busy to the point that they overlook the importance of compliance training. Such training is essential for employees as well as the business as a whole. In short, if you manage or own a business, it is important that you implement compliance training.
Ongoing compliance training boosts employee development and also safeguards your company against potential legal hurdles down the line. Invest the time, money and energy necessary to train your employees so they become that much more knowledgeable about relevant regulations and it will continue to pay ongoing dividends across posterity. Continue to provide your team with compliance training and you will find employee development is catalyzed, your business faces fewer lawsuits and is also hit with fewer penalties.
What Compliance Training Means for Your Business
Compliance is an overarching term that encompasses regulations pertaining to a business. Such regulations are applicable to social responsibility, corrupt practices, health and safety, etc. The specific type of compliance training performed at your office hinges on the size of your business as well as your unique field. The different types of employee training include:
HR/Employment Law Compliance: Your Human Resources specialists must be in full compliance with the subtleties of employment law. Train your team to adhere to the details of employment laws and you will prevent potentially costly lawsuits down the line.
HIPPA Compliance: Patients’ medical information must be kept private. If your business is in the medical industry or involves handling patient medical information, your team should be trained to understand the detailed rules of HIPPA.
Safety/OSHA Compliance: Chances are your team does not understand the nuances of OSHA compliance. These rules were put in place to ensure employee health and safety is prioritized. Provide compliance training regarding OSHA compliance and your employees will prove that much safer at work.
How To Make Compliance Training A Priority
Compliance training has the potential to get lost in the shuffle. Implement compliance training into the initial employee training system when you are onboarding a new hire and everyone you add to your organization will understand the letter of the laws, rules, and regulations relevant to the business. Ideally, the compliance requirements relating to each employee’s specific position will be detailed for easy understanding, hopefully at the start of employment. Encourage your new hires to take extensive notes during the compliance training process and they will have all the information they need today and also across posterity to remain in full compliance with industry standards, rules, and laws.
Continue to refresh employees on compliance training after they are onboarded and you will have done your part to prevent costly and frustrating compliance violations down the line. Keep in mind that employees are likely to forget the details of compliance as the months and years pass by. When in doubt, opt for more frequent compliance training rather than less frequent and you will rest easy knowing your team has all the training, updates, and information necessary to keep your company in full compliance with all relevant regulations.
TPC Can Help
Our team of HR professionals understands just how important effective compliance regulations and training really are. We are a trusted business solutions provider for businesses of all types and sizes. Whether you are looking for guidance in terms of compliance regulations or need other specific HR services, our team is at your service. Reach out to our HR agency today to speak with our HR experts and request a quote. | <urn:uuid:63ded75d-c6b8-4905-a522-4396faeb7636> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.morethanpayroll.com/blog/why-is-compliance-training-important-for-your-business | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.963913 | 673 | 1.75 | 2 |
How have peer-to-peer service companies like Uber and Airbnb become multimillion dollar companies? The often-stated answer is by redefining the sharing economy. The more ground-level answer is by capitalizing on excess capacity.
The premise of the sharing economy, also called the peer-to-peer economy, is grounded in the economic model in which individuals borrow or rent someone else’s goods. Providing low-cost access to resources, services and goods, as well as opportunities to earn money, the sharing economy is a goldmine for those who want to save money, make money and create new life experiences along the way. Today’s sharing economy’s success lies in the incorporation of technology with the age-old practice of sharing.
As the CTO of a full-stack design and development firm, I oversee implementation of tech solutions from concept to finished product. While cost savings and social interaction are key components of the sharing economy, technology is the foundation that makes this business model possible. Technology enables buyers and sellers to connect, and it lays the groundwork for companies to leverage the sharing economy. Businesses need to embrace the technology that promotes peer-to-peer sharing, along with the trust that’s integral for it to be successful.
Scalability Is Key
Ridesharing caught on well before Uber and Lyft came into being. Remember the good ol’ days of carpooling? In the mid-1900s, this mode of travel played a prominent role in commuter transportation in the U.S. and continues to be a preferred method of transportation. The issue with the carpooling economy as it stood was the impossibility of scaling: It was not possible to grow carpooling up to the level of a commercial business. Ridesharing apps solved this issue with the introduction of a network accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
Other tech giants like Airbnb and TaskRabbit also have capitalized on this new peer-to-peer marketplace. The categories of peer-to-peer service are nearly limitless. Dozens of specialty niches exist within this marketplace, including work and service, commerce, money, education, pet care, recreation, travel and clothing. There is no reason for companies to stop investing in and creating business opportunities around the global sharing economy, as it’s projected to grow exponentially over the next couple of decades. According to PwC, the global sharing economy grew to about $15 billion in 2014, and it's expected to reach an impressive $335 billion by 2025.
Recognizing Economic Value
When talking about the global sharing economy’s success, we must take a look at what we can attribute to its existence. The primary driving force behind the global sharing economy is the presence of excess capacity: When the supply of a certain good outweighs its demand. Another way excess capacity can arise is when resources or assets are not used to their fullest capacity. Cars, for example, sit idle roughly 95% of the time. However, these types of goods can only be purchased in units that exceed the buyer’s immediate needs, thus their economic value goes unnoticed. Ridesharing businesses like Uber and Lyft recognized the untapped potential in cars and created a booming business within the sharing economy.
Cars aren’t the only personal assets that aren’t being used to their fullest potential. Everyday household items like tents, tools and sports gear possess unused potential as well. As it currently stands, 80% of household goods aren’t even used one time each month, and over the past 30 years, self-storage has gone up by 1,000%. With this information in mind, the sharing economy can be beneficial to anyone with commonplace household goods. Borrowed, a lending and borrowing app that my company partners with, is one of the many apps making the sharing economy accessible to nearly everyone. With these apps, individuals are able to invest in and focus on the experience, not the equipment and expenses.
Other commodities playing a role in the sharing economy include less tangible items such as parking spots (Just Park), storage space (Spacii) and services like tutoring (WyzAnt), caregiving (Care.com and SitterCity) and pet sitting (DogVacay). Items like these are increasingly being recognized as shareable, and technology is paving the way to create this collaborative consumption.
By capitalizing on advances in technology, individuals are able to leverage excess capacity in their favor while making a dime or two along the way. People can now experience life without limits -- the limits of cost, time and convenience. Monetizing excess capacity has ultimately changed the way we live our daily lives on a fundamental level; new business opportunities, marketplaces and services are a direct product of excess capacity. Now, when you look at that spare blender of yours, I hope you see the untapped potential for monetization. | <urn:uuid:e71f6034-4ad4-4e9e-9fd5-0656a06d7a42> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/08/why-your-blender-is-a-cash-cow-understanding-the-sharing-economy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.954337 | 1,005 | 2.34375 | 2 |
A special exhibition at the Ewha Womans University Museum is taking place from May 10 to September 18. This exhibition, titled "Leader of Korean Culture, Ewha," celebrates Ewha's 124th anniversary and the 10th Kim Okgill Memorial Lecture. The memorial lecture had begun in Ewha since 2001 to remember the eighth president of Ewha, Kim Ok-gill's dedication on women education and realizing social justice.
President Lee Bae-yong, Kim Ok-gil’s brother Kim Dong-gill, and Lee O-young, an Honorary Distinguished Professor of Ewha Academy for Advanced Studies participated in the opening ceremony on May 10.
During her opening remarks, President Lee said, “In this globalised world, we should be equipped with knowledge of our culture, and it is the museum that can make that happen.”
Lee O-young conducted a special lecture on "Creative Sense of Culture" at the the memorial lecture. After Lee's lecture, Choe Kwang-sik, the Director-General of National Museum of Korea, and Rha Sun-hwa, the Member of Seoul Cultural Heritage Committee also gave lectures.
"This special exhibition will be meaningful place to reflect long history of the Ewha museum with its vision of nurturing in art," said Kim Bo-hie, the Director of the museum.
This exhibition focuses on four themes. The first theme introduces the museum’s 75 years of history and recalls its critical moments including the first excavation done by female university students in Korean museum history in 1963. The next theme, titled "Ewha, Incorporating Korean Culture," is the main theme of this exhibition. Its displays include one piece designated "national treasure", a title reserved for pieces of great historic importance.
The third theme, titled "Sharing and Sincerity", celebrates the Ewha museum’s founding spirit of donation. According to the brochure, the museum opened its doors thanks to donations from professors and students, and the exhibition aims to honor the donors and their devotion to culture and the arts by showing a collection of work donated in 2010.
The fourth theme is "Bojagi and Embroidery in the Joseon Dynasty". The bojagi, traditional quilted work done by Korean women, represent the wisdom and hope of Korean women as well as their refined aesthetic sensibility.
The museum is open from Monday through Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. | <urn:uuid:06f14287-b30f-4999-83f8-0aad35b3e7b7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://evoice.ewha.ac.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=2385 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.955515 | 531 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Dreaming to Depart from Disproportionate
A hopeful hyphenate highlights history from Dr. King’s speech
Note: As this post is written on the Tuesday between celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., Day and Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will be sworn in as the President of the United States of America, I hope that humanity can continually look at its history as well as herstory to find healing.
As stated in a previous post, frequent engagement of the Black Lives Matter movement messaging is a step society needs to solve for in order to showcase support for underserved communities.
Historical references, while sometimes outdated, can actually shed spotlights of where the issues of today issues stem from. One thing to note are the earlier parts of Martin Luther King Jr.’s, I Have a Dream Speech. As we are able to have a federal holiday celebrate what Dr. King stood for civil rights for Black/African-Americans, the portions of this nearly eighteen minute speech on August 28th, 1963, has more nuggets to help us solve the problems of today. Throughout the last couple of decades, many can refer to audio examples where Dr. King exclaims, regardless of state residency and cultural backgrounds all Americans can band together and “sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.” While we remember the dream Dr. King has, we may not be recalling roots of those dreams.
Earlier in his speech, he also states four objective things about the “Negro” 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. To respect the community’s evolution, we should now state them as Black and/or African American. While there are many optimists who see an all-encompassing America of the future, one should still note points that the individuals in the Black community are not served well as Dr. King stated, such as that they are:
- Still Not Free
- Still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination
- Lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of prosperity
- Still languished in the corners of American society and find himself in exile in his own land
While all people are allowed to access the same groups of public institutions, there is disparity in how people are served by the color of their skin. Although, highly regarded books of today such as Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, could allow to us to believe that society is better as a whole, it is not necessarily the case for minority, especially Black, communities. There is still a lot of disproportion of how well the Black community is served. This is why the public sees the cries of #defundthepolice as well as the demonstrations to support the Black lives that have been lost due to white officer shootings.
Furthermore, as one reads books such as Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation, problems in public domains such as the education system are not serving Black lives equitably. Although I believe that the intentions of public institutions are to serve the community, the applications are subject of white-bias as more people who lead or serve are of the racial majority. Even though the United States of America will be increasingly more diverse in the future and things can be seemingly “better”, it does not mean that the current influential members of society should shirk their responsibilities to make things more equitable. If public institutions that should serve as the moral compass of our communities aren’t able to solve for equity, society underserved communities will feel abandoned.
Our hopes and dreams are very much what propels us everyday. However, there is much work that needs to be done. While we surround ourselves in world where ideals and products are being defined quicker, we shall not forget that there are historic roots to help us realize what we are fighting for in the first place. | <urn:uuid:64cbe289-be69-4104-80d7-1450c348c57a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jschan.medium.com/dreaming-to-depart-from-disproportionate-c7bf2650898d?source=user_profile---------0---------------------------- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.962833 | 827 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The new Biden executive order declares the military 'thrives when it is composed of diverse Americans who can meet the rigorous standards for military service, and an inclusive military strengthens our national security.'
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Trump administration should be allowed to implement its ban on individuals suffering from gender dysphoria serving in the military, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday, though the ruling does not vacate every injunction against the policy. The unsigned opinion ruled that District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was wrong to have blocked the ban, Reuters reports. But it has no power to vacate injunctions imposed by other districts, meaning the administration is still waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the matter. The policy disqualifies “transgender […] | <urn:uuid:93f4a751-cb4e-438b-95d1-7e17f1fc5e75> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.lifesitenews.com/tags/tag/transgender-military-ban/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.953113 | 179 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Current Concerns: What is your task as UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral sanctions?
Alena Douhan: As the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, my role is to monitor the situation with the use of unilateral sanctions by states and regional organisations when there is no authorisation by the UN Security Council; to assess unilateral measures taken from the point of international law; to monitor the impact of unilateral sanctions on the human rights of a country’s population, specific groups of people and individuals; and to analyse the impact on the various categories of human rights. This is done through thematic studies, country visits, assessments of specific situations, and communicating with specific individuals who believe that their rights have been affected, NGOs and academic society. I report my findings to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly at their sessions, and communicate to other UN organs and agencies, regional organisations, national governments and the private sector about these matters.
Rule of law and humanitarian concerns must take priority
I do investigations and research and solicit information from a wide variety of sources, from sanctioning governments to individuals, in order to identify and assess trends in unilateral sanctions and the ways that specific sanctions regimes imposed by a country affect human rights. I deal with individual cases that are brought to my attention, and communicate with the relevant parties to request information and to inform them about my findings. Of course, I am not a judge or arbitrator, but I am an international law expert and I have specialised in this area for some years. My task is to inform and convince countries that in their activity the rule of law and humanitarian concerns shall prevail over political aims.
Today more sanctions than ever
The Human Rights Council created my mandate in 2015 as it was becoming increasingly evident that unilateral sanctions are enormously expanding in their number, types and forms and affect human rights in many ways, in many countries. Sanctions are often seen as a way to exert unilateral pressure on foreign governments without going to war. However, sanctions can severely erode the human rights of the populations of affected countries, especially when they target entire economies or economic sectors. Sanctions can also have devastating effects on the human rights of targeted individuals. All countries have the obligation under international law to protect every person’s human rights, and ultimately my job is to promote greater adherence to this. It’s not easy, as there are more sanctions today than ever before, as well as more types of sanctions, more kinds of targets and more methods of enforcement. I see my mandate as offering a path to minimise their humanitarian impact and bring international relations back to the standards of international law.
“The deliverers of humanitarian aid, including humanitarian organisations, are obliged to get a necessary license from the sanctioning countries. I had expert consultations with a huge number of humanitarian NGOs, mostly faith-based NGOs. They were trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria. […]
Even when they try to deliver medical equipment, they have to prove a genuine humanitarian aim for delivery. Even if we speak about, for example, the COVID test, or about the CT scanners, or any other types of medicines. As a result, small humanitarian NGOs prefer not to be involved in the delivery of these humanitarian aid at all, because they do not have lawyers who will deal with the process, and who will be able. And the organisations themselves are not able to pay for going through the process.
Again, when for example, the permission is received to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria, it doesn’t mean that if the organisation brings it across the border, the organisation is allowed to buy fuel for its car to deliver necessary medicine or medical equipment. It will mean that the organisation will need another permission to get fuel for a single car in the process of delivery of humanitarian aid.
Some other humanitarian organisations have complained that because of their humanitarian work aim to deliver medicine, medical equipment, and food to Syria, in the course of the pandemic, their bank accounts have been frozen — as well as the bank accounts of their personnel have been frozen. So, they basically fall under the secondary sanctions as a result.”
Alena Douhan interviewed by Aaron Maté (excerpt)
of 14 January 2021
Ms Alena F. Douhan, (Belarus) was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights by the Human Rights Council in March 2020. Ms Douhan has extensive experience in the fields of international law and human rights as, a Professor of international law at the Belarusian State University (Minsk), a visiting Professor at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed conflict (Bochum, Germany) and the Director of the Peace Research Centre (Minsk). She received her PhD at the Belarusian State University in 2005 and obtained Dr hab. in International Law and European Law in 2015 (Belarus). Ms Douhan’s academic and research interests are in the fields of international law, sanctions and human rights law, international security law, law of international organisations, international dispute settlement, and international environmental law.
Current Concerns: With forceful statements, you recently called for the lifting of sanctions in Syria (26 December 2020) and in Venezuela (14 February 2021). What prompted you to do so?
Alena Douhan: These sanctions, as well as many others, are violating the human rights of entire populations in the countries affected. The problem is particularly acute in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the sanctions have prevented these countries from getting all of the medicines, medical equipment, testing supplies and other materials needed to fight the disease. Both countries in different ways were experiencing serious economic problems before sanctions had been imposed. At the same time, the sanctions exacerbated enormously these pre-existing situations, turning them into economic, social and humanitarian crises.
In Syria, reconstruction after years of conflict is being impeded by sanctions against people and companies who cooperate with the government’s efforts to restore vital infrastructure, or with its efforts to revive oil and gas production. This prevents the economy from functioning, and slows down the process of building housing, hospitals, power supply networks and much more.
Venezuela: Malnutrition and mortality on the rise
In Venezuela, the government must operate on a fraction of the income necessary to ensure the well-being of its people. With fuel shortages already severe, sanctions are being used to prevent it from getting foreign supplies. This has led to shortages of electricity, and since water pumps need electricity, to water shortages as well, affecting most of the population. The unavailability of new equipment and spare parts prevents maintenance and restoration of infrastructure. Hospitals can’t do as many operations, people who are ill can’t get to the hospitals because of petrol shortages, and malnutrition and mortality rates are growing.
People become more and more dependent on governmental social aid and international humanitarian aid. All sorts of human rights are affected by this, from the right to education and access to information to the right to health, the right to food, the right to life and the right to development, especially affecting people in extreme poverty, women, children, medical workers, people with disabilities or life-threatening or chronic diseases, and the indigenous population.
Unilateral sanctions are a violation of international law and human rights
Can you explain your criticism of the sanctions policy?
Several aspects shall be mentioned here. First of all, a devastating majority of unilateral sanctions today are taken in the breach of international law. Every country has the right to choose how it conducts its relations with other countries, or to not have relations at all. At the same time, under the UN Charter, only the UN Security Council has the right to authorize sanctions as a mechanism to enforce aspects of international law. Unilateral measures may only be taken with due account of the rule of law, human rights law, refugee law and humanitarian law; must comply with states’ international legal obligations; and may only be applied in the course of internationally lawful countermeasures. In most circumstances, the legality of unilateral sanctions is questionable under international law, and by harming human rights the sanctions clearly violate it.
Secondly, sanctions imposed unilaterally – that is, by individual countries or groups like the European Union or ECOWAS in Africa – virtually always violate human rights, often many rights at once despite the fact that rather often they allegedly intend to improve human rights records. In the majority of cases the whole population of the country is affected, including their fundamental human rights: right to health, to food, to life. With the scarcity of resources, countries have to stop or suspend all reconstruction and developmental projects, which undermines the achievement of sustainable development goals. Figures provided in my reports of the impact of unilateral sanctions in the course of the pandemic (October 2020) and the preliminary assessment report on my country visit to Venezuela are rather illustrative. I believe that it is absurd to protect human rights by violating them. There is no such thing as a tolerable level of “collateral damage” when countries are obliged by international conventions and customary law to protect the rights of everyone and to behave in accordance with international law.
Found guilty outside any legal system
Third, targeted sanctions against individuals usually involve freezing their bank assets and other property and impeding their ability to travel, and this generally occurs without due process. There is simply a determination that occurs outside of any legal system that someone is guilty, and the sanctions are the penalty imposed. Due process rights, such as a right to fair trial and the right to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty, as well as the right to freedom of movement, are denied when international law says they must be protected. The European Court of Human Rights provides for some possibility of access to justice on the ground of Article 275 of the European Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and the number of so-called sanctions cases is rapidly growing. At the same time, a mechanism of appeal for the U.S. sanctions is virtually non-existent.
It is also necessary to mention problems which exist as concerns the delivery of humanitarian aid and the growing extraterritoriality and over-compliance with sanctions regimes.
Impact of secondary sanctions and extraterritoriality
What do the extraterritorial – or secondary – sanctions, which are illegal under international law, mean for a country like Syria, which is in the process of reconstruction after 10 years of war?
Secondary sanctions and extraterritoriality are two different but closely related things. Secondary sanctions are unilateral sanctions that are imposed on people and companies accused of doing business with sanctioned countries, individuals or entities. The United States in particular uses secondary sanctions to enforce the original sanctions it applies. The people and companies targeted by secondary sanctions may be in the sanctioning country, or they may be in other countries. Indeed, some U.S. secondary sanctions can target anyone, anywhere, who is accused of dealing with a sanctioned party.
This is where the issue of extraterritoriality comes in, because here, too, the legality of extending a country’s jurisdiction by enforcing its sanctions abroad through secondary sanctions is highly doubtful. Once again, a penalty is imposed without regard for the due process rights of a person targeted by secondary sanctions. Indeed, under the law of the country where that person is, it may be perfectly legal to have dealings with the target of U.S. sanctions.
The main danger of secondary sanctions is that every individual and company may be targeted by them, which has the effect of causing enormous over-compliance. During my country visit to Venezuela, the private sector, non-governmental organisations, universities, sport clubs and citizens of Venezuela were reporting the rejection or reluctance of foreign banks to open or keep their bank accounts, including those with correspondent banks in the United States and Europe; difficulties with getting visas and buying tickets; the need to act via third-country agents; and the need to pay extra insurance costs. Similar problems have been repeatedly cited by international humanitarian organisations involved in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the targeted areas or societies.
So-called humanitarian exemptions do not withstand in practice
What is the status of international humanitarian aid and to what extent is it hampered by the sanctions?
On paper, most unilateral sanctions regimes today have provisions that allow for flows of humanitarian goods and services to sanctioned countries and individuals. The problem is that these so-called “humanitarian exemptions” don’t work very well in practice. There are many reasons for this. The rules are often complex, causing humanitarian aid providers to be reticent to export humanitarian goods to sanctioned countries out of fear of accidentally violating the sanctions and being targeted themselves by secondary sanctions. Even those that are willing to export humanitarian goods may be unable to do so because banks and other service providers have the same fears, affecting sources of finance for this humanitarian trade and the ability to transport it to the sanctioned country. The multilayer character of sanctions (sanctions imposed by several states or regional organisations with their own sanctions lists and exemption mechanisms) make the situation even more complicated.
Other problems include the time it takes to approve humanitarian exports to sanctioned countries, and the requirements that must sometimes be met before permission is granted. For example, exporters of humanitarian goods that might be dual-use (civilian and military) items, such as certain medical equipment or substances, are asked to ensure that the goods won’t be diverted to military use upon arrival in the sanctioned country. This can be impossible in some cases. Even toothpaste has been reported to be among the personal hygiene products that are affected by such rules. Overall, the complexity and time necessary for approving humanitarian exports adds to their cost, which is another obstacle.
It shall also be taken into account that “humanitarian exemptions” provisions, even when applied, are traditionally interpreted very narrowly, excluding in particular equipment and spare parts as well as other goods which are necessary for reconstruction of the economy, impeding there the right of people to development.
How sanctions prevent humanitarian aid
What impact do the sanctions have on humanitarian aid? Can you give us concrete examples?
The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed us to see many examples of how sanctions have impeded the ability of sanctioned countries to get humanitarian aid, even when the sanctions have humanitarian exemptions to allow for such assistance. Doctors in some countries targeted by U.S. sanctions could not avail themselves of telemedicine meetings on Zoom because its use is blocked in those countries. Medical equipment donated by a Chinese businessman to help Cuba fight the coronavirus could not arrive as planned because the U.S. company hired to transport the equipment withdrew, fearing it would be targeted by secondary sanctions for shipping goods to a sanctioned country. Swiss humanitarian organisations that had intended to collaborate with Cuban medical entities were thwarted by banks that refused to transfer the money necessary for this to happen. U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela resulted in electricity supplies being disrupted in both countries, affecting the normal functioning of hospitals. The lack of fuel in Venezuela, a situation exacerbated by sanctions, has prevented people from getting to hospitals and impeded the use of ambulances.
Unilateral sanctions, fear of secondary sanctions and growing over-compliance result in a growing number of bank transfer refusals; the extension of bank transfer periods (from 2 to 45 days); higher delivery, insurance and bank transfer costs; as well as reported price rises for all (especially imported) goods, sometimes up to 2-4 times. Humanitarian exemption mechanisms also put enormous burdens on humanitarian operators, which have to prove the “pure” humanitarian purpose of the deliveries and face all posible risks. This negatively impacts their ability to act, limits their resources, negatively affects the willingness of donors to provide assistance and therefore affects their beneficiaries in targeted and other countries.
The Caesar Act has opened a very wide door
The Caesar Act, enacted by the US government in June 2020, has an impact on the health care of the population in particular. It includes sanctioning all those persons and entities who want to trade with the Syrian government or with Syria at all. How do individual countries or aid organisations that want to help deal with this? Can you give us a concrete description?
The Caesar Act, actually enacted in 2019 and implemented in 2020, does indeed cast a very wide net with the sanctions that it authorises. The best advice I can give countries and aid organisations is to inform the US authorities and also my office of problems they encounter in providing humanitarian aid to Syria, and about anything they learn about the human rights impact of sanctions against persons who want to trade with Syria – how their rights are being affected. Keeping silent because of the fear of secondary sanctions does not help to settle but rather exacerbates the situation.
A report just issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office revealed that U.S. authorities don’t systematically monitor the humanitarian impact of the sanctions against Venezuela, and I assume the same is true for the U.S. sanctions against Syria. It is important that this information is known as a first step toward resolving the human rights problems that arise from the Caesar Act sanctions and others.
The problem of sanctions is too little known
You said that much stays in the shadows of public discussion and that questions of humanitarian impact are unfortunately often forgotten or ignored. Why is there so little resistance?
Most likely the problem is not well-known because of a lack of public exposure and because it has not been studied very much. It is usually assessed as very politically motivated – in “black and white” terms as something good used against something bad. I believe, however, that the only mechanism to guarantee human rights is to observe the law. That is why we shall speak about international obligations of states, the rule of law, humanitarian impact assessment and humanitarian precaution.
The multiplicity of notions, the absence of consensus among countries, the unclear notion and characteristics of unilateral sanctions and unilateral coercive measures; the absence of agreement about targets; the increasing involvement of private actors and therefore consequent over-compliance, the absence of assessment of the humanitarian impact and political concerns are all influencing the situation and its assessment by country leaders and the public. It happens because of the unawareness about the problem and insufficient humanitarian assessment, insufficient legal assessment, the lack of discussion with victims and those who are working in the field.
That is why I try now to bring attention to the problem; to assess the legality of measures taken from the point of international law; to initiate precaution and assessment of the humanitarian impact of unilateral sanctions; to deal with individual cases and to invite scholars and humanitarian non-governmental organisations as partners for the dialogue.
I would also like to use the chance to invite contributions of states, scholars, NGOs and other relevant partners for the preparation of a report on the notion, types, elements and targets of unilateral sanctions for the UN Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly as a way of raising awareness, identifying the rule of law, protecting human rights and starting the dialogue.
Professor Douhan, thank you very much for this interview. •
“Comprehensive economic sanctions […] have the ethical quality of terror bombings: the civilian population is explicitly taken hostage in the framework of a security strategy of power politics.”*
“Art. 2 [in its resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights of 4 March 1994] expressly maintains that coercive economic measures prevent the full realisation of human rights, with special reference to children, women and the elderly. Directing our attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the resolution calls on all states to forbear such practices.”
“Sanctions which invalidate the fundamental economic and social rights of the population (and in many cases even the right to life) are – in view of human rights as the jus cogens of international law – impermissible.”
*All quotes from: Hans Köchler, Ethical Aspects of Sanctions in International Law.
The Practice of the Sanctions Policy and Human Rights, International Progress Organization, Vienna 1994. https://i-p-o.org/sanctp.htm#I
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When Alan Chadwick descended on the campus of the fledgling University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1967, it was as if a character had stepped right out of the pages of English literature. A tall and striking man with a shock of white hair and a regal bearing that bespoke his privileged upbringing, Chadwick was also a Shakespearean actor who had trained in London under the same teacher as Laurence Olivier and Harold Pinter.
Chadwick came to Santa Cruz on the recommendation of Freya von Moltke, the widow of a leader in the German resistance against Hitler. Her husband, Count Helmuth von Moltke, was arrested, accused of treason, and hanged. But before Helmuth was executed, he sent word to his wife requesting that she make a place where young people could learn about creation in a world of destruction. The countess, often described as Chadwick’s muse, may have had that request in mind when she mentioned his name to Paul Lee, a UCSC philosophy professor who had pitched the idea of developing a teaching garden to the school’s chancellor.
Chadwick arrived on campus without so much as a salary or official position. He simply began digging – 14 hours a day, seven days a week – on a steep and barren hillside of chaparral and poison oak. Within a year, he had transformed that hillside into a vibrant and abundant garden of flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees. Young men and women were soon drawn to work with this temperamental perfectionist who cared about his garden above all else.
Today, the soil at UCSC continues to yield organic herbs and vegetables. Gregory Haynes / Courtesy alan-chadwick.org
One of them, Nancy Lingemann, recalls, “I’d lost all interest in school. The only thing I wanted to do was garden.” Lingemann ditched most of her classes to follow Chadwick and went on to create a wedding-flower business, called Flower Ladies, in the hills above the university.
Chadwick used the power and language of theater to proselytize on behalf of the biodiversity of plants and the sacrament of nature. He gave group lessons in mime, mien, and deportment, insisting his students stand up straight, carry themselves with dignity, and enunciate clearly. They were expected to memorize the Friar’s speech from Romeo and Juliet on the power of medicinal herbs. Above all, they had to embrace the ethos of hard work.
“His garden had a presence – like Alan himself,” says Stephen Decater, who labored in the UCSC garden almost the entire time Chadwick was there and is now the owner, with his wife, Gloria, of Live Power Community Farm in Covelo, California. “It wasn’t just a collection of plants. It was a living being that spoke through the plants.”
Apprentices prepare beds at Chadwick’s New Market, VA, garden in 1979. Courtesy of the Alan Chadwick archive
Chadwick’s mother, Elizabeth, was a follower of Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and social scientist responsible for Waldorf education and biodynamic agriculture. She hired him one summer to tutor Alan and his older brother, Seddon, on horticulture and the finer points of composting. Steiner’s teachings took root, as many decades later Chadwick told an apprentice, “I’ll be 70 years old. There are seeds still sprouting in me today from things he told me.”
Chief among them? Double-digging, a labor-intensive technique that’s one of the key components of biodynamic agriculture. Chadwick was a stickler for this method, which involves removing the topsoil down to the level of the subsoil, which is then broken up, overlaid with manure or compost, and mixed in with topsoil. The method proved integral to returning the UCSC hillside to fertility.
“The site had great visibility and sun exposure, but there’d been a road dug into it,” remembers Jim Nelson, whose father was disappointed when he dropped out of college to work full time with Chadwick. “Sometimes you’d have to pick-axe through the crust.”
Then-governor Ronald Reagan (right) visits Chadwick at the Covelo garden in 1974. Steve Baird
To Chadwick soil was alive and never to be confused with dirt. He once told a group of apprentices, “Everyone thinks that soil is dirt, is there forever, that you can tread on it, jump on it, bite it, kick it, eat it, throw stones on it, do anything you like on it, and it is the same in the fall as it is in the spring, and the same in the winter as it is in the summer. That is completely untrue.”
What Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters were to the psychedelic culture of the 1960s, Chadwick and his band of diggers were to food and gardening.
School administrators didn’t know what to make of him. Parents complained that he was a Pied Piper, stealing away promising students like Nelson, today the owner of Camp Joy, a small organic farm in nearby Boulder Creek. “I don’t think the university ever realized what they had in Alan,” Nelson says. “He had no credentials. He was an artist and a teacher, in the deepest sense of the word, though he didn’t consider himself a teacher. He pointed in directions, and it was up to you to find your place in the natural world.”
Chadwick also had a savage temper and could be his own worst enemy. Paul Lee, his great champion at Santa Cruz, detailed in his 2013 book, There Is a Garden in the Mind: A Memoir of Alan Chadwick and the Organic Movement in California, the kind of “psychic vomit” Chadwick was capable of spewing. Lee described a kind of Dr. Doolittle, a man so gentle and in tune with nature that birds would land on his shoulder. But cross him, and all hell broke loose. “You either stood up to him or were broken by him,” Lee wrote. Chadwick once feuded with the young family living in the apartment above him. Lee recounts, “If they flushed the toilet after six, the sound of the water coursing through the pipes drove him nuts and set him off. He took to breaking wine bottles in the backyard after pounding on the ceiling and yelling his head off. They thought he was crazy.”
Deborah Madison, founding chef of the groundbreaking vegetarian restaurant Greens, in San Francisco, and a bestselling cookbook author, was a student at UCSC when Chadwick’s garden was in full splendor. During her first visit there, Chadwick screamed at her from clear across the garden. He accused her of stepping on a raised bed – something that Madison, a farm girl born and raised, would never do. “I don’t know how he could even have seen me from that distance,” she says. “I never went back.”
Chadwick’s cut-ting flowers at Covelo were prized for their scent and color. Courtesy of the Alan Chadwick Archive
The Santa Cruz garden became a magnet for luminaries, drawing the composer John Cage, who made a pilgrimage to meet Chadwick and forage for wild mushrooms in the surrounding forest. Robert Rodale, the organic farm and garden publisher, popped in to see what Chadwick was up to, as did the farmer-poet Wendell Berry. After touring the garden, Joseph Williamson, the then-editor of California’s influential Sunset magazine, was so affected that he overnight became a voice for organic gardening.
Today, many consider Chadwick one of the founders of the organic food movement. His garden at UCSC has evolved into the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, a nucleus for research and education in the field. His acolytes have fanned out across the country, applying his methods and philosophy to a network of organic and sustainable farms. Even chef Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse, has cited him as a seminal influence. What Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters were to the psychedelic culture of the 1960s, Chadwick and his band of diggers were to food and gardening.
Chadwick left Santa Cruz in early 1972, driven out in what Lee and others have portrayed as an epic struggle for the heart of the university. It was a battle between reductionist material science and spiritual nature. Shortly after a UCSC chemist submitted that “the garden has done more to ruin the cause of science on this campus than anything else,” Chadwick was gone.
Within a few months, he’d been named head gardener of Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, just north of San Francisco. He was again accompanied by a coterie of dedicated apprentices; his dramatic tendencies went with him, too. Wendy Johnson, who lived and studied at Green Gulch from 1975 to 2000, described Chadwick’s antics in her 2008 book, Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate: “He wailed at top volume each time the wooden sounding block was struck for meditation and faithful Zen students mindfully put down their tools and headed calmly for the meditation hall. ‘Look at this – look at this!’ Alan ranted and seethed. ‘Perfectly able-bodied young men and women running to the atavistic sound of wood beating on wood. Running without shame, and leaving an old man like me to work alone in the garden!’ ”
The founder of Chez Panisse (1) sourced produce from Chadwick’s gardens at Green Gulch, north of San Francisco. Harrison Ford’s son (2) named his first L.A. restaurant Chadwick. Johnson (3) worked at Green Gulch, which also supplied Greens, the San Francisco vegetarian restaurant started by Madison (4). Lingemann (5), now a Santa Cruz flower farmer, apprenticed with Chadwick at UCSC, where philosophy professor Lee (6) championed Chadwick. UCSC apprentices Benjamin and Nelson (7) went on to found the organic farm Camp Joy, north of Santa Cruz. Siska (8), who worked with Chadwick in Virginia, is now keeper of the Chadwick lecture archives. California winemakers Fetzer (9) and the Freys (10) studied with Chadwick at Covelo. The founder of Smith & Hawken (11) was introduced to Chadwick’s favorite tools by Jeavons (12), who attended Chadwick’s lectures at UCSC and later wrote How to Grow More Vegetables. Illustration by Melinda Beck
Chadwick’s Green Gulch tenure proved even shorter than the one in Santa Cruz, largely because he lacked patience for those Buddhist apprentices. “He couldn’t fathom why we’d just go to meditation when there was work to be done,” recalls Deborah Madison, who had moved there to study Zen Buddhism after graduating from UCSC in 1968.
He was next invited to manage the Round Valley Garden Project, in Covelo, California. Widely regarded as Chadwick’s most fully realized garden, the enchanted property boasted vibrant poppies and his favorite heirloom roses.
Everything had to be done by hand. It was how he had cleared the four acres of Santa Cruz hillside, working with nothing more mechanized than a British Bulldog spade and fork. One of his students, John Jeavons, who wrote the influential How to Grow More Vegetables, in 1979, introduced the tools to Paul Hawken, who would later popularize them with his company Smith & Hawken.
Chadwick’s ardent opposition to all forms of mechanized farming never waned. In 1978, at what would be his final garden, in a spiritual community in New Market, Virginia, he saw a woman trimming a box hedge with electric clippers. He strode over and yelled at her to quit – which she did, instantly, dropping the clippers and running away, the evil device still writhing on the ground.
He experimented with many ways to create compost and, in each of his gardens, always had numerous piles burning at any given time. One might include aged dairy-animal manure, while another derived from plants. On occasion, he used ingredients included in preparations learned from Steiner that are meant to regenerate the soil and strengthen the earth’s life forces.
Steiner’s preparations, which lie at the heart of biodynamic agriculture, famously include a cow horn stuffed with manure and buried in soil throughout the winter months. After the manure ferments, it is dug out and a small amount stirred in water – first in one direction, then in another, before it’s sprayed onto the soil.
Craig Siska, who apprenticed to Chadwick in Virginia, pored over Steiner’s esoteric 1924 lectures about the preparations and couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Finally, he asked the master gardener if he intended to apply the preparations to the Virginia garden. Chadwick’s reply: a firm no.
Siska recalls him saying, “When people come to this place and see the beauty and magic and robustiousness, I don’t want them to attribute it to potions. The garden comes out of the soul of the gardener and that person’s obedience and reverence for the laws of nature.”
In fact, according to Siska, Chadwick was taken to task by biodynamic practitioners for his failure to use the preparations. On one occasion, a group of Steiner devotees traveled to Virginia from their headquarters in Spring Valley, New York, in search of a meeting with Chadwick. “He avoided them,” Siska says. “He believed they put Steiner in a box, that it was all dogma, that they do everything by rote.”
Chadwick was in Virginia just over a year before the community disbanded and he returned to California. He was 70 and dying of prostate cancer when the Buddhists at Green Gulch welcomed him back. Though gaunt and weakened, it wasn’t long before he agreed to deliver weekly bedside talks to a small and select audience of future food and garden gurus: Alice Waters, Wendy Johnson, Deborah Madison.
Green Gulch Farm, in Marin County, is where Chadwick spent his final months. © David Laws
By the time he died, in May 1980, Chadwick stood at the head of a lineage, his students having established some of the best organic farms and gardens in California and throughout the country. Even so, he expressed regret that he wasn’t the teacher he would have wished. “I have never been taught to be a teacher, and I know I’m impossible,” he confided to Siska.
Thirty-five-years later, Nancy Lingemann thinks of her teacher at least once a day. On a recent morning, she was in her greenhouse transplanting snapdragons when she heard his voice in her head: “Prick out the tiddlers,” it said, using an English term for a runt. “Don’t leave out the little ones just because they look weak. Very often they’re the rare color; they just need more time to grow.”
Lingemann smiled at the memory. “I will treasure forever what he gave me. It was direct transmission. It was precious, and we knew it was precious.”
Chadwick walks between protégés Warren Pierce (left) and Richard Joos in Covelo, CA. Courtesy of the Alan Chadwick Archive
A 1948 head shot shows the Shakespearean actor in full costume. Courtesy of Paul Lee
Chadwick totes his Bulldog spade, later made famous by Smith & Hawken. Courtesy of CASFS; UC Santa Cruz
Chadwick, in the early ’70s, instructs UC Santa Cruz interns. Courtesy of CASFS; UC Santa Cruz
Sara Solovitch is the author of Playing Scared: A History and Memoir of Stage Fright (2015) | <urn:uuid:ebf0c473-a41b-433d-8606-94dc8143aae0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://modernfarmer.com/2015/08/meet-alan-chadwick-the-high-priest-of-hippie-horticulture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.974042 | 3,452 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Songbirds is card game about birds trying to achieve dominance in the forest. Each bird is a different colour in the game.
Players are forest spirits, trying to secretly guide their chosen bird to success. The cards are numbered 1 to 7 in red, blue, green and white. The players lay a card from their hand to a 5×5 grid after nut tokens (points) are laid out for each row and column.
When the grid is full of cards, the rows and columns are checked. The colour with the highest total in a line takes the nut token for that bird. Colours with tied totals are ignored, so a low value card can win the nut token for that bird.
When the nuts are totalled up for the birds, the players reveal their final hand card. That card is the bird they favoured (so more than one player might be helping the same bird), and for each player, the number on the card is added to the nut total to identify who has the dominant bird.
Since the players choose which bird they favour by leaving it as their final hand card, they can delay this choice until they see how the game is panning out.
The game rules come in Japanese and English, the game itself being language free. The game includes rules for 2-4 players or a solitaire/co-op mode for 1-2 players. | <urn:uuid:3d2cce65-1197-4d23-8eeb-95e6a8b4477d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jojatekjoaron.hu/termek/songbirds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.969221 | 280 | 2.078125 | 2 |
AG Eric Schneiderman at a Syracuse gun show (photo: @AGSchneiderman)
The New York State Attorney General's office has been known in recent years as a place where major political careers are built on national headlines. Cases brought against Wall Street's big banks and student-loan lenders have garnered high-dollar settlements and progressive applause. And yet there is nothing in state law that says the office has to be used this way.
Come November, voters will have to decide between competing visions for the office, staying the course with an incumbent who has racked up some of those headline-grabbing 'wins,' or going with a critical challenger offering a new approach. A key question is whether it is better to have an Attorney General (AG) who is independent of the state's dominant (Democratic) party or someone who belongs to it. As with all elected offices and leadership positions, ideology matters, even when it comes to law enforcement.
At its core the AG's office is tasked with being the people's lawyer, representing the state in legal matters. But over the years the men who have occupied the office (there has never been a female New York Attorney General) have shifted its focus to high-profile issues that play well with the public - and bolster further political ambitions. "The office has been redefined by the people who have done it," said Gerald Benjamin, professor of political science at SUNY New Paltz, who noted that the role of the AG is not spelled out in the State Constitution, but instead in the state codes, rules and regulations.
Former AG Robert Abrams, who held the job from 1979 to 1993, focused on consumer fraud and anti-trust cases. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer became known as the Sheriff of Wall Street for his tenacious pursuit of the financial sector as AG. Current Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the office to pursue student-loan lenders and now-AG Eric Schneiderman ran on addressing the roots of the 2008 financial collapse by dealing with mortgage fraud and a promise to address corruption in Albany.
As Albany corruption has continued to run rampant and more New Yorkers view the AG's as a position used as a stepping stone to the governor's office, some insiders have started to argue that it would behoove New York voters to elect a Republican to the office so as to have a better check on the dealings of the Democrats who control most of the seats in the Legislature and, as of now, all of the statewide elected positions.
It is, of course, an argument embraced by Republican AG candidate John Cahill, who served as former Republican Gov. George Pataki's chief of staff from 2002 to 2006.
"The Attorney General position is one where people look beyond party registration," Cahill told Gotham Gazette. "They look for someone who will exert the independence of the office and they look for it in the Attorney General more than in any other state role."
Cahill has laced into Schneiderman for not speaking up about his role in Cuomo's Moreland Commission on Public Corruption and the governor's alleged interference with it. Schneiderman only recently said that he is working with federal prosecutors on cases generated from Moreland as well as the conduct of the commission.
Members of Schneiderman's administration insist that the commission was Cuomo's and their boss had no role in shuttering it or in interfering in subpoenas that targeted groups close to Cuomo - a charge that U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating. Nevertheless, Cahill's attacks have been relentless as he's traveled the state holding press conferences and making a slew of radio appearances knocking Schneiderman. For his part, Schneiderman has hit the campaign trail hard the past week since kicking off his re-election campaign in New York City the Sunday following the primary (for which neither candidate faced a challenger).
While early polls show Schneiderman with a commanding lead, they also show both candidates with fairly low name recognition around the state, though Schneiderman's is higher than Cahill's. A recently-released internal Cahill campaign poll showed Cahill within 7 points of Schneiderman - and showed over 33 percent of voters undecided. However, an August Quinnipiac poll saw Schneiderman with a 51-29 lead over Cahill, with over 70 percent of respondents saying that did not know enough about Cahill to form an opinion.
"I think in the global sense party registration matters very little. I think members of both parties are capable of acting in their party's best interest rather than the peoples," said David Grandeau, the former head of the state ethics commission and a registered Republican. However, Grandeau said he felt that Albany has a culture that protects itself - especially among members of the same political party.
"The way it was described to me by someone in law enforcement is that the Albany political scene is a lot like the mafia," he continued. "They may have their inner squabbles, but as soon as an outsider comes into play they circle the wagons. They protect the guys who feed at the trough."
Schneiderman and Cuomo have a notoriously icy relationship, but is unlikely either will do anything to undermine the other's re-election chances.
Cahill agrees, naturally, with Grandeau's take: "I think we've seen that kind of behavior with Moreland where the commission was disbanded when donors were being scrutinized. I believe the attorney general was complicit in that." Cahill also attacked Schneiderman for not being vocal about or taking action against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver or former Assembly Member Vito Lopez, both Democrats, for the sexual harassment scandal that rocked Albany in recent years.
Benjamin notes that while AG candidates have run on being great prosecutors of corruption, the office's powers are limited in that role. "The bottom line is the Attorney General's prosecutorial role is very limited," said Benjamin. "They play them up because the people expect the Attorney General is a prosecutor when in fact the state's District Attorneys are the prosecutors. But everyone feels the need to be the man in the white hat."
Schneiderman's office has pressed the governor and the Legislature to increase his power to fight legislative corruption with no success. Cuomo himself promised to issue a blanket referral for matters of Albany corruption to Schneiderman if the problem did not abate, but he later changed his tune with members of his inner circle claiming such a move would be illegal.
Nevertheless, Schneiderman's team says their boss has done his best with the tools he has. "Attorney General Schneiderman believes there needs be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or powerful," said Schneiderman spokesperson Peter Ajemian by email. "That's why he prosecuted more than 50 corrupt officials who violated the public trust, held accountable big banks that engaged in fraudulent financial practices, and recovered $17 million in stolen wages for more than 14,000 workers. He plans to continue taking on these tough fights on behalf of working families across New York."
Schneiderman's allies question whether a Republican candidate would effectively represent the values of a state where 60 percent of registered voters are Democrats. "Would a Republican work to hold accountable big banks, unscrupulous employers like Eric has - recovering $17 million in stolen income for low-wage workers?" asks one Schneiderman ally, who requested not to be identified. "Would a Republican Attorney General do those things? I hope so. Would a Republican Attorney General fight for women's reproductive rights by expanding buffer zones and investigating crisis pregnancy clinics?"
Cahill told Gotham Gazette that pursuing Wall Street would not be as big of a priority for him as it was for previous AGs. He said in the past fighting Wall Street has been used "for headlines" and the time would have been better spent "going after consumer protections for the most vulnerable in society." However, he added, "That doesn't mean I would ignore Wall Street."
Cahill has also expressed his support for hydrofracking, the controversial gas-extraction process that is extremely unpopular in parts of the state and has yet to be approved in New York. As the head of an energy consulting firm, Cahill has represented clients in the energy industry with ties to fracking. Schneiderman appears opposed to fracking. He sued the federal government for not properly studying its effects in the Delaware River Basin, stopped gas companies from extending expiring leases, and has said he is paying close attention to lawsuits brought by gas companies against municipalities that have banned fracking.
Cahill has also said he is opposed to the 10th plank of Cuomo's Women's Equality Act that would codify Roe v. Wade abortion protections into state law. Schneiderman has expressed full-throated support for the entire Women's Equality Act and consistently touts and receives praise for his progressive bona fides.
Schneiderman advocated for gun control legislation throughout his career as a legislator and since becoming the AG he has supported the SAFE Act and had his office conduct spot checks at gun shows to ensure background checks were being carried out on gun sales.
Cahill said he does not support the SAFE Act, but has acknowledged that if elected AG he would uphold the law in court. However, he said Schneiderman should have been more active fighting against it before the law was passed.
"When something's gone awry, when the state is acting in a way that is contrary to the people's interest, the people's lawyer - that should be the Attorney General - should be standing up and fighting for the people," Cahill told conservative talk show host Bob Lonsbery. "A perfect example of that is the passage of the so-called SAFE Act. Here we have legislation that's being passed in the middle of the night that is going to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens, that's going to take guns out of law enforcers' [hands], and where is the attorney general?"
Meanwhile, it is unclear how much stances like these really matter to the role of the AG: when a law exists, the AG must uphold it or defend the state in regard to it. The AG is not a legislator. But, there is always discretion involved in every position - and these types of issue stances certainly matter to voters.
The state has seen splits in ideology between Governors and AGs before. Republican Gov. George Pataki was said to have a cordial relationship with Democratic AG Eliot Spitzer despite their disagreement over same-sex marriage. At one point Pataki demanded that Spitzer intervene to stop New Paltz Mayor Jason West from performing same-sex marriages and Spitzer refused.
Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), said that in the end, "The argument [that the AG should be a cross-party check on the Governor] is a good one for Cahill to make but I don't think it trumps the 2 to 1 party enrollment."
Grandeau agrees that the enrollment advantage will be tough to overcome, but that of the slate of statewide candidates Republicans have this year Cahill has the best chance. "History tells you that the right candidate at the right time can have success," he said. "I think I've seen the last Republican Governor in my lifetime, but my guess is Cahill gets the closest this time around."
by David King, Albany Editor, Gotham Gazette | <urn:uuid:cd02b820-0417-4cbf-8b70-2e8762277820> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/government/5338-complicated-role-attorney-general-this-years-race-fill-it-schneiderman-cahill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.977187 | 2,327 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The basic precondition for color vision is the presence of at least two receptor types with different spectral sensitivities. The sensitivity of a receptor is mostly defined by the opsin-based visual pigment expressed in it. We show here, through behavioral experiments, that the nymphalid butterfly Heliconius erato, although it expresses short and medium wavelength opsins and only one long wavelength opsin, discriminates colors in the long-wavelength range (590 nm, 620 nm and 640 nm), whereas another nymphalid, Vanessa atalanta, despite having color vision, is unable to do so. In the eyes of H. erato we identified filtering pigments very close to the rhabdom which differ between ommatidia and produce the yellow and red ommatidial reflection seen under orthodromic illumination. The eyes of V. atalanta lack the filtering pigments, and reflect a homogeneous orange. We hypothesize that the filtering pigments found in the eyes of H. erato may shift the spectral sensitivity peak of the long wavelength receptors in some ommatidia towards longer wavelengths. The comparison of the signals between the two new receptor types makes color discrimination in the red range possible. To our knowledge, this is the first behavioral proof of color vision based on receptors expressing the same opsin.
Color vision enables animals to reliably detect and recognize important objects such as food sources, hosts or mating partners (for reviews, see Menzel, 1979; Kelber et al., 2003). It arises from the comparison of signals from at least two types of photoreceptor with different spectral sensitivities. Depending on the number and sensitivities of photoreceptor types, the spectral range of color vision differs between species and is usually narrower than the total range of vision. Most insects have a short wavelength (S) receptor sensitive in the ultraviolet (UV) range, a medium wavelength (M) receptor sensitive in the blue range and only one long wavelength (L) receptor sensitive in the green/yellow range. In the case of the honeybee, the best studied example, these receptors have peak sensitivities that correspond to 344 nm (S), 436 nm (M) and 544 nm(L) (Peitsch et al., 1992). Moths with a receptor set similar to that of the honeybee are incapable of discriminating between lights of 590 and 630 nm by means of colors but instead they used the intensity of the stimuli(Kelber and Hénique,1999).
The spectral sensitivity primarily depends on the visual pigment expressed in the receptor. The three insect receptor types correspond to three major clades of the insect opsin phylogenetic tree(Fig. 1). In bees, moths and butterflies, each ommatidium has six (or seven) receptors expressing L opsin,and two receptors expressing either both M opsin, both S opsin or one M opsin and one S opsin: Vanessa cardui(Briscoe et al., 2003); Danaus plexippus (Sauman et al.,2005); Pieris rapae(Arikawa et al., 2005; Wakakuwa et al., 2004); Manduca sexta (White et al.,2003); Bombus terrestris(Spaethe and Briscoe, 2005); Apis mellifera (Wakakuwa et al.,2005). Papilionid butterflies have evolved a fourth, red-sensitive opsin (Fig. 1) expressed in four receptors in a subset of ommatidia(Arikawa, 2003), and behavioral experiments have proved that this enables them to discriminate colors in the L range, e.g. spectral lights of 590 and 640 nm wavelength(Kelber and Pfaff, 1999).
The presence of molecules other than opsins in the receptor cells can filter the light traveling inside the rhabdom, modifying the spectral sensitivity of the receptor (Goldsmith and Bernard, 1974; Kong et al.,1980). In butterflies (with the exception of papilionids) a tapetum basal to the rhabdom reflects either broadband light (300–700 nm) as in Vanessa cardui (Briscoe et al., 2003), or relatively narrow-band light (320–590 nm)(Arikawa et al., 2005; Douglas and Marshall, 1999; Stavenga, 2002a) (G. Bernard,personal communication). In the latter case, it can thus modify the spectral sensitivity of the photoreceptors. However, the effect of a tapetum is limited since it only affects the spectral composition of light during the second pass through the retina, and most light absorption happens on the first pass, which is before light reaches the tapetum.
Different filtering pigments associated with different photoreceptors that express the same opsin can result in photoreceptors with different spectral sensitivities that can be used for color vision. Additional photoreceptors resulting from this kind of filtering would not extend the total spectral sensitivity of the animal – that is defined by the sensitivities of the opsin pigments – but it may extend the range of color vision (i.e. the range of wavelengths that can be discriminated). The colored oil droplets found in some birds had earlier been thought to play this role in color vision(Walls, 1942; King-Smith, 1969) but it is now known that each colored oil droplet is associated with a specific opsin in the receptor. They act as a cut-off filter, narrowing the spectral sensitivity of the cones, rather than increasing spectral types(Vorobyev, 2003). The same principle applies to the lateral filtering pigments in the receptors of Papilio xuthus (Arikawa et al.,1999). However, in the eyes of the male small white butterfly, Pieris rapae, the pale-red or deep-red pigment clusters that surround the rhabdoms of different ommatidia act as long-pass filters, creating receptors with peak sensitivity at 620 or 640 nm, but both contain the same opsin (Qiu et al., 2002; Qiu and Arikawa, 2003; Wakakuwa et al., 2004). In these cases, color discrimination could theoretically be extended by means of filtering pigments but direct behavioral evidence confirming this is missing. Different corneal filters in different ommatidia found in tabanid flies and grasshoppers have the same potential to create new receptor types(Kong et al., 1980; Lunau and Knüttel,1995).
The ability to discriminate colors in the red range seems to be very useful. It can increase the number of flower species that can be distinguished and facilitate the finding of better hosts for larvae. This seems to be the case in Papilio butterflies. These animals use color vision not only when foraging for flowers (Kelber and Pfaff, 1999; Kinoshita et al.,1999) but also when making decisions about where to oviposit(Kelber, 1999). Color discrimination in the L range enables them to choose the optimal host for their offspring. The same probably applies to Pieris butterflies(Scherer and Kolb, 1987; Kelber, 2001; Weiss and Papaj, 2003).
All species investigated so far within the third butterfly family,Nymphalidae, have only three opsin genes (Sauman et al., 2005; Briscoe and Bernard, 2005) but more than three receptor types have been reported from several species(Bernard, 1979; Kinoshita et al., 1997; Stavenga et al., 2001) (for a review, see Briscoe and Chittka,2001). The sensitivity curves recorded from the nymphalid butterflies Polygonia c-aureum and Sasakia charonda show clearly that the long-wavelength cut-off of all L receptors coincide, whereas peak sensitivities differ by as much as 50 nm. This can only result from filtering, not from multiple opsins(Kinoshita et al., 1997).
We have chosen to investigate whether color vision extends into the L range, in two species of the nymphalid family, Vanessa atalanta(Linnaeus 1758; subfamily Nymphalinae) and Heliconius erato (Linnaeus 1758; subfamily Heliconiinae). Both species have red areas on their wings,thus color discrimination in the red range could be useful for mate detection as well. In H. erato only three receptor types have been described so far, with λmax at 370, 470 and 570 nm(Fig. 2)(Struwe, 1972). However,electroretinograms (Bernhard et al.,1970; Swihart and Gordon,1971) and electrophysiological recordings in the brain(Swihart, 1972) give indications that a second L receptor (λmax at 620 nm) may exist. It has long been known that Heliconius uses color to find food(Swihart, 1971), and both color and polarized light cues are used by males in choosing mates(Jiggins et al., 2001; Sweeney et al., 2003). V. atalanta has three receptors with λmax at 360, 470 and 530 nm similar to the congener V. cardui(Fig. 2)(Briscoe et al., 2003) (G. Bernard, personal communication). We have performed behavioral experiments,characterized the opsin genes and their expression in the retina, and studied the eye glow and lateral filtering pigments. In short, we prove, for the first time using behavioral studies, that an insect with only S, M and L opsin pigments can discriminate colors in the red range. This is not explained by the sensitivities of the opsins alone and it is probably due to the shift in the receptors' sensitivity caused by the presence of lateral filtering pigments.
Materials and methods
Heliconius erato butterflies were bought as pupae from a professional breeder (Stratford Butterfly Farm, England). The pupae were hung on pieces of cardboard in plastic boxes and kept at high humidity at 28–30°C under a 12 h:12 h light:dark regime. Vanessa atalanta butterflies were reared in the lab from animals captured locally around Lund (Sweden), and allowed to oviposit on nettle leaves (Urtica dioica), its natural host, which was also collected around Lund. The caterpillars were kept in plastic boxes and the nettle leaves were changed every day. When V. atalanta butterflies pupated they were hung on pieces of cardboard in the same manner as H. erato. The pupae were kept under a 20 h:4 h light:dark regime at 25–28°C and high humidity. Once the adults of both species emerged, they were individually marked on the wings and released in a flight cage. The butterflies were fed with 20% (w/w) sucrose solution on the positive stimulus during the training and test. On average, only about half the animals would eclose from the pupa. Of these animals, not all survived long enough to finish the experiment. We started with 15 H. erato in one experiment, but we could only collect sufficient data with nine of them. In a second experiment, where we started training seven animals, four died before the end of the experiment. With V. atalanta, only three out of nine animals survived until the experiment was finished.
The experiments with H. erato were performed in an indoor cage (2 m×1.60 m×2.8 m) constructed from metal pipes and covered with gauze except for the ceiling that was made of a thin plastic sheet. The cage was illuminated by 26 fluorescent tubes (Osram Biolux 965, 65 W; München,Germany) distributed around and above the cage. The intensity of the illumination was approximately 100 cd m–2 in the center of the cage. The temperature was 30°C, and the light regime was set at 12 h:12 h light:dark. The experiments with V. atalanta were performed in a smaller cage (75 cm×50 cm×60 cm) illuminated by four fluorescent tubes (Philips TLD 965 18 W; Eindhoven, The Netherlands). The light intensity in the center of the cage was roughly the same as in the big cage. The light regime was 20 h:4 h light:dark, and the temperature between 20 and 25°C.
The stimuli were presented vertically in an apparatus(Fig. 3A,B) consisting of a black metal plate measuring 20 cm×10 cm. Two light guides were attached to the plate connected to two independent cold light sources (Schott KL 2500,Mainx, Germany). Each light beam passed through an interference filter and a transparent Plexiglass feeder disk (Fig. 3B,C). These feeders were built such that the sucrose solution could be placed away from the center and the animals were not able to see the drop of sugar solution (Fig. 3C). Frontally two colored disks of 3 cm in diameter separated by 6 cm were visible. We used four different colors as stimuli. The colors were obtained by means of four narrow band (10 nm bandwidth) interference filters,transmitting light of 440 nm, 590 nm, 620 nm and 640 nm. Fig. 2 shows these wavelengths together with the sensitivity curves of each receptor in both species. The light intensities could be adjusted electrically, by changing the energy delivered to the light bulb, and mechanically, by means of a diaphragm. Using these two possibilities together, a large range of intensities (between 3.19×1015 and 2.75×1017; quanta s–1 steradian–1 cm–2) could be attained.
Training and test
The butterflies were fed for the first time between 6 h and 8 h after they emerged. A drop of sugar water was placed on the feeder illuminated with the positive color (+); the other feeder (–) was always kept empty. Each butterfly was grasped by the wings and the proboscis was unrolled with a thin needle until it touched the sugar solution. Immediately the butterfly started to drink. This procedure was repeated twice a day. After 3–4 days, the animals flew towards the apparatus by themselves and were able to find the rewarded color (+). From this moment, the choices were registered. Each time an animal approached and touched a feeder, either with its proboscis or with a tarsus, a choice was registered. If an animal touched the feeder more than once during an approach, only the first touch was counted. In further data analysis, we only included animals that made a minimum number of 15 choices with each intensity combination, thus in total at least 60 choices.
We first trained both species to discriminate a yellow or red (590 nm or 620 nm) and a blue (440 nm) color, to determine whether the animals used color vision at all. The animals that were able to discriminate these colors were then trained to a second pair of wavelengths. Animals did not survive long enough to be trained to three wavelength combinations. Therefore, H. erato that were trained to two combinations of long wavelengths were not initially trained with blue and yellow. These H. erato were first trained to 620 nm (+) vs 590 nm. When they reached the minimum number of choices, the same individuals were trained to 620 nm (+) vs 640 nm. V. atalanta were first trained to 620 nm (+) vs 440 nm,and once the animals reached the minimum number of choices, the same individuals were trained to 620 nm (+) vs 590 nm. Only one animal at a time was allowed to visit the apparatus. Each butterfly was allowed to drink for 1–2 s and then gently forced to leave for a new choice. Between choices the intensities and/or the position of the stimuli were changed in a pseudorandom way. Five different ratios of the physical intensities of+/– were used: 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 (i.e. +100 times less intense than –, +10 times less intense than –, equal intensities and +10 times more intense than the –, +100 times more intense than –,respectively), but only three or four of them were used with one wavelength combination. This was achieved by changing the intensities of both the rewarded and the unrewarded stimulus. This schema resulted in an average of 10 choices per animal daily.
The performance of each animal with each intensity combination was evaluated separately by comparing the numbers of choices this animal made with the critical value corresponding to two-tailed significance levels (α)of 0.05 for a binomial proportion of P=0.5 [equal number of choices for each color; Rohlf and Sokal (Rohlf and Sokal, 1995), p. 107, Table Q].
Under daylight illumination the heads of 10-day old H. erato were severed in two halves and the pieces were put in 4% PFA (paraformaldehyde) in 0.1 mol l–1 phosphate-buffered saline (pH 7.2) for 1 h. The eyes were dehydrated in an alcohol series (50%, 75%, 96%, 100%), finally immersed in 100% acetone and embedded in Epon resin (Agar Scientific, Agar Scientific Ltd, Essex, UK) After hardening the resin at 60°C for 48 h the eyes were cut laterally in 10 μm thick sections using a microtome and mounted on a slide. In this way the ommatidia that in the living animal pointed sideways, pointed directly at the observer in the microscope. Some H. erato were dark adapted by keeping them in total darkness for 30 min at room temperature and then for 20 min in total darkness at 4°C. After that, the head of the animal was cut off under red light (produced by attaching a 660 nm cut-off filter to the tip of a light guide connected to a Schott KL 2500 lamp) in order to avoid light adapting the eyes. V. atalanta butterflies were captured locally around Lund (Sweden) and were treated in the same way as the light adapted H. erato.
At least four dark-adapted H. erato and V. atalanta eyes were photographed with a Nikon camera connected to a modified epi-illumination microscope. In this instrument, the incident light applied to the eye is channeled by the facet lens and crystalline cone into the light-guiding rhabdoms (see Land, 1984; Miller and Bernard, 1968; Stavenga, 2002b). When the dark-adapted eye is illuminated with strong light and observed from the same direction (orthodromic illumination), a bright eye-glow is seen for a few seconds. Light reaching the ommatidial tapetum is reflected and guided back through the rhabdom. When not absorbed there, it leaves the eye again and is then observable as the eye glow. The butterflies were restrained by waxing the thorax and head to a support but were otherwise alive and intact. The animals were oriented such that pictures could be taken in the frontal-lateral part of the eye. The eye glow was photographed by leaving the shutter of the camera open and delivering flashes of between 0.1 s and 0.5 s with intervals of 10 s. In this way, the eye glow could be photographed without the pupil closing. As a light source we used a xenon arc lamp that supplied 1.4×10–4 W cm–2. The objective lens was a Zeiss Luminar 25 mm (3.5/A 0.15). To study the spectral sensitivity of the pupil response, we illuminated the eye with lights of different wavelengths obtained by means of interference filters (680 nm, 650 nm, 620 nm,590 nm; 10 nm bandwidth) and observed pupil closure.
PCR, cloning and sequencing
The H. erato opsins were isolated by the polymerase chain reaction(PCR) using a combination of degenerate and gene-specific primers. cDNA template was prepared from RNA extracted from whole head tissue (Trizol;Gibco-BRL, Gaithersburg, MD, USA) and synthesized using the Marathon cDNA Amplification Kit (BD Biosciences Clontech, Mountain View, CA, USA). PCR products were ligated into the pGEM-T Easy cloning vector (Promega, Madison,WI, USA) and plasmids were screened by EcoRI digestion for inserts of the correct size. Plasmid DNA was cycle sequenced using the Big Dye Terminator 3.1 Cycle Sequencing Kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) and the core sequencing facilities at the University of California, Irvine. In this initial screen, we sequenced more than 100 clones, and then designed opsin gene-specific primers to use in a multiplex PCR. To ensure that all opsins had indeed been recovered, approximately 120 additional plasmids were screened using multiplex PCR in which three pairs of opsin gene-specific primers were combined in a single PCR reaction. Only those plasmids that did not amplify with those primers were then sequenced.
To identify the homology of the cloned H. erato opsins, we conducted a BLAST search and downloaded a total of 41 full-length arthropod opsin genes from GenBank including representatives of all available insect orders (six total), as well as chelicerates and crustaceans. Only first and second nucleotide positions were used as third positions were saturated(A.D.B.,, unpublished observation). A gene tree was reconstructed using the neighbor-joining algorithm with Tamura-Nei distance, heterogeneous rates among lineages and complete deletion of gaps as implemented in MEGA 3.0(Kumar et al., 2004). Robustness of the tree was assessed by bootstrap analysis (1000 replicates).
The adult butterflies were placed at 4°C for 1 h before being killed by a swift severing of the head with a scalpel. Subsequently, the head was cut in half. The eyes were fixed in 4% PFA in 1× phosphate-buffered saline (pH 7.2) for 2 h to 4 h at room temperature and stepped through a sucrose gradient(10%, 20%, 30%). Then the tissue was cryostat sectioned into 8–12 μm slices at –18°C and placed on a slide. The eyes were oriented such that the ommatidia that in the living animal pointed directly to the front,pointed directly at the observer.
Riboprobe synthesis and in situ hybridization
Starting with 1 μg of purified PCR product (amplified from plasmid DNA),digoxigenin-UTP-labeled RNA probes (riboprobes) complementary to the mRNAs of the visual pigments were synthesized by using a DIG RNA labeling kit (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). After the synthesis, the riboprobes were precipitated with 4 mol l–1 LiCl and 100% ethanol. A dot blot procedure was used to quantify the amount of riboprobe. Typically, 10 ng/μl of riboprobe was obtained after this procedure.
The slides with the sections were then incubated in hybridization buffer(0.3 mmol l–1 NaCl, 2.5 mmol l–1 EDTA, 20 mmol l–1 Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 50% formamide, 10% dextran sulfate, 100 g ml–1 yeast tRNA and 1× Denhart's medium)(Sakamoto et al., 1996) in a humid chamber for 30 min at 60°C. The labeled probe was diluted in the hybridization buffer (1:75), corresponding to approximately 0.013 ng of probe per ml of hybridization buffer. The sections were incubated in the diluted probe overnight at 55–60°C in a humid chamber and then washed with 2×, 1× and 0.1× standard saline citrate and 0.1% Tween 20,for 10 min each. The probes were identified in the histologic sections by incubation with an anti-digoxigenin alkaline phosphatase-conjugated antibody(Boehringer Mannheim), diluted in 1× phosphate buffer plus Tween 20(1:1000) for 2 h. The probes were detected by a colorimetric reaction produced by Nitro Blue tetrazolium (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate) and 10% Tween 20 in alkaline phosphatase developing solution. An Axioskop microscope (Zeiss,Thornwood, NY, USA) equipped with an AxioCam Hrc digital camera (Zeiss) was used to collect images. Image data were recorded in ZeissVision 3.1 software on a personal computer at 2,060×2,600 pixel resolution.
In order to investigate whether H. erato or V. atalantahave color vision in the L range, we first determined that the animals were capable of discriminating a rewarded color from an unrewarded color. Fig. 4A shows that V. atalanta (N=3) was able to discriminate a rewarded light stimulus of 620 nm (+) from 440 nm. The animals chose it significantly more often than the unrewarded one independently of the intensity (three animals,at least 15 choices in each intensity combination, P<0.05 for each animal in each intensity combination). When the same animals were trained to discriminate 620 nm (+) from 590 nm (Fig. 4B), the situation was completely different. The animals always approached the brighter stimulus, indicating that the wavelength was not the relevant feature in this test. Even with an intensity ratio of one, the animals chose the unrewarded color (590 nm). As the peak sensitivity of the green receptors of V. atalanta is similar to that of its close relative Vanessa cardui [530 nm; G. Bernard, personal communication(Briscoe et al., 2003)], it is more sensitive to light of 590 nm than to light of 620 nm. If both lights have the same physical intensity, 590 nm is thus supposed to look brighter for V. atalanta than 620 nm. The fact that the choice frequencies massively change with the relative intensities of the stimuli clearly disproves the use of color vision.
Similar to V. atalanta, H. erato was also able to discriminate a rewarded stimulus of 590 nm (+) from 440 nm (figure not shown). The same animals were later trained to discriminate 590 nm (+) from 620 nm. However,the performance of H. erato in discriminating the 620 nm (+) light from 590 nm was strikingly different from that of V. atalanta. The three animals trained to discriminate 590 nm (+) from 440 nm first and from 620 nm later, chose 590 nm significantly more often than 620 nm, independent of the relative intensities (three animals, minimum of 15 choices per animal and intensity combination, P<0.05 for each intensity combination and animal). The same was true for H. erato (N=9) that were trained to discriminate 620 nm from 590 nm without prior training with other wavelengths (Fig. 4C). The choices of the animals were based only on the wavelength and were independent of the intensity (P<0.05, for each animal and intensity combination). These animals were then trained to discriminate lights of 620 nm(+) from 640 nm (Fig. 4D). To the L receptor of H. erato (peak sensitivity at 570 nm), a light of 620 nm must look brighter than an equally intense light of 640 nm(Fig. 2). Therefore, we presented the 620 nm (+) light 100× darker than the 640 nm light (an intensity ratio of 0.01). Even in this critical test four out of nine animals chose the correct color significantly more often than 50%[Fig. 4D; butterflies nos. 3(20/26), 4 (20/26), 5 (23/34), 6 (22/31), correct choices/total choices]. P<0.05 for each of these four animals). Our results indicate that H. erato has color vision in the L range, whereas V. atalanta does not.
A similar behavioral result was reported in Papilio aegeus(Kelber and Pfaff, 1999). In this study it was shown that Papilio butterflies could discriminate colors in the red range (590 nm vs 620 nm). In Papilio, this ability is based on duplicated L opsins that these animals possess(Arikawa, 2003). In contrast,only one L opsin has so far been found in the compound eyes of Heliconius (Hsu et al.,2001) and the M opsin is not sensitive to light of 620 nm(Fig. 2).
Different kind of opsins and their expression in the retina
In order to see if the capability of H. erato to discriminate between stimuli of long wavelengths is based on the expression of more than one L opsin we screened a cDNA library synthesized from adult eyes. More than 200 clones were screened and only one L opsin-encoding mRNA was found in the compound eyes of H. erato, along with blue and ultraviolet opsin-encoding mRNA transcripts. The GenBank accession numbers for these genes are as follows: UVRh, AY918904; BlueRh, AY918906; LWRh, AY918907. To see how these three opsins are expressed, at least 50 eyes were analyzed after performing in situ hybridization in the frontal and fronto-lateral part of the compound eye. Fig. 5 shows an example of the hybridization pattern obtained after using UVRh, BlueRh and LWRh digoxigenin-labeled antisense riboprobes. Fig. 5A shows the pattern produced by the UVRh riboprobe. Some ommatidia show two cells stained, others show only one cell stained and some no staining. The same configuration can be observed when the BlueRh riboprobe was used(Fig. 5B,). Since the sections in Fig. 5A,B are consecutive, the position of the cells in both pictures can be followed (black circles in the insets mark the same ommatidia). We observed three different types of ommatidia. The ommatidia that express UVRh in two cells do not express BlueRh. Reciprocally, the ommatidia that express BlueRh in two cells do not express UVRh. The third type of ommatidia expresses each opsin mRNA in one cell. This is the same situation as in V. cardui (Briscoe et al.,2003), P. xuthus(Arikawa, 2003), Pieris rapae (Arikawa et al.,2005; Wakakuwa et al.,2004), Manduca sexta(White et al., 2003), and in Danaus plexippus (Sauman et al.,2005). Fig 5C,Dshow the LWRh pattern, in which six cells are stained in all ommatidia across the whole section. Each cell expresses only one of the three opsins, and we found no evidence of co-expression. This pattern was seen in all the eyes examined. We, therefore, conclude that the difference between H. erato and V. atalanta in their ability to discriminate light in the long wavelength part of the spectrum cannot be attributed to the presence of a second L opsin.
Eye glow and histology: Lateral filtering pigment heterogeneity in H. erato
Since H. erato can extend their color vision range into the long wavelengths using only one L opsin which is homogeneously distributed, we next studied whether the ommatidia differ in aspects other than the S and M opsin expression. We first examined the light that is reflected by the tapetum and emerges from the compound eye (eye glow) of H. erato, using an ophthalmoscope, and found two classes of ommatidia(Fig. 6A). One class of ommatidia reflects yellow light and the other reflects red. By contrast, all ommatidia of V. atalanta reflect an homogeneous orange(Fig. 6D) in the same fashion as in V. cardui, a close relative(Briscoe and Bernard,2005).
When we applied lights of different wavelengths by placing interference filters (680 nm, 650 nm, 620 nm, 590 nm) between the light source and the eye of H. erato, we observed that the red and the yellow ommatidia closed to different degrees (data not shown). Since the pupil closure is under the control of the photoreceptors in each ommatidium(Stavenga, 1979), the different degrees of closure are a result of different sensitivities of the receptors in both ommatidial classes to these wavelengths. Considering the wavelengths of the test lights, we conclude that the L receptors must differ in their spectral sensitivity between ommatidial classes, and this could provide the basis for color vision in the L range. In V. atalanta all ommatidia close completely and at the same speed when illuminated with 620 nm and 590 nm. When illuminated with 650 nm a partial closure was observed indicating that the photoreceptors are slightly sensitive to this wavelength.
We hypothesized that, as has been shown in Pieris rapae(Wakakuwa et al., 2004) the occurrence of the two physiologically distinct H. erato ommatidial classes might result from different populations of lateral filter pigments. Because of the waveguide properties of the narrow butterfly rhabdom(Nilsson et al., 1988),lateral filter pigments can affect the wavelengths of light to which the receptors are sensitive (Miller and Bernard, 1968; Ribi,1979; Stavenga,2002a; Stavenga,2002b).
We tested this hypothesis by inspecting serial sections through the compound eye, and found that the difference between the heterogeneous eye glow of H. erato and the homogeneous eye glow of V. atalanta may be due to differences in the presence or absence, and distribution of lateral filter pigments. In a tangential section of the fronto-lateral region of the compound eye of H. erato (190 μm from the cornea), the presence of pupillary pigments can be observed (Fig. 6B,). In dark-adapted eyes these pigments are further away from the rhabdoms than in light adapted eyes (picture not shown). These pigments disappear completely around 220 μm and after a gap, a second type of red pigmentation appears around 320 μm from the cornea. The pigments at this depth (Fig. 6C, 370 μm from the cornea) are closer to the rhabdom than the pupillary pigments(distance between opposite pigment spots 0.68±0.20 μm, mean ±s.d.; N=10) and do not move as a function of light adaptation. Their coating of the rhabdom means that they can filter the short wavelength light traveling in the waveguide, and therefore change the spectral sensitivity. The color of this pigment is heterogeneous among different ommatidia (see circles marked a and b, in Fig. 6C). This pigment heterogeneity is also evident at sections taken more proximal in the eye (480 μm, picture not shown). We propose that this heterogeneity of pigmentation may be the cause of the heterogeneous eye glow and the difference in speed of the pupil closure (i.e. different sensitivities).
In the eye of V. atalanta (Fig. 6E,F), the only pigments detected were the pupillary pigments (see also Stavenga, 1979). We found no histological evidence of a lateral filtering pigment or pigment heterogeneity between ommatidia, which is consistent with the homogeneous eye glow, the pupil closure, experimental reflectance spectra (G. Bernard,personal communication), and with the data from the other species of this genus that was recently examined, V. cardui(Briscoe et al., 2003).
Color discrimination in the long-wavelength range with one opsin
We conclude that H. erato has color vision in the red range, based on two photoreceptor types containing the same opsin. The difference in the spectral sensitivities necessary to accomplish color vision must result from other mechanisms than a new opsin, and is probably the result of the expression of different lateral filtering pigments in different ommatidia.
We have compared the color vision abilities of two butterfly species that possess three opsin genes coding for opsins in the S, M and L range. One of the species, V. atalanta, was able to discriminate between blue (440 nm) and yellow (590 nm) with high accuracy but not between yellow (590 nm) and red (620 nm; Fig. 4A,B). This indicates that only one receptor type is sensitive to both long wavelengths. The blue-sensitive receptor is insensitive to these long wavelengths making a comparison of different receptor signals (and thus color vision) impossible. In the absence of a color difference, V. atalanta used the intensity of the stimulus as a choice criterion. This result is similar to that obtained with a sphingid that also possesses three spectral types of receptors leaving it unable to discriminate yellow from red(Kelber and Hénique,1999).
In contrast, H. erato is able to discriminate 620 nm not only from 590 nm but also from 640 nm (Fig. 4C,D). Two spectral types of receptors must therefore be sensitive to light of 620 nm wavelength. In P. aegeus, the ability to discriminate 590 nm from 630 nm is mediated by a separate red receptor containing a separate red opsin (Kelber and Pfaff, 1999; Matic et al., 1983). This second L opsin evolved as a result of a gene duplication event, which occurred after the divergence of the nymphalid and papilionid lineages(Briscoe, 2001). In H. erato, our extensive search for an additional L opsin gene was unsuccessful. Six of eight proximal photoreceptors in each ommatidium, and probably the ninth basal receptor express the same known green-sensitive opsin(Fig. 5C,D). The remaining two receptors are two UV receptors, two blue receptors or one of each(Fig. 5A,B). This situation is the same in V. cardui, a close relative of V. atalanta(Briscoe et al., 2003). The blue receptors of both species have a peak sensitivity at longer wavelengths than other insect blue receptors (470 nm)(Struwe, 1972) [for comparison see Briscoe and Chittka (Briscoe and Chittka, 2001)] but this cannot explain our results(Fig. 2). We conclude that H. erato has color vision in the red range, without having two opsins sensitive in this spectral range.
Do lateral filtering pigments create a second long-wavelength receptor?
The ophthalmoscope studies of H. erato revealed two classes of ommatidia differing in eye glow color (Fig. 6A). This is similar to many butterfly eyes studied by Stavenga(Stavenga, 2002a; Stavenga, 2002b), including another species of the large genus Heliconius, H. melpomene. By contrast, a uniform eye glow was seen in V. atalanta(Fig. 6D), similar to that of V. cardui and other nymphalids including Nymphalis antiopa,Siproeta steneles, Inachis io and Polygonia c-album(Briscoe and Bernard, 2005; Stavenga, 2002a). Possible mechanisms underlying the different eye glow colors include lateral filtering pigments, different opsin densities and tapetal reflection. Different opsin densities are hard to prove; nonetheless, we cannot exclude them as a possible cause for the difference in the ommatidial reflection seen in H. erato. Differences in tapetal reflection have little relevance since they only affect light absorbed on the way out of the receptor. This is a very small amount as most light is absorbed on the way into the eye. The most likely candidate causing differences between receptor spectra are the lateral filtering pigments found in H. erato but not in V. atalanta(Fig. 6). These pigments are close enough to the rhabdom to act as lateral filters. Different pigments in different ommatidia (Fig. 6C)can result in two kinds of ommatidia with different spectral sensitivities as has been shown for P. rapae(Wakakuwa et al., 2004). Further studies including electrophysiological measurements are needed to reveal the exact receptor sensitivities.
Color vision with filter pigments?
To our knowledge, H. erato is the first animal shown to use two photoreceptors containing the same opsin for color vision. We hypothesize that lateral filtering pigments may be the basis of the difference between the two receptor types in Heliconius as well. Filtering pigments can extend the range of color vision by shifting the L receptor sensitivity in one class of ommatidia. The comparison between different receptors created in this way allows the animal to discriminate colors at longer wavelengths than those expected by the opsins alone. The total range of vision, which is set by the sensitivity of the opsins, is unaltered. The fact that Pieris and Papilio also have lateral filtering pigments(Arikawa, 2003; Wakakuwa et al., 2004) makes it probable that this mechanism is older than the evolution of a separate red opsin in Papilio, and common in butterflies. There is a high probability that butterflies such as Sasakia charonda, Polygonium c-aureum (Kinoshita et al.,1997) and Pieris rapae are also able to discriminate colors in the red range. Given the receptor curves measured(Wakakuwa et al., 2004), the color discrimination ability of P. rapae might extend even further into the red range than color vision of H. erato.
Red filtering pigments that may change receptor sensitivity have earlier been found in a hymenopteran insect (Ribi,1978). We expect that careful studies will reveal more such cases and conclude that the study of opsin genes and their expression is not sufficient to understand the evolution of color vision systems in animals.
Special thanks to Prof Dan-Eric Nilsson for use of the ophthalmoscope,Carina Rasmussen for valuable advise on cryosectioning, Cindy Wang for assistance with the sequencing, Gary Bernard for sharing unpublished microspectrophotometric data on V. atalanta and two referees for constructive comments. Financial support came from the Swedish Research Council, Stockholm and the National Science Foundation (IBN-0346765). | <urn:uuid:026b9f85-7bac-484d-8362-a09e6229729c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/209/10/1944/16053/Color-discrimination-in-the-red-range-with-only | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.928091 | 9,039 | 3.984375 | 4 |
1.) Do you prescribe ophthalmic topical anesthetics to patients with corneal abrasions who complain of severe pain?
Corneal abrasion is one of the most common acute eye complaints that presents to the ED, accounting for approximately 10% of eye related ED visits (Verma, 2013). The cornea is highly innervated, and even small abrasions can cause significant pain. The use of topical ophthalmologic anesthetics was first documented in 1818 with erythroxylum coca (a cocaine derivative), and is quite effective at blocking nerve conduction in the superficial cornea and conjunctiva, thus eliminating the sensation of pain (Rosenwasser, 1989).
There are a number of proposed dangers in using topical anesthetics for corneal abrasions. This includes inhibition of mitosis (and subsequent delayed healing) and decreased corneal sensation with the fear that the abrasion will progress to an ulcer without the patient noticing. Additionally, these agents may have direct toxicity to corneal epithelium with prolonged use.
These theoretical dangers could potentially lead to keratitis, edema, erosion, and the formation of infiltrates and opacities. These concerns prompted early research of the effects of topical anesthetics on the cornea. The adage that topical anesthetics should not be prescribed to patients with corneal abrasions originated from animal studies and case studies dating back to the 1960’s. Many of the animal studies were done on enucleated rat and rabbit eyes or animal cell preparations. This research may not, for obvious reasons, be applicable to living human subjects.
The earliest human studies date back to the 1960’s and 70’s, and are mostly small case reports of patients using topical anesthetics inappropriately. The first such study was a case report of five patients who used topical anesthetics chronically, resulting in keratitis (Epstein, 1968). All five patients used topical anesthetics for either a prolonged period of time, too frequently, or without physician supervision or proper examination prior to application. In contrast to the inappropriate uses detailed in the case reports, topical anesthetics commonly used to facilitate slit lamp examinations include tetracaine 0.5% or proparacaine 0.5%. A theoretical prescription regimen would be a short course (2-3 days) of a dilute topical anesthetic used only a few times daily (every 4-6 hours as needed).
The next case report condemning the use of topical anesthetics was published two years later, and examined the outcomes of nine patients who misused topical anesthetics (Willis, 1970). Like the previous case reports, this study included nine patients who used topical anesthetics inappropriately: either too frequently, for prolonged periods of time, or without appropriate physician supervision or examination. Of these nine patients, only one patient used the medication in a somewhat reasonable manner (a 46 year old factory worker who used topical anesthetic every two hours for two days), however it is unclear from the paper whether he received a proper slit lamp examination on initial evaluation or was given the drops empirically. When he saw an ophthalmologist two days later, he was diagnosed with anterior uveitis and epithelial erosion, which may have been present at the time of initial injury.
More recent case studies specifically address topical anesthetic abuse and its effects on the cornea (Erdem, 2013; Yeniad, 2010). Types of misuse seen in the literature include using higher concentrations of topical anesthetics, using with excessive frequency, or using for prolonged periods of time. To date, there are no studies that show adverse outcomes from short courses of dilute topical anesthetic with use limited to every 4-6 hours as needed.
There are studies demonstrating the safety of topical anesthetics from the ophthalmology literature. PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) is a type of laser vision correction surgery that involves ablation of a small amount of tissue from the corneal stroma, thus creating an epithelial deficit (similar to a corneal abrasion). In a two-part study, proparacaine was first administered to healthy volunteers in different concentrations to assess anesthetic efficacy (Shahinian, 1997). Dilute (0.05%) proparacaine was then given to healthy volunteers to determine the safety of excessive use. No corneal toxicity was observed. In the second part of the double-blinded study, 34 PRK patients were prospectively randomized into a treatment group (proparacaine 0.05% for one week as needed) or placebo group (artificial tears). Both groups also received oral opioids and topical NSAIDS. Patients in the treatment group reported significantly decreased pain scores, longer duration of pain relief, and decreased opioid use compared to the placebo group.
Another study in the PRK literature looked at post-operative patients given approximately ten drops of tetracaine 0.5% to use as needed (Brilakis, 2000). Patients were re-examined on post-op days 1 and 3. The study found that all of the eyes had healed within 72 hours and use of the tetracaine drops did not prolong time to re-epithelialization.
There are some studies in the emergency medicine literature which support the use of topical anesthetics. One such study was a prospective, randomized controlled trial that included adults with corneal injuries presenting to one of two tertiary emergency departments in Ontario (Ball, 2010). Participants were randomized to receive either proparacaine 0.05% or placebo drops and were followed up by an ophthalmologist on days 1, 3, and 5. All patients were also prescribed topical NSAIDS and oral acetaminophen with codeine, and were told to take the study drops 2-4 at a time as needed. Patients were prescribed 40 mL of drops. The study was small (only 15 patients in the proparacaine group and 18 patients in the placebo group), but showed significantly better pain reduction and decreased opioid use in the proparacaine group. There were no ocular complications or delay in healing in either group.
Another recently published 12-month prospective, double-blinded randomized trial assessed a convenience sample of 116 patients with uncomplicated corneal abrasions (Waldman, 2014). Study participants were randomized to receive either 1% tetracaine or saline every 30 minutes as needed for twenty-four hours. Results showed no complications attributed to topical anesthetics, and no statistically significant difference in corneal healing at 48 hours. To assess pain control, both a visual analogue scale as well as a patient-reported numeric rating scale for overall effectiveness were used. While no difference was seen between the two groups on the visual analogue scale, patients rated tetracaine as having a better overall effectiveness on the numerical rating scale. Although 48-hour follow-up was relatively low (64% in the saline group and 69% in the tetracaine group), the study found that topical tetracaine used for 24 hours was safe and that patients perceived a better overall effectiveness with tetracaine. Both blinding of treatment groups and the pain scores may have been compromised here by the burning sensation that accompanies initial tetracaine application.
Bottom Line: Major EM textbooks still discourage prescribing topical anesthetics for corneal abrasions. In spite of this, there is mounting evidence in the EM literature that topical anesthetics are safe and effective for the treatment of pain in corneal abrasions. It may be reasonable to send selected, reliable patients home with a limited supply of topical anesthetic agents along with strict instructions for return to the ED and 48 hour follow up with an ophthalmologist. Larger randomized, controlled, ED-based studies are needed before the safety of this practice can be fully elucidated and thus, at this time treatment with topical anesthetics cannot be absolutely recommended.
2.) When do you schedule ophthalmology follow up for patients with corneal abrasions?
The cornea functions to protect the eye, filter UV light, and refract light to allow for image formation. To properly refract light the cornea must be completely transparent and thus it is avascular and obtains its nutrients from the aqueous humor, tears, and ambient oxygen. While most corneal abrasions heal quickly and without consequence despite the cornea being an avascular structure, there is potential for complications ranging from infection to ulceration to permanent vision loss, especially if the abrasion is not properly treated.
After a corneal abrasion is diagnosed via slit lamp exam, there are various options for further care. Despite numerous review articles offering various recommendations on the optimal follow up method, there is no evidence-based literature to guide this decision.
Several articles recommend 24-hour follow-up, but don’t specify with whom the patient should follow. A guideline statement from Wilson, et al. recommends that most patients should be re-evaluated in 24 hours and if the abrasion is not fully healed, additional follow-up is needed (Wilson, 2004). It furthermore states that close attention should be paid to contact lens wearers and immunocompromised patients, and that specific ophthalmology referral is recommended for patients with deep eye injuries, foreign bodies unable to be removed, and suspected recurrent corneal erosions. Also, patients with persistent symptoms after 72 hours, worsening symptoms, or vision abnormalities should be referred to an ophthalmologist.
On the contrary, Khan, et al. suggests that patients with corneal abrasions should be seen specifically by an ophthalmologist within 24-48 hours to assess for healing (Khan, 2013). The articles goes on to state that most injuries heal quickly and without infection within 24 hours and that these patients will not need long-term follow-up, with the exception of contact lens users who may need follow-up over the course of 3-5 days.
A review on EM Updates (Strayer, 2009) recommends immediate ophthalmology evaluation if the corneal abrasion is associated with penetrating injury or infiltrate ,and 24 hour ophthalmology evaluation if the abrasion is “high risk,”such as those created by an artificial fingernail or organic matter (which are prone to fungal infections) or contact lens wearers (who are prone to bacterial infections, including pseudomonas). All others can be re-evaluated (not necessarily by an ophthalmologist) in 24 hours.
While most sources recommend at least one follow-up visit within 24-48 hours, some recent articles propose that “small” corneal abrasions (definitions of which range from less than 4mm to less than one fourth of the corneal surface area) which are uncomplicated (i.e., no organic material or contact lens use) in reliable patients with normal vision and resolving symptoms may not require follow-up (Wipperman, 2013).
Do practice patterns reflect these varying recommendations? A nationwide, Canadian survey study that concluded that 88% percent of ED physicians routinely arranged follow-up for their patients with cornal abrasions (Calder, 2004). Most often it was a return to the emergency department (69%) but 45% referred patients to ophthalmologists and 35% referred to the family physician.
Bottom line: Based on expert consensus, it is a reasonable and safe approach to have every patient re-evaluated in 24-48 hours. Those with “high risk” abrasions that you are worried about can be referred to ophthalmology for this follow-up, and others can most likely be re-evaluated by their primary care doctor or told to return to the ED in 24 hours for re-evaluation to ensure proper healing and the absence of infection.
3.) How soon after presentation do you have a patient with floaters see an ophthalmologist?
Floaters are defined as the perception of moving spots in the visual field of one eye. They are usually black or grey in color, and are caused by either light bending at the interface of fluid pockets in the vitreous jelly or opacities caused by cells within the vitreous. They are a very common condition, especially in patients over the age of fifty. In contrast, flashes (which often accompany floaters) can be described as brief repeated sensations of bright light, typically seen at the periphery of the visual field. Flashes are caused by vitreous traction on the retina. Both floaters and flashes are painless (Hollands, 2009; Margo, 2005). Most cases of floaters and flashes (especially when monocular) are of ocular etiology, the most common of which is posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). However, the differential diagnosis also includes retinal tear or detachment, posterior uveitis and other causes of vitreous inflammation, vitreous hemorrhage (which can result from diabetic retinopathy), macular degeneration, ocular lymphoma, intraocular foreign body, TIA, migraine aura, postural hypotension, and occipital lobe disorders. In contrast to ocular etiologies, extra-ocular causes of floaters and flashes are often bilateral and accompanied by other symptoms (Hollands, 2009).
Posterior vitreous detachment is the most common cause of floaters, and occurs in approximately two thirds of patients over age 65 (Margo, 2005). The posterior vitreous is composed mostly of water and collagen. As we age this structure shrinks in size, causing it to detach from the underlying retina. Although most people will develop PVD at some point in their lives, for the majority it will remain benign and without serious consequences. For others, it may progress to retinal tear, which often appears as a horseshoe shaped hole in the retina. Tears allow fluid to enter the sub-retinal space, which then leads to retinal detachment. About 33% to 46% of untreated retinal tears will result in retinal detachment (Hollands, 2009). Retinal detachment causes ischemia and photoreceptor degeneration, which progresses to blindness. If retinal detachment is detected early and surgically corrected, vision loss can be prevented or even restored.
It is difficult to differentiate PVD from retinal tear or detachment based on history alone. Thus, patients who present with unilateral flashes and floaters require a complete eye exam, including visual acuity, pupillary light reflex, visual fields, slit lamp exam of the anterior and posterior segments, thorough inspection of the vitreous using slit lamp, and dilated fundoscopy. Indirect ophthalmoscopy and scleral depression are useful tools (Margo, 2005), but are not routinely performed by emergency physicians and thus, will not be discussed further. A monocular visual field deficit in the affected eye may represent an area of detached retina. A dilated ophthalmoscopic exam can detect a retinal tear (seen as a hole or defect which is often horseshoe shaped) or retinal detachment (which is seen as a billowing or wrinkled retina). Slit lamp exam may reveal vitreous pigment (“tobacco dust”) or hemorrhage, which is suggestive of retinal tear or detachment.
Often, fundoscopic examination is limited in patients with contraindications to mydriatics, significant periorbital soft tissue swelling, or inability to visualize the posterior segment of the eye due to hyphema, lens opacification, or vitreous hemorrhage (Teismann, 2009). In these cases, ocular ultrasound may be beneficial. While the sensitivity and specificity of emergency physician performed ocular ultrasound to detect retinal detachment is beyond the scope of this topic, suffice it to say that ultrasound can be helpful to rule in (but not rule out) the diagnosis.
Since we cannot perform as detailed of an exam as can be done in an ophthalmologist’s office, our role in the ED is to make the diagnosis of probable PVD and to identify patients who are at risk for progression to retinal tear and detachment. Determining this risk will help differentiate patients who require urgent ophthalmology referral from those who can follow up in a less urgent manner. With time, PVD becomes more stable, and patients with floaters and flashes that have remained unchanged for months to years depict a reassuring scenario. In contrast, patients with new onset of floaters and flashes (days to weeks) are more concerning, since the acute phase of tractional forces on the retina makes it prone to developing tears.
In a 2009 meta-analysis, data from 17 different studies regarding patients with acute onset floaters and flashes of suspected ocular origin secondary to PVD demonstrated that 14% were found to have a retinal tear at initial presentation (Hollands, 2009). Besides acute onset of symptoms, other factors found to be predictive of retinal tears included subjective vision reduction and vitreous hemorrhage or pigment (“tobacco dust”) on slit lamp exam. In patients with subjective vision reduction, the prevalence of retinal tears increased from 14% to 45% (likelihood ratio (LR) of 5). The post-test probability of retinal tears in patients with acute onset floaters or flashes (with baseline prevalence of 14%) increased to 62% in patients with vitreous hemorrhage and 88% in patients with vitreous pigment on slit lamp exam. The study also concluded that patients initially diagnosed as having uncomplicated PVD have a 3.4% chance of developing a retinal tear within six weeks. The risk increases with new onset of at least 10 floaters (summary LR 8.1) or subjective vision reduction (summary LR 2.3).
Schweitzer, et al., performed a prospective cohort study looking for predictive characteristics in patients with acute PVD. They found that in vitreal or retinal hemorrhage a large number and/or high-frequency of floaters indicated a high risk for delayed retinal tears within 6 weeks (Schweitzer, 2011). The study was limited by small sample size (99 patients, only two of whom developed delayed retinal tears), however the results make intuitive sense: the more severe the symptoms at onset, the more likely patients are to progress to retinal tears.
Another study reviewed the charts of 295 patients presenting to an eye clinic with complaints of flashes or floaters, and found that 64% had uncomplicated PVD, 10.5% had retinal tears, and 16.6% had retinal detachments (Dayan, 1996). Although the study did identify features that were predictive of retinal tears, including subjective vision reduction and acute onset of symptoms (less than six weeks), a proportion of patients with retinal tears were found to lack these historical factors. The authors recommend routine follow-up visits for patients diagnosed with isolated PVD within six weeks. It should be noted that the study patients presented to an eye specialty clinic and were evaluated initially by an ophthalmologist using tools that are unavailable in standard EDs (i.e. ,indirect ophthalmoscopy with scleral indentation). It could be argued that patients presenting to an ED should be referred for follow-up earlier than the six weeks recommended in this study.
A prospective study of 270 patients with symptomatic, isolated PVD found that 3.7% developed new retinal tears within six weeks. Multiple floaters, a curtain or cloud, retinal or vitreous hemorrhages, and an increase in the number of floaters after initial examination were all found to be predictive of new retinal tears (van Overdam, 2005). Like several others described above, this study identified certain features suggestive of retinal tear that would indicate more urgent ophthalmology evaluation, but did not offer specific recommendations regarding timing of follow-up.
Bottom line: Most cases of floaters or flashes are due to PVD. Although PVD often follows a benign course, a small but clinically significant percentage of patients will develop a retinal tear. Left untreated, the tear can lead to detachment and vision loss. A reasonable approach to managing the patient who presents with floaters or flashes would be as follows (Hollands, 2009):
1.) Start with an exam to rule out obvious retinal tear or detachment seen on fundoscopy or ultrasound. This diagnosis requires emergent ophthalmology consult in the ED.
2.) Patients with monocular visual field loss suggestive of acute retinal detachment (i.e. “curtain of darkness”) or high-risk features for retinal tear (such as subjective or objective vision reduction or vitreous pigment or hemorrhage on slit lamp exam) also require same day ophthalmology evaluation.
3.) In the absence of obvious retinal tear or detachment or aforementioned high-risk features, patients with monocular floaters/flashes thought to be of ocular origin should receive urgent ophthalmology referral (within 1-2 weeks) if symptoms are of acute onset. These patients should be counseled regarding high-risk features, and informed that if any of these symptoms develop, they should return to the emergency department or see their ophthalmologist within 24 hours.
4.) In patients with chronic floaters/flashes that have suddenly increased in number, the case should be discussed with an ophthalmologist to determine the urgency of follow-up.
5.) Patients with chronic, stable PVD should be counseled regarding high-risk features that suggest more urgent ophthalmology evaluation.
4.) Do you use ultrasound to assess patients for increased intracranial pressure?
Patients who present to the ED with increased intracranial pressure can be quite challenging to evaluate, not only because of their often depressed mental statuses but also because facial trauma and/or patient discomfort may interfere with the ability to perform a fundoscopic exam to assess for papilledema. Ultrasound, which can be done quickly at the bedside in cases where fundoscopy is difficult or impossible, is a useful tool in such circumstances. Multiple studies suggest that emergency physician performed ocular ultrasound to measure optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) is fairly sensitive and specific for detecting increased intracranial pressure. One study found that ONSD > 5mm detects ICP > 20 mm Hg with sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 93% (Kimberley, 2008). The prospective, blinded observational study was performed using a convenience sample of patients in the emergency department and the neurological ICU who already had invasive intracranial pressure monitors as part of their care. All ONSD measurements were performed by emergency physicians who were blinded to the ICP monitor data. Another study found slightly improved results when a cutoff of 4.8mm ONSD was used, which was 96% sensitive and 94% specific for ICP > 20 mm Hg (Rajajee, 2011). Like the previous study, the standard criterion was ICP measured via invasive monitoring. A third study compared the ONSD of patients with intracranial hemorrhages requiring ICP monitors in an intensive care unit who were sedated and ventilated to the ONSD of ventilated, sedated control patients without intracranial pathology (Moretti, 2008). A threshold of 5.2mm predicted ICP > 20 mm Hg with 94% sensitivity and 76% specificity.
A prospective study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine found that ONSD greater than 5mm was 100% sensitive and 63% specific for elevated intracranial pressure detected on CT. Furthermore, ONSD > 5mm was 84% sensitive and 73% specific for detection of any traumatic intracranial injury found by CT (Tayal, 2007). Another prospective blinded observational study of a single sonographer who performed 27 ocular ultrasounds in patients with ICP monitors found that ONSD of 5.2mm was 83% sensitive and 100% specific for ICP > 20 mm Hg (Frumin, 2011).
While several papers indicate that ocular ultrasound to measure ONSD does correlate with increased intracranial pressure, much of the literature is based on small observational studies. Large randomized controlled trials are lacking.
While most studies use ONSD as a surrogate for intracranial pressure, a blinded prospective observational study compared point-of-care emergency physician performed ultrasound for optic disc height to both ophthalmology performed dilated fundoscopic exam (primary outcome) and optical coherence tomography (secondary outcome). In contrast to optic nerve sheath diameter, optic disc height refers to the budding of the optic disc into the hypoechoic globe on ultrasound. Results of the study showed that a disc height greater than 0.6mm predicted papilledema with a sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 76%. If the disc height threshold is increased to 1.0 mm, sensitivity decreased to 73% but specificity was 100% (Teismann, 2013).
Much of the evidence for sonographic ONSD measurement comes from head trauma literature. Can ocular ultrasound be used to evaluate non-traumatic etiologies of increased intracranial pressure? Unfortunately, large randomized controlled studies are lacking. A case report of a patient who presented to the emergency department with headache and photophobia who was ultimately diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri found her ONSD to be 7mm (Stone, 2009). Another paper describes three patients with optic disc swelling due to idiopathic intracranial hypertension, secondary syphilis, and malignant hypertension in which ocular ultrasound revealed elevated optic disc height (Daulaire, 2012).
Two prospective studies evaluated patients presenting to the emergency department who were suspected of having elevated intracranial pressure for various non-traumatic reasons (CVA, SAH, tumor, meningitis, etc.). The first study assessed 26 patients who required CT in the emergency department due to concern for elevated ICP. Prior to CT, all patients received ocular ultrasound to measure ONSD. Using a cut-off of 5mm, ONSD was found to be 100% specific and 84% sensitive for increased ICP on CT. Furthermore, ONSD was 60% sensitive and 100% specific for any acute intracranial abnormality detected on CT (Major, 2011). The second study evaluated fifty patients deemed to be candidates for lumbar puncture due to concern for various diagnoses. Immediately prior to lumbar puncture, ONSD was measured using ultrasound. The mean ONSD for patients with ICP > 20 mm Hg (determined by opening pressure on LP) was 6.66 mm compared to 4.6 mm in patients with normal ICP. Using ROC curves, a cutoff of 5.5 mm predicted ICP > 20 mm Hg with 100% sensitivity and specificity (Amini, 2012).
The literature for ONSD in the evaluation of hydrocephalus seems to be conflicted. In children with VP shunt malfunction, symptoms often overlap with other common childhood illnesses such as viral syndrome or viral gastroenteritis, making timely diagnosis difficult despite the obvious urgency of the situation. Furthermore, CT and MRI are insensitive for shunt malfunction, missing as many as one third of patients. One prospective observational study of pediatric emergency department patients presenting with possible VP shunt malfunction found no statistically significant difference between the ONSD measurements in patients with VP shunt malfunction compared to patients with functional VP shunts (Hall, 2013). Another study showed more promising results: pediatric patients with functioning VP shunts had a mean ONSD of 2.9 mm compared to 5.6 mm in patients with shunt malfunction (Newman, 2002).
Bottom line: Ocular ultrasound can be useful in detecting elevated ICP, especially in the setting of head trauma when fundoscopy is difficult or impossible. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings. | <urn:uuid:534b58d7-b716-4561-803b-95922c6040ec> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://emlyceum.com/2014/07/01/eye-emergencies-answers/?replytocom=3567 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.936192 | 5,754 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Blackwater Estuary Walk
Why not listen to the audio clip of the walk…
Away from the bustling areas of Essex that lie close to London is the contrasting landscape of sandy beaches, country rambles along leafy lanes and bracing walks on the edge of the Blackwater estuary.
Late Autumn, a perfect time to explore contrasting waterways but each season brings its own special interest. Just 20 minutes from the busy A12, Heybridge Basin lies beside the lock of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation (known as the canal) that drops into the Blackwater estuary and heads out towards the North Sea. There is a large free car park and street parking but check the restrictions.
From the car park the tops of masts tantalise the walker to discover what lies above the steep bank. For here at Heybridge Basin you climb up the steps to reach the water’s edge where boats of all shapes and sizes lie at rest on the canal.
We walk to our left along the towpath to the waterfront and the lock gates manned by the lock keeper. “The Old Ship” and “The Jolly Sailor” are the focus of much attention; but we will look forward to their hospitality when we return.
The narrow footbridge leads to the far side of the canal and up to the sea wall. From here we look across to Northey Island and as the tide is low we can make out the edge of the causeway that links the island to the mainland near Maldon. Today, mud has taken over from sea water but that encourages the marsh birds to search for food and brings pleasure to those with binoculars. The pathway is wide and dry despite the storm of the previous day and to the right the lake and waterways are sometimes fenced for in the summer and dog walkers are warned of harmful algae.
The views are amazing as the Essex marshes race to meet each other across the main Blackwater channel at Maldon.
A few people pass with a morning nod or a smile, or perhaps a quiet good morning as groups of two or four advance from the headland. The sun is struggling to show its face on this late summer day and the sudden squalls of yesterday seem long forgotten. The path takes a sharp right turn, (otherwise we would be in the water!), taking us on a much narrower track through angry brambles that are trying to barricade our progress by linking arms across the path. The brave wearers of shorts and sleeveless tops move with caution past the blackberries. To our left beyond the muddy river is the “prom” of the ancient town of Maldon and the quay with the gentle giants of the Blackwater, the Thames barges. Originally used to transport hay to London they are now a popular treat for visitors and the corporate hospitality market. A glance at the barges brings back happy memories of evenings on the Blackwater and afternoons on the Orwell in Suffolk beneath the huge billowing brown sails.
Back to the walk – away from the briars. In summer the path is busy with flowers – cushions of cream heather, bright yellow thistles and graceful wands of tiny pink petals that in a cottage garden might no longer be called a weed, just a wild flower. The gentle sound of the lark hovering above the path is shattered by squawking sea gulls competing for the best position on a mud mound in the lake. The path continues behind an industrial area, so we follow the track through a sheltered area towards Heybridge where the blackberries here ripen weeks ahead of their sea wall cousins. Remembering how that first blackberry of summer picked straight from the bush is a refreshing treat, we glean some extra sweet berries that stain the fingers – it is like a half way treat to give us the extra momentum. As we head into Heybridge we pass a row of neat cottages and clinically tidy modern housing that give way to a couple of small industrial units before we reach the warm smell of a local pub, I hope it is still there.
Right at the end of the Hall Road takes us out to the bustling highway called The Street, past a converted warehouse, over the canal bridge and quickly down the rough grass to the peace of the towpath. The contrast between the water in the lake, the muddy river and now the reed-lined canal is remarkable, for here there are different plants and wildlife. Huge clumps of snow white water lilies show off their best flowers while their smaller cousins in yellow and pink add a touch of unexpected colour to the green and cream theme. Ahead a group of walkers stop to study the other bank where a lone swan has the company of a group of ducks, it always seems so sad to see swans without a mate – strange how we believe we can be happy walking solo yet expect the swan to need a partner!
Striding along the path our gentle rhythm is broken as we stand aside to let the wobbling cyclists pass – it irritates, I wonder why, but I wanted to keep my momentum going; the irritation soon passes for there are those who wish they could be irritated as to the left the ancient railings and chained gate protect those at rest in the tidy cemetery – no way for us to enter and say a few quiet prayers for those at peace.
Autumn harvest of rose hips close to the haven for winter birds
Nettles and grasses have taken over from flowers and thorns as we head towards Heybridge Basin. To the left the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Canal Trust’s sign giving the history of the canal first started in 1793; and to the right men “puggle” about on boats. What gives us this fascination with boats and waterways? Psychologists would probably proclaim an over indulgence of Ratty Mole and Mr Toad but not everyone involved with boats remembers “Wind in the Willows”. If we keep very still we may spot one of Ratty’s relatives scampering back to his riverbank home. By now we have reached the grander boats and visiting yachts at Heybridge Basin where people have time to sit and admire their craft.A quick check of the time – a minute over the hour for this circular walk – although some can complete in 10 less than the hour. A chance to enjoy a drink in the sun and a welcome bite from the old inns beside the Essex waters.
Sally Carpenter – ClientAct PR – details on www.clientact.co.uk
Heybridge Basin is signed off the B1026 between Heybridge and Goldhanger | <urn:uuid:de850627-da10-40ab-a57d-bb7a39d543f8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.clientact.co.uk/country_walks/blackwater-estuary-walk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.939866 | 1,366 | 1.609375 | 2 |
This fall we started a new program to bring engineers and scientist in from our community to speak to our team and our schools. A couple of these guests have already made it up on our blog.
We have had a total of 9 speakers on 8 different days. It has been fantastic to get so many different perspectives from different engineers and scientists. The “Mentor for a Day” program not only exposes are students to professionals, it also exposes the professionals to FRC, VEX and STEM education. Below are the speakers that we haven’t highlighted on the blog yet, along with links to videos of their presentations when available.
Sep 28th – Jose Lopez – Mechanical Engineer
– Sr. Design Engineer – Current Product Engineering, Product Services at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America, Inc
– President 2012-2013 at Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers – Houston Professional Chapter
– ASME Student Liaison at ASME – South Texas Section
Oct 30th – Greg Frank – Civil Engineer at Costello Inc. Engineering and Surveying
– Hydrology and Hydraulics specialist, does flood studies and large drainage projects
Nov 2nd – Allegra Giblin and Tony Torlucci – Geology and Geophysics
Nov 16th John Sallans – Application Engineer at SKF USA Inc.
Spoke about bearings and their applications. From 10 meter diameter bearings used in earth mothers and tunnel machines to mm scale bearings for precision machines.
Nov 30th – Caleb Kemere – Neuroengineering Professor at Rice UniversityProfessor Kemere from Rice University came to St. Agnes Academy to talk to Spectrum about the brain and his research in neuroengineering.
Dec 5th – Brandon Morin – Completions Engineer with ConocoPhillips
Brandon is a Completions Engineer with ConocoPhillips. He talked about what he does on a day to day basis and about the technology used in extracting carbon and gas from underground.
Thank you to all the fantastic speakers we had this semester. We are very excited to continue this program in the future and get more exposure to different engineering and science disciplines. If anyone knows of an engineer, scientist or technology professional or hobbiest that would like to come speak at our school please let us know.
“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” – Fred Rogers | <urn:uuid:dd0c9741-0dd7-4e29-b343-c1e644c2d697> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://spectrum3847.org/mentors-for-day-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.950744 | 518 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Spectacular Lego model of Hamilton Princess
American artist Sean Kenney has created an impeccably detailed replica of the Hamilton Princess Hotel and Beach Club using Lego bricks and based on satellite images.
Mr Kenney, an artist and self-described “professional kid” who builds exclusively with Lego bricks, was contacted by managers of Hamilton Princess to create a model of the resort.
After three months of meticulous work, Mr Kenney and his team produced a 27,500-piece scale model of the “Pink Palace”, complete with a turquoise ocean, outdoor furniture, palm trees, and even people enjoying their vacation time.
According to Mr Kenney, the process took three times longer than he had initially planned, due in part to the difficulty of being precise with Lego bricks.
“Lego is a very blocky medium, if you can call it that, and I say that because it can be really hard to make them lifelike and get the accuracy just right,” he told The Royal Gazette.
On top of this, the Princess was built on an uneven surface and forced Mr Kenney to construct the land around his replica.
He started off with basic sketches of the area and prototypes of the building, before finding the most accurate to-scale measurements he could.
From there, Mr Kenney and his team carefully glued each brick together to make the building's structure and add the marina and pools.
Details were added to create realism, and the finished product included individual rooms, artwork and shutters, residences, and even working circuitry and lights in every room, allowing the “occupied” rooms to be lit up when plugged in.
Even though the replica boasts meticulous detail, Mr Kenney and his team have never been to Bermuda: their references all came from satellite imagery, street view pictures, and blueprints of the hotel grounds.
While many artists study their models in person, the group studied hundreds of images from Google Maps and Flickr. This is not the first model they have created using references from the internet, according to Mr Kenney, but because of the hotel's long-term renovation plans, his team had trouble finding accurate pictures of the grounds on the internet and had to use their better judgment to find the most recent photographs.
Regardless, they feel that the work paid off, and cited the project as “a good way to push the creative envelop”.
Allan Federer, general manager at the Hamilton Princess Hotel and Beach Club, said in a press release: “We couldn't be happier with our new art with Lego bricks. Being able to see the hotel in Lego bricks is just spectacular.
“Our latest piece of art is already gathering praise as it's just so realistic; visitors and locals alike can't help but stop to admire it. Sean has got everything just right, his attention to detail is amazing.”
The scale model resides in the retail corridor on the ground floor of the hotel.
Mr Kenney said that while his team has never visited the island, they “certainly wouldn't mind” flying over or doing another Bermudian landmark.
“Every time we researched the hotel and the island we fell in love with the architecture.
“We always said that we should probably pay the island a visit, just to make sure we didn't leave out a doorknob or a small detail on the model.”
More information about Sean Kenney and his artwork can be found at www.seankenney.com. | <urn:uuid:0cdc695b-ec03-4a34-b4c7-1c10b2e1d1a0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.royalgazette.com/news/article/20170612/spectacular-lego-model-of-hamilton-princess/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571909.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813051311-20220813081311-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.976159 | 730 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Topical Scripture: Colossians 2:20-3:4
I want to try a trick on you. Let’s say that I have a bow and arrow in my hand, and I’m about to shoot it at you. I’m at point A, and you’re at point B. Before the arrow can get to you, would you agree that it has to get halfway there? We’ll call that point C. Before the arrow can get to point C, does it have to get halfway there? We’ll call that point D. Before the arrow can get to point D, does it have to get halfway there? We’ll call that point E. And F, and G, and so on. The arrow never moves.
That’s known as Zeno’s Paradox. This ancient philosopher had other such riddles, but that’s the most exciting one. He told his little puzzles to prove that nothing ever changes. And given the dimensions of his argument, despite dissertations written on the subject, he’s never been proven wrong.
We could have told him the same thing this week, just reading the news.
The Secretary of State was back in the Middle East, trying to broker yet another peace agreement. Nothing seems to change in Iraq, or Israel, or Afghanistan, or the next Afghanistan. Will the headlines ever really get better?
Are you tired of school? These are the dog days between Christmas and Spring Break. The new wore off a long time ago. You’re tired of your teachers and your parents, and they might be tired of you. Everyone’s been playing together too long. Most of us are ready for a break. Warm weather like we’ve had this week teases us, but we know better than to think winter will leave us alone just yet. Life treadmills this time of year.
So can our souls. The Bible tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). But it’s easy to settle down where we are, to be happy with our spiritual lives and health.
When was the last time you took a major step forward in your faith? A real risk for Jesus? When last did you have a genuine, transforming experience with the God of the universe? How can you take the next step in following him today?
Refuse what refuses God
Paul told the Colossians to “set your hearts on things above” (Colossians 3:1). Why did he have to tell them this? What was keeping them from going on with God? The same things which keep us from going on with God today.
Theological knowledge, for one thing.
Paul had warned them: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (v. 8). He’s talking about Gnosticism, the first heresy Christians had to fight. They said that correct knowledge was enough for salvation. So long as you had your theology all worked out, you’d done all that God expects.
You and I are tempted in the same way today. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, crucified and raised from the dead; if you believe that the Bible is the word of God; if you believe in the essentials of the faith, you’ve done all that God requires. But knowing about God is not the same thing as knowing God. Believing in marriage doesn’t make you married. I’m afraid that millions of people in America are going to miss heaven by 18 inches, the distance from the head to the heart.
You may have your theology all worked out, but when last did you meet Jesus?
Worship experiences can keep us from God as well. Paul cautioned them: “do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (vs. 16-17).
He’s talking about the religious festivals and rituals of their Jewish faith. If he were writing to us he’d talk about Christmas and Easter and DNow and Thee Camp and Sunday worship and Wednesday CrossWalk.
These are but a “shadow,” for the “reality” of the faith “is found in Christ.” What we feel in worship isn’t the point–meeting Jesus is. What we “get out of church” isn’t what matters so much as encountering him. It’s not about us. We can come to worship each Christmas or each Sunday and Wednesday or every day of the week, and still miss him. Being in church doesn’t make us Christians any more than being in a garage makes us a car. Standing in a bank lobby doesn’t prove that I know the bank manager. Visiting the White House doesn’t mean that I know the president.
You may be in worship each week, but when last did you meet Jesus?
Religious morality can keep us from God: “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (vs. 20-23).
The apostle is dealing with the religious legalisms of his day. On the Sabbath you weren’t allowed to draw water from a well with two hands, or wear false teeth or a clothes pin, or carry your mat, or walk more than 3/8 of a mile. So long as you kept these and the rest of the 613 laws governing daily life, all was well.
Baptists used to have our own version of all that: no drinking, dancing, cards, movies, gambling of any kind. The problem is that our religious morality can make us think we’re all God wants us to be. Be good, go to church, believe the right things, and you’ve done all that Christianity requires. All while we’re missing Jesus.
Make Jesus your ultimate concern
It takes more than Bible studies and worship services and good lives to meet Jesus this morning. You and I must “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Two imperatives are clear: “set your hearts on things above” (v. 1); “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (v. 2). That’s it. That’s the sermon. That’s what God wants us to do today. But how? What does this mean?
“Set your hearts” translates the Greek for “seek.” This is the present active imperative–God’s command for every one of us, every day. The word can be translated, “require, demand, crave, put above everything else.” The word means to put this one priority ahead of everything else in life.
Jesus wants us to do that with him. The Bible tells us to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1). The command means to put him ahead of your girlfriend or boyfriend, or husband or wife or children. To put him ahead of success at work or status at church. To put him ahead of popularity or possessions or positions. To put him first in every part of our lives, every day of our lives.
We in the Western world don’t understand such a demand. We have successfully separated the spiritual from the secular, Sunday from Monday. We think that so long as we’ve prayed a salvation prayer and now come to church and try to be good, we’ve done all that Jesus requires. But if we think that, we’re wrong:
“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:25-27).
“Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it'” (Matthew 16:24-25).
Paul could testify: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
Jesus has always wanted to be Lord of all, King of every part of our lives. Why? Because he is an egotist who needs to control us? No, just the opposite. He wants to be King of your dating relationships and money and time and temptations and jobs and plans, so he can include you in his “good, pleasing and perfect” will (Romans 12:2). So he can bless you and use you and reward you forever. But he can use only what we surrender to him. He can lead us only if we will follow.
Would Jesus say that he is your ultimate concern today? That you have “set your heart and mind on things above” this morning? Is there anything you would not do if he asked? Anywhere you would not go? Anyone you would not forgive, or help, or seek to bring to Jesus? Anything you would not give? Any sin you would not commit?
That’s your next step with your Father. That’s his next call on your life. Remember that we progress in life in proportion to the fare that we are prepared to pay.
Perhaps I know some words which will encourage you. Henri Nouwen, the beloved Roman Catholic theologian and spiritual writer, once said:
“I am growing in the awareness that God wants my whole life, not just part of it. It is not enough to give just so much time and attention to God and keep the rest for myself. It is not enough to pray often and deeply and then move from there to my own projects.
“As I try to understand why I am still so restless, anxious, and tense, it occurs to me that I have not yet given everything to God. I notice this especially in my greediness for time. I am very concerned to have enough hours to develop my ideas, finish my projects, fulfill my desires. Thus, my life is in fact divided into two parts–a part for God and a part for myself. Thus divided, my life cannot be peaceful.
“To return to God means to return to God with all that I am and all that I have. I cannot return to God with just half of my being…God’s love is a jealous love. God wants not just a part of me, but all of me. Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s parental love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the voice of love, and able to recognize my own unique call.
“It is going to be a very long road. Every time I pray, I feel the struggle. It is the struggle of letting God be the God of my whole being. It is the struggle to trust that true freedom lies hidden in total surrender to God’s love.
“Jesus came to open my ears to the voice that says, ‘I am your God, I have molded you with my own hands, and I love what I have made. I love you with a love that has no limits, because I love you as I am loved. Do not run away from me. Come back to me–not once, not twice, but always again. You are my child. How can you ever doubt that I will embrace you again?
“I am your God–the God of mercy and compassion, the God of pardon and love, the God of tenderness and care. Please do not say that I have given up on you, that I cannot stand you any more, that there is no way back. It is not true. I so much want you to be with me. I so much want you to be close to me. I know all your thoughts, I hear all your words. I see all of your actions. And I love you because you are beautiful, made in my own image, an expression of my most intimate love.
“Do not judge yourself. Do not condemn yourself. Do not reject yourself. Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but which will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy. Come, come, let me wipe your tears, and let my mouth come close to your ear and say to you, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”‘
“God’s voice does not offer to us a solution, but a friendship. It does not take away our problems, but promises not to avoid them. It does not tell us where it will all end, but assures us that we will never be alone” (Journey to Daybreak).
Amen and amen. | <urn:uuid:85b36bb9-4131-464f-ba19-b39af5fdafd7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.denisonforum.org/resources/story-remixed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.971057 | 3,000 | 1.648438 | 2 |
According to a recent article published by NBC News, Ransomware is now officially a Billion-dollar-a-year crime – and GROWING!
If you weren’t already aware, Ransomware is this: “A family of malware that blocks access to a PC, server or mobile device, or encrypts all the data stored on that machine. It’s typically delivered via malicious email or infected third-party websites.” In order for the user to recover access to their PC or to their files, they are demanded to pay a ransom.
Ransom payments are growing exponentially. In 2015 alone they totaled up to $24 million, and by the end of 2016… totaled 1 billion dollars. Yes, you read that right. It’s almost as if it’s the Gold Rush of the modern day. And it’s expected to keep getting even worse. Digital Security experts explained [to NBC News] that this type of malware is getting increasingly sophisticated, and the encryption claiming the data is unbreakable. The victim is forced to pay.
At a time like this, it’s critical that businesses back up their data in order to prepare for a ransomware attack. Recently, there was a study released by IBM that surveyed 600 business leaders. According to the survey, 70 percent of the businesses that were infected with ransomware had paid the ransom in order to repossess their files. It also indicated that one-quarter of those businesses would be willing to pay upwards of tens of thousands of dollars to regain their data. Unfortunately, with attacks like these, there is no guarantee that paying the ransom will unlock the files. Law enforcement discourages victims from paying the ransom, but many businesses confronted with an attack feel they have no choice.
So, all of this begs the question… How can I protect myself? First of all, be extremely cautious of suspicious emails and links. Think before you click. Most ransomware attacks are delivered through infected links or attachments. Second, have a strong backup solution in place where your data is properly stored and have a regular backup routine. Lastly, beef up your security software and make sure to establish proper password policies. Remember, this could happen to anyone. Our team has been seeing incidents more frequently than ever in the last several months. Best to be prepared!
If you would like to get more information, or to get a free consultation to help protect your business, please contact us at (952) 928-1788. | <urn:uuid:47db6c48-1cae-4ce5-9b85-78f4b77112aa> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://csionsite.com/2017/ransomware-now-a-billion-dollar-industry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.963753 | 511 | 2.015625 | 2 |
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of restraint time and thermometer insertion depth on rectal temperature measurements in chinchillas and determine the extent of agreement between temperatures measured with 2 tympanic and a rectal thermometer.
DESIGN Prospective method comparison study.
ANIMALS 47 healthy chinchillas.
PROCEDURES Effects of 1- and 2-cm rectal thermometer insertion depths and the effect of manual restraint for up to 5 minutes were evaluated. Near simultaneous temperature measurements were obtained with a human tympanic, a veterinary tympanic, and a rectal thermometer by 2 observers. Duplicate temperature measurements were obtained for each method, and the sequence of measurements was randomized for each animal.
RESULTS Rectal temperature readings obtained at a depth of 2 cm were significantly higher (mean ± SD, 1.14 ± 0.77°C [2.05° ± 1.39°F]) than those obtained at 1 cm. After 3 minutes, manual restraint had a significant effect on rectal temperature. The reference interval for rectal temperature in chinchillas with a 2-cm thermometer insertion depth was calculated as 34.9° to 37.9°C (94.8° to 100.2°F). Both tympanic infrared thermometers had significant systematic bias (0.42 ± 0.12°C [0.76° ± 0.22°F]) and proportional bias (0.88 ± 0.14°C [1.58° ± 0.25°F]). The coefficients of reliability for the rectal thermometer, the human tympanic thermometer, and the veterinary tympanic thermometer were 0.86, 0.85, and 0.69, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Rectal thermometer insertion depth and duration of manual restraint had a significant effect on rectal temperature measurements in chinchillas. Because of significant systematic and proportional bias, tympanic thermometry was not considered a suitable replacement for rectal thermometry in chinchillas.
To determine epidemiological features of cardiovascular disease in rabbits examined at a veterinary teaching hospital and characterize clinical and pathological findings.
Medical records from 2001 to 2018 were reviewed, and data were collected. Echocardiographic images and histologic diagnoses were reviewed.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease was 2.6% (59/2,249). Clinical signs related to cardiac disease included heart murmur (n = 25 rabbits), arrhythmia (22), tachypnea or dyspnea (13), hyporexia or anorexia (13), and muscle wasting (9). Radiographic (n = 39) abnormalities included cardiomegaly (19) and peritoneal (12) and pleural (11) effusion. Common echocardiographic (n = 37) diagnoses included degenerative valve disease (15), dilated cardiomyopathy (7), unclassified cardiomyopathy (4), restrictive cardiomyopathy (3), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (2). On ECG (n = 19), supraventricular arrhythmias (16) were more common than ventricular arrhythmias (12). Thirty-five necropsy reports were available, and diagnoses included cardiomyopathy (n = 14), myocarditis (10), and arteriosclerosis (9). Medical management (n = 20) included a wide range of drugs and dosages with few adverse effects. Survival times (n = 36 rabbits) ranged from 1 to 2,353 days with a median cardiac disease–specific survival time of 306 days.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The findings provided information on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in rabbits and survival times for affected rabbits. Right-sided, left-sided, and biventricular congestive heart failure occurred equally. Median survival time was lower than that reported for other species. Further research on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease in rabbits is needed.
To determine the pharmacokinetics and adverse effects of maropitant citrate after IV and SC administration to New Zealand White rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
11 sexually intact (3 males and 8 females) adult rabbits.
Each rabbit received maropitant citrate (1 mg/kg) IV or SC. Blood samples were collected at 9 (SC) or 10 (IV) time points over 48 hours. After a 2-week washout period, rabbits received maropitant by the alternate administration route. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated. Body weight, food and water consumption, injection site, mentation, and urine and fecal output were monitored.
Mean ± SD maximum concentration after SC administration was 14.4 ± 10.9 ng/mL and was detected at 1.25 ± 0.89 hours. Terminal half-life after IV and SC administration was 10.4 ± 1.6 hours and 13.1 ± 2.44 hours, respectively. Bioavailability after SC administration was 58.9 ± 13.3%. Plasma concentration at 24 hours was 2.87 ± 1.69 ng/mL after IV administration and 3.4 ± 1.2 ng/mL after SC administration. Four rabbits developed local dermal reactions at the injection site after SC injection. Increased fecal production was detected on the day of treatment and 1 day after treatment.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Plasma concentrations of rabbits 24 hours after SC and IV administration of maropitant citrate (1 mg/kg) were similar to those of dogs at 24 hours. Reactions at the SC injection site were the most common adverse effect detected. Increased fecal output may suggest an effect on gastrointestinal motility. Additional pharmacodynamic and multidose studies are needed.
To determine the pharmacokinetics and potential adverse effects of pimobendan after oral administration in New Zealand White rabbits (Ocytolagus cuniculi).
10 adult sexually intact (5 males and 5 females) rabbits.
2 pilot studies were performed with a pimobendan suspension or oral tablets. Eight rabbits received 7.5 mg of pimobendan (mean 2.08 mg/kg) suspended in a critical care feeding formula. Plasma concentrations of pimobendan and O-demethylpimobendan (ODMP) were measured, and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated for pimobendan by noncompartmental analysis. Body weight, food and water consumption, mentation, urine, and fecal output were monitored.
Mean ± SD maximum concentration following pimobendan administration was 15.7 ± 7.54 ng/mL and was detected at 2.79 ± 1.25 hours. The half-life was 3.54 ± 1.32 hours. Plasma concentrations of pimobendan were detectable for up to 24 hours. The active metabolite, ODMP, was detected in rabbits for 24 to 36 hours. An adverse event occurred following administration of pimobendan in tablet form in 1 pilot study, resulting in death secondary to aspiration. No other adverse events occurred.
Plasma concentrations of pimobendan were lower than previously reported for dogs and cats, despite administration of higher doses, and had longer time to maximum concentration and half-life. Based on this study, 2 mg/kg of pimobendan in a critical care feeding formulation should maintain above a target plasma concentration for 12 to 24 hours. However, further studies evaluating multiple-dose administration as well as pharmacodynamic studies and clinical trials in rabbits with congestive heart failure are needed to determine accurate dose and frequency recommendations.
To document clinicopathologic findings in domestic rabbits with liver lobe torsion and identify prognostic factors.
Medical records of 4 institutions were reviewed to identify rabbits with an antemortem diagnosis of liver lobe torsion that were examined between 2010 and 2020.
The prevalence of liver lobe torsion was 0.7% (82/11,402). In all 82 rabbits, the diagnosis was made by means of abdominal ultrasonography. Fifty (60.1%) rabbits underwent liver lobectomy, 23 (28%) received medical treatment alone, and 9 (10.9%) were euthanized or died on presentation. Overall, 32 (39%) rabbits died within 7 days of initial presentation and 50 (61%) survived. Seven-day survival rate did not differ significantly between medical treatment alone and surgical treatment. However, median survival time following medical treatment (530 days) was shorter than that following surgical treatment (1,452 days). Six of 14 rabbits had evidence of systemic inflammatory disease on necropsy. Rabbits with right liver lobe torsion were less likely to survive for 7 days than were those with caudate torsions (P = 0.046; OR, 3.27; 95% CI, 1.04 to 11.3). Rabbits with moderate to severe anemia were less likely to survive for 7 days than were rabbits that were not anemic or had mild anemia (P = 0.006; OR, 4.41; 95% CI, 1.55 to 12.51). Other factors associated with a decreased 7-day survival rate were high heart rate at admission (P = 0.013) and additional days without defecation after admission (P < 0.001). Use of tramadol was associated with an increased survival rate (P = 0.018).
The prognosis for rabbits with liver lobe torsions was more guarded than previously described. Rabbits that underwent liver lobectomy had a longer median survival time than did rabbits that only received medical treatment. | <urn:uuid:20bbf05d-2e0d-4cfb-993a-c50dee8849ac> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://avmajournals.avma.org/search?f_0=author&q_0=Sarah+Ozawa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.94766 | 2,047 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The stones used in lithotherapy contain extraordinary powers. However, over time, they gradually lose their properties and can even change colour. Regular maintenance is therefore essential. But when and how? What are the most effective techniques?
When to clean a lithotherapy stone?
After the purchase of a new stone, a cleaning is essential. Why is it necessary ? Because it is charged with the energy of the people who handled it, from the extraction to the arrival at your home. This step is crucial to evacuate the negative energies and purify the stone jewel. Also, regular maintenance is necessary when you use the stone for lithotherapy sessions. Take advantage of this moment to neutralize the negative energies and recharge it. Finally, if you wear the stone daily (as jewellery), a weekly purification is recommended. In any case, if you are looking for a lithotherapy stone specialist, go to france-mineraux.fr
How to purify the stones ?
Purification by water is the most common and simplest technique. It consists in putting the stone in a bowl of water (demineralized water or tap water) after each use for 5 hours on average. You can also use salt water for 2 or 3 hours and then rinse with clear water. However, ask about the properties of your stone, as some of them do not tolerate water, such as celestite and sulphur.
For crystals that are not often used, you can opt for fumigation. The technique consists in passing them in a smoke of natural incense with essential oils. Purification with salt is also effective. Simply put the mineral in a heap of salt for 1 hour. Then rinse with clear water. If your stone needs deep purification, it should be buried in a place charged with positive energy for several weeks to several months.
Recharging the stone: how to proceed?
In order for the stone to regain its effectiveness, remember to recharge it regularly. Recharging by light is the easiest. Simply place the stone in sunlight (for 1 to 2 hours) or moonlight (for an entire night). The technique by fire is also recommended. This involves placing the mineral close to a heat source for an optimal result. Nevertheless, remain vigilant, as some stones cannot withstand high temperatures and may break or melt. In any case, if you have any questions or doubts, do not hesitate to seek the advice of a lithotherapy professional. | <urn:uuid:60ecf53e-bd0c-4dba-8071-77748771eee5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.jewellerykorner.com/cleaning-and-purification-of-lithotherapy-stones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.937468 | 495 | 1.789063 | 2 |
When you walk into the Overtime Theater to see David Robb’s pared-down, post-apocalyptic version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, you might think you’ve mistakenly stepped into one of the many junk shops or pawnshops surrounding the theater building on West Avenue. The set is made of mismatched, discarded technology: broken computer monitors, televisions, speakers, fenders, boom boxes, circuit boards, and handicap ramps. The mishmash of objects creates the background for a Lear that Robb adapts and transposes to 2109, a terrible future in which economic catastrophe, war, and genetically modified microorganisms have devastated the Earth.
The scenery evokes popular dystopic movies such as Children of Men and Road Warrior, films set in bleak, wasted worlds ravaged by violence and greed. These cinematic echoes are enhanced by a terrifying, fragmented video montage that shows clips of the horrible century that will befall humankind. It all starts a little too close to home with the Second Great Depression, beginning — I hope you’re sitting down for this — in 2010.
The Fool, played darkly and grotesquely by John Poole, begins the production by projecting this apocalyptic montage onto a stretched sheet above the playing space, and explaining what has happened to the world in a prologue written (in iambic pentameter) by Poole himself:
A Situation grew to a crisis.
Crisis bred war, disunion, selfishness,
Greed and then came the Blight, the Verdant Grey.
twas a mildew, issued from the triple
Father of germ war, gene splice, and nature’s
Own serendipitous sending of doom.
With the fall of the green, so fell mankind.
This setup creates an appropriately decimated atmosphere for the play. Throughout, the Fool and the video projector feed us images to remind us of the devastation in a distinctly uncomfortable way, mixing the familiar with the horrific, and making audience members cringe and stiffen. Like the set and the acting, the video extends the bleak aspects of Lear’s world uncomfortably into our own. Even the audience seats, though ordinary enough, feel found, hodgepodge, too close to the action for comfort.
In fact, little of anything in this production feels comfortable, which creates a deprivation that gets to the heart of something about Shakespeare’s play perhaps too often obscured by virtuosic acting, opulent sets, and thundering effects. Bleaker than Macbeth, more devastating than Romeo and Juliet, and more proto-existentialist in its philosophical despair than Hamlet, King Lear gives us the bare human stripped of all comforts of love, civility, family, status, and identity. Like a precursor to Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, Lear loses everything — and in that loss recognizes the absurdity and ultimate emptiness of human life.
The production tells the story clearly and accessibly enough, if a bit too cartoonishly and simplistically at times. After deciding to divide his kingdom among his three daughters so that he can go into an early retirement, Lear is dismayed to find that his favorite, Cordelia, will not afford him the flattery that her sisters Goneril and Regan lavish upon him. After disowning Cordelia and sending her off to France, Lear discovers just how little he understands love when he finds himself turned out by his other, more power-hungry daughters. All he has left is his Fool, whose fooling only emphasizes Lear’s own foolishness, and Kent, whom Lear had banished for defending Cordelia but who subsequently disguises himself to find and serve the once-great king again. Left to the elements, Lear comes to terms with his new poverty and despair while losing grip on his senses. More than mere madness, his mind breaks across the cruelties and decay inherent in existence.
Running just under an hour and a half without intermission, Robb’s production has cut away all but the skeleton of Shakespeare’s play and moves swiftly to its devastating finale. While mostly effective in moving the plot along, Robb’s cuts do some violence to the subplot designed to mirror and refract Lear’s troubles. The cut script leaves out most of what we need to understand the difficult relationship between Gloucester and his two sons, Edgar the “legitimate” and Edmund the bastard (in every sense of the word). Perhaps the saddest victim of Robb’s cuts are the scenes in which Edgar, banished as a result of his bastard brother’s machinations, comes to terms with his newly discovered isolation, and the scene in which he leads his father Gloucester, recently blinded by a terrifying eye gouging, to a false precipice so that he can think he is killing himself by jumping.
Though missing much of what makes King Lear great, this production takes Lear’s core of loss and enhances it through the roughness and resourcefulness of its means. The plot is clear and the force of its story is often palpable, particularly during the Fool’s direct addresses to the audience. The set, video, and sound work are all interesting, thoughtful, and evocative.
The acting, however, is rather uneven. Poole the Fool steals the show, with a powerful and scary presence that’s more grotesque and frightening than funny. Rob Barron is subtle and believable as the bastard Edmund, though his naturalistic acting sometimes obscures the poetic clarity of his words. Scott McDowell’s legitimate Edgar rings false and has no character arc to transform him into the naked beast that Lear beholds during the storm (“thou art the thing itself!”) — but to be fair, that is in no small part because some of his scenes have been cut. Sophie Bolles is tender and nuanced as Cordelia, if occasionally melodramatic at particularly emotional moments, while Pamela Kinney as Goneril and Jules Vaquera as Regan both come off too caricatured and villainous for us to believe their father could ever have been duped by their affections.
The part of Lear, one of the most daunting acting challenges in the canon, reveals an unusual take from the actor Bill Martin. Rather than transforming from regal and arrogant to feeble and humble, Martin’s Lear transforms from a strict, bombastic military dictator to a loud-mouthed raving lunatic. When Lear decides to stay in the storm long enough to seek the wisdom of the newly homeless Edgar (“this philosopher”), he comes off as bonkers, rather than as newly aware of life at its most unadorned. Martin’s portrayal finally lacks the vulnerability, intelligence, and sensitivity to show Lear as a complex figure, though he does ring strong and loud and clear in the big speeches, and though he also reveals a softer side around Cordelia. The scenes of reconciliation between Lear and Cordelia toward the end of the play are beautifully subtle, sweet, and therefore all the more devastating.
For all its inconsistencies and omissions, this production is nonetheless well worth seeing. To say I enjoyed the piece would not do justice to its distinctly troubling power, a power born of its bold vision and even, on one level, of its amateurishness, its roughness. Robb, the actors, and the designers replace displays of virtuosity with a quick, hard punch in the gut. The set is ugly; the concept is ugly; the blocking is ugly; even much of the acting is ugly. But, to a certain degree, that’s precisely the point. Aging, dying, losing sight and sense, are all ugly. Our loss of love and community is an ugly loss. War, blight, chaos, despair: ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly. And the end of civilization as we know it, Lear’s personal fall from grace writ large, will doubtless be the ugliest act of all. •
Through Apr 4
The Overtime Theater | <urn:uuid:be2545f2-1da0-4f20-8c71-c43c140c9ee3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.sacurrent.com/arts/the-road-to-attrition-2285754 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.950996 | 1,689 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The Living Forest Institute, an environmental advocacy organization motivated by concern about the clearcutting of Sunshine Coast forests, is sponsoring a series of outdoor musical concerts to highlight a vulnerable grove on the hillside above Roberts Creek.
The Songbird Forest Concert Series features three musical acts, all performed en plein air. Admission to the performances is by donation for registered audience members who trek to the designated performance spaces.
“We wanted to find a way to provide a fun activity that provides education,” said Sarah Lowis, president of the Living Forest Institute. “We want to bring together those who care about the environment, but maybe haven’t had the chance to actually get involved or learn more about it. So this is a fun way to bring the family out and have a nice afternoon on a Sunday in the woods and just appreciate what we have right in our backyard.”
The Songbirds Trio — composed of a capalla warblers Sarah Noni, Aristazabal Hawkes and Anna Lumiere — will perform at the so-called Soaring Eagle Stage on June 12 at 1 p.m. The trio will sing a musical lineup inspired by redemption, community, connection and concern for the environment — all arranged for three-part harmony.
Two additional performances by other artists are planned for June 19 and July 3.
The concert series is the latest in a series of public education initiatives by the Institute to quell clearcut logging in forests known for their ecological abundance and community enjoyment. In 2019, the group launched a classroom series to promote the protection of the Clack Creek forest, and has run similar outreach events since.
Concertgoers can register at livingforestinstitute.ca to receive detailed hiking instructions. Before each concert begins, guides will meet hikers at the trailhead for a 40-minute moderate clamber to the all-natural amphitheater.
So good it’s criminal
Author Elizabeth Elwood, whose nomination by the Crime Writers of Canada for Best Short Story was recently covered by Coast Reporter, has been selected as the Crime Writers’ winner for her tale “Number 10 Marlborough Place.”
“I’m so thrilled and honoured,” Elwood said. “I’m still pinching myself to believe it!”
According to the contest judges, “This story resonated long after we read it. The first sentence immediately puts us in the right time and place and the vivid, but not overstated, details reinforce the setting.”
The full list of Crime Writers of Canada award winners is available online at crimewriterscanada.com.
Indigenous wisdom expressed through artwork
In honour of National Indigenous History Month, the Gibsons Public Art Gallery is hosting an exploration of Coast Salish teachings around acceptance and togetherness as codified in artwork.
shíshálh artist Shain Jackson will curate an exhibition of his work plus works created in collaboration with friends Xwalacktun (Rick Harry), Ximiq (Dionne Paul) and Splashing Eagle (Aaron Nelson-Moody), Ray Natraoro, Chief Janice George, and more.
The exhibition remains on display through July 3. The artists will be onsite at the gallery to meet the public and discuss their work on June 4 at 2 p.m.
Get lost In the Serpent’s Wake
On June 11, the Gibsons and District Public Library will host an author reading by Rachel Hartman, whose works for young adults have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.
Set in the phenomenal world of her award-winning book Seraphina, Hartman’s latest fantasy novel In the Serpent’s Wake engages with gender fluidity, colonialism, and Indigenous autonomy.
Tess is a girl on a mission to save a friend. Spira is a dragon seeking a new identity. Marga is an explorer staking her claim on a man’s world.
Jacomo is a priest searching for his soul. But only those awakened with eyes open to the wondrous, the terrible, and the just will truly find the last Serpent at the bottom of the world.
The reading will include musical “illustrations” from the novels. In person and live on Zoom. Details and registration information is available from the library’s website at gibsons.bc.libraries.coop. | <urn:uuid:bce22db6-e91c-42d7-bed2-8a4562a806e0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.coastreporter.net/local-arts/art-beat-living-forest-institute-holding-outdoor-musical-concerts-5433971 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.939234 | 917 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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Abraham afterwards already army become believed bill called candidate carried claim close command Congress Constitution convention course Court decision democratic desire doubt Douglas early election entered entirely equal evidence fact feeling felt force friends gave give given hands held honor House hundred Illinois institution interest issue Judge knew letter Lincoln living look majority March matter means measure mind nature never occasion once opinion party passed political popular position possible practical present President principles question rebel received regarded republican respect result river seemed Senator side slave slavery South speak speech Springfield stand success territory thing thought thousand tion took troops true Union United vote Washington whig whole wish
Page 219 - be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.
Page 408 - Virginia, and also the counties of Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and •which exccpted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. " And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons
Page 324 - in such extreme tenderness of the citizen's liberty, that, practically, it relieves more of the guilty than the innocent, should, to a very limited extent, be violated? To state the question more directly: are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated
Page 159 - follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all and revered by all ; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of
Page 403 - Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
Page 291 - the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From questions of this class, spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. "if the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on
Page 408 - virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States.in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion,
Page 423 - Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy, who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy.
Page 291 - organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by state authorities ? The Constitution | <urn:uuid:9f10e2bb-a327-47f6-8aa1-98fe4a119e13> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://books.google.bs/books?id=22cp1tMVzsQC&dq=editions:UOMDLPabx9856_0001_001&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.935078 | 774 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Add some extra sparkle to your Christmas tree with these colorful sequin ornaments! We recycled food container lids to create our round ornaments, and decorated felt pieces from the Arts & Crafts Library to create the rectangular ones. They look so pretty hung together on the tree!
- Arts & Crafts Library (sequins, felt pieces, embroidery floss, glue)
- Recycled lids from plastic food containers or tin cans
- White glue
- Glitter (optional)
1. To make the lid ornaments, start with clean lids from plastic food containers or tin cans. If you are using lids from cans, make sure there are no sharp or jagged edges before using. Cover the top of the lid with an even layer of glue.
2. Stick sequins into the glue. You can sprinkle glitter onto the glue as well if you like. Let dry overnight.
3. Once the front of the ornaments is completely dry, cut a length of embroidery floss and create a loop to make a hanger for your ornament. Adhere to the back of the lid with glue or tape.
4. To make the felt ornaments, add a dab of white glue to the back of sequins and press them onto the front of a felt strip. Let dry.
5. Hang your sequin ornaments on the tree and watch them sparkle in the light!
* * *
Shop our Arts & Crafts Library here.
Post written by Haeley Giambalvo of Design Improvised, a website focused on easy DIY projects that make a big impact. Haeley loves transforming simple materials like pom-poms and pipe cleaners into cool kids projects or festive holiday crafts. Her colorful projects are perfect for the busy mom who wants to spend 30 minutes crafting by herself or getting creative with her kids. Haeley lives in San Antonio, TX along with her husband and two daughters Stella, 9, and Hazel, 7.
Explore how your lungs work with this STEAM-approved DIY!
Spread some colorful love with our DIY Air Dry Clay Rainbows!
Get crafty and create a custom birthday sign for your next Birthday Party Parade | <urn:uuid:4d1bdff2-388c-4537-b22d-d073021ad651> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://handmademodern.com/blogs/posts/sequin-ornaments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.884245 | 482 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Cross Reference links from web
Thu 21 Apr 2011, 10:20 AMTweet
by Ben Langhinrichs
It's Day 2 of our special buy one server license, get one free offer, so I thought I'd post a few demos. The first creates cross reference links using the Midas Rich Text LSX. Many people use the Midas in the Notes client to change rich text in the front end without hanging the back end (i.e., changes aren't saved). This demo shows that working on the web (works with traditional and XPages web interfaces).
The MedXRef db has a view with 2,214 medical terms taken from WebMD.com. In this demo, the LinkMatching method finds any of those terms in the rich text and creates links to the relevant article on WebMD. Below, I include a snippet from a health article on CNN Health called Sad in the spring? Allergy-mood link is real. In your applications, you can create cross reference links using any view, such as part names from a product database or matter numbers from a legal brief repository. The manipulated text is not saved, so the links can even be to different things depending on the action or person invoking it. Try the two actions below and see how the results change:
Sad in the spring? Allergy-mood link is real
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
April 20, 2011 12:00 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- You know spring has sprung when hundreds of people daily turn to Twitter to vent about their itchy eyes, dripping nose and uncontrollable sneezing and coughing. And if it's not obvious that allergies can ruin a person's day, watch how many tweets go by that use "allergies" and the f-word in the same sentence.
"'Cranky' is really the best word for it," says Katie Ingram, 30, of Alexandria, Virginia, a triathlete who suffers seasonal allergies. "I take a lot of medication for it and that makes me sleepy. And I can't do a lot of the things that I like to do outside, so that makes me cranky. ... The wheezing part of it makes me feel tired."
In some people, such annoyances are more serious. Research has shown there is about a doubling of risk for depression in a person suffering allergies and, if you've been seen by an allergist, that about triples the likelihood of having depression, said Dr. Paul Marshall, neuropsychologist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Later, I'll post the database which shows this in action. In the meantime, you can try this online with various articles in the MedXRef database.
Copyright © 2011 Genii Software Ltd.
What has been said: | <urn:uuid:f409641e-2958-4ef8-bc1a-4efdacb13c45> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/archive/20110421-1020/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.936834 | 585 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Human gut associated lymphoid tissues were studied in terms of the presence of subpopulations of thymus dependent and thymus independent lymphocytes. Both thymus dependent and thymus independent lymphocytes were present in substantial numbers, as judged from their ability to form spontaneous and complement mediated rosettes with sheep red blood cells and the presence of surface bound immunoglobulins. The relation between this finding and the question of what is the lymphoid organ which may be the human equivalent of the avian bursa is discussed.
|Original language||English (US)|
|Number of pages||4|
|Journal||Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics|
|State||Published - 1975|
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Obstetrics and Gynecology | <urn:uuid:2e2c6e7b-6dd3-4879-a78d-1cb53310945e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://experts.arizona.edu/en/publications/subpopulations-of-thymus-dependent-and-thymus-independent-lymphoc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.932578 | 196 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Researchers introduce new factor to explain stress while driving
Credit: University of Houston
Admit it: Daily commutes – those stops, the starts, all that stress – gets on your last nerve.
Or is that just me?
It might be, according to a new study from the University of Houston’s Computational Physiology Lab. UH Professor Ioannis Pavlidis and his team of researchers took a look at why some drivers can stay cool behind the wheel while others keep getting more irked.
“We call the phenomenon ‘accelerousal.’ Arousal being a psychology term that describes stress. Accelarousal is what we identify as stress provoked by acceleration events, even small ones,” said Pavlidis, who designed the research. According to the professor, the reason for it goes deeper than you might think.
“It may be partly due to genetic predisposition,” Pavlidis said. “It was a very consistent behavior, which means, in all likelihood, this is an innate human characteristic.”
To reach these conclusions, UH researchers, in collaboration with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, took a hard look at how individual drivers reacted to common acceleration, speed and steering events on a carefully monitored itinerary. Results appeared in the May 2021 proceedings of ACM CHI, the premier forum on Human-Computer Interaction research. (Click here.)
“Thanks to our work, we now have an understanding of accelerousal, a phobia that was hidden in plain sight,” said Tung Huynh, a research assistant with the team.
For the study, 11 volunteer drivers were monitored for signs of instantaneous physiological stress during separate half-hour drives along the same route in the same Toyota Sienna minivan.
Stress measurements were taken via thermal imaging targeting the drivers’ levels of perinasal perspiration, which is an autonomic (involuntary) facial response reflecting a fight-or-flight reaction. Simultaneously, a computer in the Toyota Sienna functioned like an airplane’s black box, recording the vehicle’s acceleration, speed, brake force and steering.
The driving tests were conducted by Texas A&M Transportation Institute researchers under the direction of Dr. Mike Manser, manager of the Institute’s Human Factors Program.
When data was crunched at the University of Houston, researchers found about half the participants consistently exhibited peaked stress during periods of commonplace acceleration, such as happens in stop-and-go progress through red lights. The other half showed no notable changes from their baseline measurements.
“This has all the characteristics of long-term stressor, with all the health and other implications that this may entail,” Pavlidis said.
Even more revealing is how far apart the two extremes were.
“The differences were significant, with ‘accelaroused’ participants logging nearly 50% more stress than non-accelaroused ones,” Pavlidis said. “Moreover, psychometric measurements taken through a standardized questionnaire given to every volunteer at the end of the drive revealed that acceleroused drivers felt more overloaded.” The anxious drivers were more exhausted after their drives, in other words, than the calm drivers were after theirs.
“This was a clear indication that accelerousal was taking a toll on drivers, and that the drivers were not consciously aware of that,” Pavlidis said.
This small-scale study, he suggests, points to the need for deeper research. It also highlights the instrumental role technology could play in understanding human response to demands of driving. Such understanding could not only improve safety on our roads but will also safeguard the long-term health of drivers.
“For instance, delivery drivers, which is an expanding class in the current gig economy, are exposed to stop-and-go events all the time. Therefore, delivery drivers who experience accelerousal – and for now, are unaware – could have a way to detect this condition in themselves and account for its long-term stress effects,” Pavlidis explained.
These findings will have even more relevance over coming decades, as automotive innovators move toward semi-automated vehicles that could sense and relieve stressed drivers.
During the recent tests, great care was taken to equalize the volunteers’ driving experiences. Each drive happened during daylight hours, in clear weather and light traffic over the same 19-kilometer town itinerary (almost 12 miles). Participants were experienced drivers of similar age (18 to 27) and all had normal vision.
Where would you score on the accelerousal scale? Watch out for signs, the professor urges, and ask yourself: Does driving wear you out more than it does your friends and family?
“That could be a telltale sign of accelerousal,” Pavlidis cautioned. | <urn:uuid:4cf4770a-12ff-4d9d-a88d-2fd7fc79d63e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://scienmag.com/does-driving-wear-you-out-you-might-be-experiencing-accelerousal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.958444 | 1,040 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Undetectable virus is normally plotted as 0
Undetectable virus is normally plotted as 0. in great wellness, without chronic health problems or immune system suppressive conditions. non-e from the topics acquired previously been pregnant or identified as having a sexually sent an infection (STI) or genital yeast infection. Three individuals had a past background of urinary system infections and one subject matter had asthma. All individuals had been non-smokers at the proper period of enrollment, but two individuals had smoked tobacco before. The mean length of Mouse monoclonal to MPS1 time from the menstrual period was 29.1 4.9 times, with a variety of 24C60 times. Two subjects reported cycles longer than 30 days. The average duration of menses was 4.6 1.2 days, with a range of 3C7 days. Four subjects reported no use of contraception during the duration of the study. Twelve subjects reported using hormonal contraception for the entirety of the study and four reported using hormonal contraceptives for only one of the two study months. Nineteen (95%) subjects were seropositive for BKV, while six (30%) were seropositive for JCV. Viremia with BKV or JCV was not detected in any of the study participants. Polyomavirus Shedding In total, 1,021 urine specimens were collected from 20 subjects, RU-302 each of whom provided an average of 51 specimens (range: 26C73) over a mean of 66 days (range: 30C87). The overall collection rate for daily urine specimens was 77.8% (range: 59.7C100%). The number of specimens collected from each subject and virus excretion data are summarized in Table I. BKV excretion was detected in 123 (12.0%) specimens from 11 (55%) participants. The mean proportion of positive specimens for BKV-excreting subjects was 21.1% (range: 1.6C59.2%). RU-302 The mean BKV viral load (log 10) was 3.25 1.13 genomes per milliliter of urine. JCV was detected in 63 (6.2%) specimens from 2 (10%) participants. One JCV-seropositive subject was a RU-302 constant excretor of JCV, with 54 of 54 JCV-positive specimens (Fig. 1C), while a JCV-seronegative subject was found to have 9 (14.5%) of 62 specimens with detectable RU-302 JCV. Since only one serum specimen was available for analysis, it is unclear whether this subject may have been recently infected with JCV and had not yet mounted a detectable antibody response. Both JCV excretors were BKV seropositive, one of whom had a single BKV-positive urine sample during the study. The mean JCV viral load (log 10) was 5.50 1.37. There was no significant difference in the BKV viral load based on the site of specimen collection or use of hormonal contraceptives (data not shown). Open in a separate window Fig. 1 Polyomavirus excretion by selected subjects, relative to ovulation and menses. A, B: BKV excretion by subjects M115 and M108, respectively; (C) JCV excretion by subject M105. Undetectable virus is usually plotted as 0. [Color physique can be seen in the online version of this article, available at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jmv] TABLE I Summary of Specimen Collection, Serologic Testing Results, and Polyomavirus Urinary Excretion by Subject 0.2). Among subjects who excreted BKV one or more times: 25 (19.8%) of 126 specimens were BKV-positive samples during the pre-ovulation period and 27 (19.7%) of 137 specimens were BKV-positive in the post-ovulation period ( 0.2). The mean pre-ovulation BKV viral load was 3.46 (log 10) genomes per ml (ge/ml) and the mean post-ovulation BKV viral load was 2.85 (log 10) ge/ml ( 0.2). DISCUSSION The primary goal of this study was to compare polyomavirus excretion in the pre-ovulation period with that of the post-ovulation period. The women who participated in this study were all. | <urn:uuid:926e6bd2-e038-429e-b6f3-bc802d52e0e0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://librafunds.org/undetectable-virus-is-normally-plotted-as-0/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.950382 | 935 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Why is kindness a superpower?
According to the author of The Kindness Method: Changing Habits for Good, self-kindness is a powerful motivational tool that brings about more self-awareness, self-esteem and impulse control. That’s why she sees it as the key to changing habits for good.
1. A kinder approach gives us useful insight into our patterns
When we want to embark on a plan to change a habit, it’s natural to give a lot of thought to what we don’t like about the status quo; and hope that being relieved of the negative impacts of our current habits will be enough to motivate us to change – and stay changed. We can think that beating ourselves up for not having changed already and imposing a punitive plan is a form of tough love that will get things done once and for all.
Thinking about the negatives of our habits might get us going initially, but time spent considering how they might actually be serving us can provide the insight we need to:
- Form more favourable habits that can fulfil a similar need
- Understand why we’re finding it difficult to make changes
- Create realistic plans of change that we’re more likely to keep up
Creating a truly bespoke and effective plan of change involves gaining insight into ourselves, by compassionately and curiously observing and reflecting on our own patterns without judgement. The way we may observe a child, for example. By better understanding how our habits are actually serving us, we can better understand why we’re finding it so difficult to make changes. We can start to see a habit that’s now a problem as something that either was (or still is) a solution to something. Not only does this reframe help us to forgive ourselves for not having changed yet, it gives us the insight we need to start exploring, introducing and practising other ‘solution’ habits, so we don’t find the change process as difficult.
Tip: If you’re struggling to understand why you’re not making changes despite wanting to, ask yourself:
- When did this pattern begin?
- What was going on at the time?
- When I think about making changes, what kind of worries or discomfort do I notice?
- How might it be benefiting me to not make changes quite yet?
2. Kinder self-talk gets goals achieved more quickly
Think about the last time you remember falling ‘off-track ‘whilst trying to achieve a goal or a time you felt you’d ‘messed up’ in some way in any area of your life. Write down the things you said to yourself.
Now, imagine that someone you love has come to you and told you they’ve ‘messed up’ with a plan of change. Your mission is to tell them things that get them back on track with their plan immediately. Write down the sorts of things you’d say to them.
Simple exercises like this one can help to bring to our attention that sometimes the way speak to ourselves isn’t just unkind – it’s actually very unhelpful too. Many learn that the messages they’re giving themselves (especially when they need a boost of motivation the most) are the opposite of messages they believe to be motivational.
Learning more generally to speak to yourself like a loved can also help you to take the same practical advice you’d give someone else. Many can relate to spiralling in response to an otherwise minor blip and deciding to ‘start again on Monday’ for example. Yet if we were tasked with giving advice to someone we cared for who had experienced a temporary blip from a plan, we probably wouldn’t say “you’ve blown it now! you should give up, forget any progress you’ve made and start again next week.”
The next time you do something you’re not delighted with, in any area of your life, whether it’s sending an angry email in haste or consuming the contents of a biscuit tin when you were trying not to, choose to consciously listen-in on the messages you’re giving yourself. Choose to notice how long it’s taking you to forgive yourself. Then gently debate internally by asking yourself “would I ever speak this way to someone else?” and “is speaking to myself like this moving me closer to getting back on track, getting things done and feeling better asap?
3. Self-kindness helps with impulse control
Changing habits is difficult. There will inevitably be moments when you’ll want to throw in the towel with a challenging plan. When those arise, it would make sense for you to already be in the habit of doing whatever you can daily to keep you feeling as strong, positive and full of self-belief as possible. That way, you’ll generally feel more prepared when you’re faced with unforeseen tests.
That’s why it can be especially important to notice if you’ve put any areas of your life ‘on hold’; waiting to treat – or speak- to yourself in a kinder way as something of a reward for having achieved a particular goal.
You deserve to place importance on your quality of life, and enjoy every possible act of self- care, regardless of what goals you happen to be striving to achieve at any given time.
It just so happens that a by-product of ‘increasing self-kindness in every possible way’ a lifelong goal in itself, is that we can more naturally find ourselves developing strengthened impulse control.
Already being in the habit of doing things that have your joy and overall wellbeing in mind can help enormously when you’re faced with a habit-specific challenge.
Try to notice any opportunities you have throughout your day to adopt small daily habits or rituals that help you, even in the tiniest of ways, to feel more calm, worthy and positive in general. If you’ve been waiting to reward yourself with a new self-care habit, take that part of your life off-hold – and leave it off-hold!
Over time, you may find that some of those seemingly unrelated self-care habits are the same ones that are helping you feel more able to respond to cravings and urges in a way you’re happy with the next day.
The next time you’re struggling to change a habit, see how it feels to go about it the kinder way:
- Try to understand why you’re finding it difficult to change, with compassion, forgiveness and curiosity
- Reframe the inevitable moments when you want to throw in the towel as new opportunities to practice speaking to yourself the way you’d speak to a loved one
- Make the development of daily self-care and self-compassion its own ongoing mission, one that will always run alongside – and support – other goals.
- Exploring the Power of Kindness, and a kinder connection to yourself and others
A final note: when it comes to habit-change, plans are of course important, but we can’t count on things going to plan. Self-kindness can help you to count on yourself more, the next time things don’t go to plan.
Shahroo Izadi is a Behavioural Change Specialist, speaker and bestselling author. Her approach to habit-change is influenced by the experience that she gained working in the addiction treatment field as well as the personal experience of transforming her own unwanted habits. She has since been dedicated to highlighting what those in long-term recovery from substance misuse can teach the general population about motivation, self-compassion and self-awareness. Her first book, The Kindness Method, was released in June 2018 and has so far been translated into 5 languages. In 2019 she was given the ‘Thought Leader of the Year’ Baton Award at House of Lords in London, which acknowledges the pioneering work of BAME women.
Learn more about the power of good habits in an uncertain world on Wednesday, June 10, as Sophie Scott talks to Ben Bidwell, Dr Punam Krishan and Caleb Packham on how to build routines, develop habits for the body and the mind in a turbulent environment. June 10th, 4PM BST, LIVE on Wanderlust GB Instagram at the ZENZONE in partnership with Zendium. | <urn:uuid:30adf62b-c2a8-4017-914d-3ff5759582a3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://balance.media/kindness-superpower/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572033.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20220814113403-20220814143403-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.951209 | 1,753 | 2.59375 | 3 |
How Account Payable Services Affects the Profits of Business
Outsourcing account payable helps you in reducing business expenses and also eventually it will certainly assist your business to make the most of the earnings. You can get rid of the headache of managing the clerical staff as well as you can do better monitoring by controlling over the account payable process.Business Financial Reporting – 4 Common Questions
If you are starting in business you are possibly questioning what economic coverage involves as well as how you set about it. Financial reporting/statements allow you to provide a review of your monetary condition in the short and also long term.Accounting Business Management Software – What Are My Options?
When it concerns selecting the most effective bookkeeping company management software application for your organization, fortunately is that in Lahore, Pakistan, you have actually obtained a number of options. So how do you choose which one will work best for you? The solution actually relies on your organization needs.Types of Business Bank Accounts
Picking the correct organization financial solutions for your company can be a tough and troublesome job. With such a wide range of choices on the market this option needs a lot of study as well as understanding, not only when it come to company finance but likewise company banking packages extra specifically. This write-up intends to clarify some of the key types of accounts used within the sector, as well as a concept of just how to tackle selecting a checking account for company finances.Accounting – Balance Sheets and Income Statements Matter When Buying a Franchise
Perhaps it goes without saying that you need to deny a franchise business from a franchisor that does not have a strong annual report. Still, also a solid equilibrium sheet may not suffice; the huge problem with franchisors, especially new franchisors that are still small is a problem with capital. These businesses are growing so quick there is never enough cash.A Comparison of QuickBooks Online Basic to QuickBooks Online Plus
In September 2010, Intuit revamped/repackage its local business online accountancy software right into 4 online accountancy options: (1) Simple Begin, (2) Online Fundamentals, (3) Online Plus as well as (4) Online Plus with Pay-roll. This write-up will certainly review the modifications as well as supply a refresher on several of the essential functions.Accounting Concepts – Simplified
Structure structure for accountancy elements. Follow this gold 7 regulations in bookkeeping and get rid of those accounting blues.When Should You Refer a Bad Debt to a Debt Collection Agency?
Understanding when to quit chasing after an overdue account as well as handing it over to a debt collection agency is an age old problem. This short article discloses a simple yet powerful formula for establishing the absolute finest time to refer an overdue account to a financial obligation recuperation agency.Weighted Average Cost of Capital – Simplified
Money involves two crucial areas for choice making: procurement of funds as well as application of funds. Effectively both the decision are critical from a business’s standpoint. A firm is ready to buy a brand-new project as long as it increases the investor’s riches as well as generates a reasonable return over the price of procuring the resources.Is Factoring For You?
Factoring is a monetary instrument has actually been around since ancient times, however is hardly recognized by today’s modern-day local business owners. Utilized properly, it is a device that can help small companies survive and also grow.The Pleasant Nuisance Theory – How to Collect in Tough Economic Times
Every financial decline is noted by prolonged receivables collection. Much more companies require to rely upon their vendors, vendors, and also specialists to fund the boosted effort and time required to accumulate their receivables – this creates a significant tightening up of cash money flow with as well as entire supply chain in each industry.Choosing the Best Accountant For Your Business
Determining on and also using the right accounting professional or book-keeping company for your company, be it huge or little, is an essential choice. Few individuals become aware that nearly anyone can establish themselves up in company as well as promote and classify themselves as an accounting professional.Nation’s Number Two Finance City a Good Place to Find a CPA
What is your preferred result in making use of the solutions of a CPA? Certified Public Accountants in Charlotte, like other location services, gain the complex advantages of location. A city such as Charlotte is a great place to be if you remain in the organization of growing. Understanding the most recent news, fads, locations as well as fundamentals gives a Charlotte CPA a side to provide customers.Record Keeping in Your Daycare Business
It is very important for an entrepreneur to have extensive and also precise documents. Besides the truth that document keeping is a necessity for the Internal Earnings Solution it is also an overview in order to lessen your taxes as well as save cash.Small Business Accounting Explained
Below we provide you some ideas on how to make tiny organization accountancy much more manageable for you. Initially, you must make a checklist of all accountancy tasks to carry out in your business. Once you have your listing, small company accountancy is less stressful and also takes much less time. You will only need to perform one or even more jobs at normal periods (daily, weekly, monthly …). | <urn:uuid:6431113a-3a5c-4b79-a412-1c243a203c00> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://mystayhomebusiness.com/google-limiting-crisis-pregnancy-center-ads-would-be-viewpoint-discrimination-virginia-ag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.954477 | 1,096 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Every now and then, step back and take stock of your inventory control and management performance.
Conventional and everyday things often can become inventory control concerns.
Undetected headaches can become big headaches. A practical scrutiny of your parts department operations and inventory control procedures can avert problems.
Answer the following questions I've developed to assist in a quick evaluation of operation and inventory control practices.
Answers will help you quickly assess your parts department's performance standards and help identify where procedures may be non-existent or performance might be open for improvement.
The questions are not quick solutions. Rather they are to initiate awareness about aspects of your parts operation you might unconsciously be overlooking.
Here they are:
- Do all parts department employees completely understand their responsibilities relative to the use of the inventory-control system?
- Are all responsible parts department employees adequately trained in the operation of the inventory-control system?
- Do all relevant parts department employees understand the basic concept of inventory control and the theory behind it?
- Do employees fully understand their responsibilities to report errors and discrepancies?
- Are inventory-control system errors corrected as soon as they are detected?
- Are the inventory-control tools (terminals, back-up inventory pads, etc.) conveniently and productively located within the department?
- Are there sufficient inventory-control tools to efficiently support the number of parts employees using them and adequately sustain the department's volume of business?
- Are suggested stock orders prepared by the inventory-control system without excessive changes or editing?
- Are management reports reviewed and acted upon at regular intervals?
- Does the parts department have a documented procedure for special-order handling?
- Are customers promptly notified upon receipt of their special orders?
- Are unclaimed or unsold special orders controlled and reviewed on a routine basis (preferably daily) to avoid accumulation?
- Do all relevant parts department employees understand the importance of lost sale recording and the effects of lost sales on inventory control?
- Are lost sales recorded?
- Are all emergency purchases recorded and sold through the inventory control system?
- Are moderately slow moving parts, very slow moving parts, and parts with no movement reviewed regularly?
- Is excess inventory reviewed regularly?
- Are return applications for all eligible parts made in a timely manner, according to manufacturer procedure, to avoid build up of obsolescence or missed return opportunities?
- Is full advantage taken of the obsolescence-return program offered by your manufacturer?
- Are inventory records updated regularly to reflect current and accurate bin locations, number changes and other pertinent manufacturer parts master record data?
- Does the inventory-control system provide the desired results?
- Are inventory-control system guides and setups (such as days' supply, phase-in and phase-out) evaluated periodically and modified as required?
- Is there periodic communication with inventory-control system representatives and vehicle manufacturer representatives to review system performance?
- Is all necessary inventory-control system training for all relevant parts department employees up to date?
If you answer “no” or “I don't know” to any of the questions listed here, then immediately investigate that aspect of the operation and take necessary steps to correct any deficiencies.
Gary Naples is a parts consultant to dealers and manufacturers. He's authored two books on parts management. He's at 570-824-1528/[email protected]. | <urn:uuid:aeca8141-f2d3-41ec-be92-6631878036cb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wardsauto.com/news-analysis/questions-id-problems | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.931853 | 699 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Almost half of those diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) in 2020 reached severe or terminal stages
In line with World NET (neuroendocrine tumour) Cancer Day on 10th November 2021, new research conducted by Ipsen highlights the current challenges facing patients suffering from NETs across Ireland. According to the data, many patients are encountering complicated paths to diagnosis, with 60% requiring several referrals before they are eventually diagnosed with NET cancer.2 Furthermore, nearly one quarter (23%) of NET patients have waited more than five years to have their condition properly diagnosed, and almost one in five (18%) waited 1-5 years for an accurate diagnosis.(2)
Biopharmaceutical company Ipsen has launched this new research to support better awareness of this uncommon cancer across Ireland. The need to improve national understanding of NETs is hugely important given that over 90% of NETs patients had never heard of the condition before being diagnosed themselves – and worryingly, almost half (41%) of those diagnosed with NET cancer in Ireland last year had already progressed to stage IV NETs.(1,2)
There are currently approximately 2,400 patients living with a neuroendocrine tumour in Ireland, and it is estimated that approximately 140 patients are newly diagnosed across the country every year.3 According to those suffering with NETs, urgent action needs to be taken to support improved care for the NET patient community including: (2)
- Improving NETs understanding within the medical community to advance patients’ quality of care according to 37% of patients
- Developing better access to a centre of excellence with NET specialists, and more efficient diagnosis according to 20%
- Availability of more innovative treatments and clinical trials in the future to advance quality of care according to 13%
What are NETs or neuroendocrine tumours?
NETs is the collective term for a group of uncommon or ‘quiet’ cancers which are often slow to develop in the body, with symptoms that arise over time and are often attributed to more common medical problems including – irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, peptic ulcer disease or gastritis.4 Due to the non-specific nature of the symptoms, misdiagnosis is common for patients – indeed 39% of NETs patients in Ireland last year were initially misdiagnosed at least once with other conditions. (1)
Unfortunately, the cause of NETs is not fully understood, but as with all forms of cancer, NETs arise when cells multiply rapidly in the body and result in tumour growth. Consequently, early diagnosis is a key tool for disease intervention and patient recovery. (4)
- Bouvier C, et al. Poster presented at the 18th UKI NETS virtual annual conference, 30 November–3 December 2020
- Ipsen Data on File ALL-GB-000677
- National Cancer Registry Ireland. Cancer Trends. Available at: https://www.ncri.ie/sites/ncri/files/pubs/CancerTrendsNo.18-NeuroendocrineCancers.pdf Last accessed: November 2021
- NET Patient Network. NET Overview. Available at: https://netpatientnetwork.ie/overview/ Last accessed: November 2021
NET Patient Network Annual Patients’ Day
Patient advocacy group NET Patient Network is holding a virtual NET cancer event on November 13th 2021 to help improve awareness of NETs among new and existing patients, and encourage national conversations to help support diagnosis and unmet patient needs. New and existing patients, as well as their carers, friends and family can register for the educational event at the following link with insights to be shared from many of Ireland’s leading NET clinicians. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_X0FFeE4FTBGHlX9ls-Gm9Q
Commenting on the new research findings, Chair of NET Patient Network Mark McDonnell said,
“There is a significant delay in confirmation of NETs diagnosis for many patients in Ireland – as the research from Ipsen highlights. Sadly this means that a significant volume of patients are being diagnosed at quite a late stage in the disease development. Indeed, almost half of patients (41%) in Ireland last year had stage IV NETs at the point of their diagnosis.
Once diagnosed with a NET 78% of patients are reassured by the course of action and care provided by healthcare professionals, but we have a hurdle to overcome to reach that stage in terms of improving our national rate and pace of diagnosis. Every NET patient should also have their case reviewed or have an input into their care by a NET specialist clinician.”
General Manager for Ipsen Ireland Paul Byrne added,
“Neuroendocrine tumours may be described as ‘quiet’ cancers which are not as prevalent as other types of cancer, but that doesn’t mean we should deal with them quietly. By encouraging more national conversations surrounding NETs among new and existing patients, healthcare professionals and indeed the wider public, we can hopefully encourage proactive consideration of these uncommon cancers with the ultimate aim of earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Our team in Ireland is committed to helping address unmet patient needs and support better quality of care for those living with rare and underserved conditions like neuroendocrine tumours. We hope that the virtual event being hosted by the NET Patient Network for World NET Cancer Day 2021 will shine much needed light on a lesser-known condition for a national audience.”
NET Patient Network Annual Patients’ Day 2021 Virtual Event
Date: Saturday 13th November
Time: 10am – 1pm
Location: Virtual event held via zoom
Attendees: Open to new and existing patients; friends, family and carers of NETs patients, healthcare professionals, and members of the general public
10:00 – 10.05 Welcome and introduction (Mark McDonnell, Chair NPN)
10:05 – 10:15 NET Overview and PRRT in Ireland Update
Prof Dermot O’Toole, National Lead for NETs, NET CoE, SVUH
10:15 – 10:25 Southern Region Update
Dr Derek Power, Mr Críostóir Ó Suilleabháin
Cork University Hospital / Mercy University Hospital)
10:25 – 10:30 Irish PRRT Results
Dr Hussein Almeamar, NET CoE, SVUH
10:30 – 10:35 Improvements and Procedures in Scans and Diagnostics
Dr Stephen Skehan, Head of Radiology, SVUH
10:35 – 10:40 Chemotherapy and NETs
Dr Mark Doherty, NET CoE, SVUH
10:40 – 10:45 Research in Irish NET Group
Dr Rachel Crowley, NET CoE, SVUH
10:45 – 10:55 A Patient Journey
Mr Tom O’Donohue, NET Patient, Tipperary
11:05 – 13:00 Q&A Panel with NET Specialists
About NET Patient Network
For information visit https://netpatientnetwork.ie/
About Ipsen Ireland
Ipsen Ireland is a key part of Ipsen’s global biopharmaceutical business and is committed to delivering transformative medicines that improve the lives of patients in need across three therapeutic areas – oncology, rare diseases and neuroscience.
Ipsen has been in Ireland for over 30 years, pioneering innovation across manufacturing, R&D and commercial activities at its site in Blanchardstown, Dublin. Ipsen Ireland produces the active ingredients for two of the company’s innovative cancer treatments.
Ipsen’s expert team of 165 employees in Ireland share a common mission to continuously innovate and deliver transformative care for patients with underserved and life-threatening conditions. This focus on innovation and specialty care aligns with Ipsen’s global commitment to launch at least one new meaningful indication or medicine each year.
About the Ipsen Ireland research
The Ipsen Ireland survey was conducted in October 2021 among the NET Patient Network database of patients living with NETs in Ireland.
About Ipsen Global
Ipsen is a global mid-size biopharmaceutical company with a focus on transformative medicines in oncology, rare diseases and neuroscience. Ipsen also has a well-established consumer healthcare business. With total sales over €2.5 billion in 2020, Ipsen sells more than 20 drugs in over 115 countries, with a direct commercial presence in more than 30 countries. Ipsen’s R&D is focused on its innovative and differentiated technological platforms located in the heart of the leading biotechnological and life sciences hubs (Paris-Saclay, France; Oxford, UK; Cambridge, US; Shanghai, China). The Group has about 5,700 employees worldwide. Ipsen is listed in Paris (Euronext: IPN) and in the United States through a Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt program (ADR: IPSEY). | <urn:uuid:bf8f9d1e-a728-4b55-abd9-d057042abfa1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://seniortimes.ie/early-diagnosis-needed-to-tackle-quiet-cancer-in-ireland/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.924459 | 1,867 | 2.671875 | 3 |
BACKGROUND: A Health Technology Assessment (HTA) model on effectiveness of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening in Scotland suggested that universal screening using chromogenic agar was the preferred option in terms of effectiveness and cost.
AIM: To test the model's validity through a one-year pilot-study.
METHOD: A large one-year prospective cohort study of MRSA screening was carried out in six acute hospitals in NHS Scotland, incorporating 81,438 admissions. Outcomes (MRSA colonization and infection rates) were subjected to multivariable analyses, and trends before and after implementation of screening were compared.
FINDINGS: The initial colonization prevalence of 5.5% decreased to 3.5% by month 12 of the study (P < 0.0001). Colonization was associated with the number of admissions per patient, specialty of admission, age, and source of admission (home, other hospital or care home). Around 2% of all admissions with no prior history of MRSA infection or colonization tested positive. Those who were screen positive on admission and not previously known positive were 12 times more likely than those who screened negative to develop infection, increasing to 18 times if they were both screen positive and previously known positive. MRSA infections (7.5 per 1000 inpatient-days overall) also reduced significantly over the study year (P = 0.0209).
CONCLUSION: The risk factors identified for colonization and infection indicate that a universal clinical risk assessment may have a role in MRSA screening.
- Aged, 80 and over
- Bacteriological Techniques
- Carrier State
- Cohort Studies
- Culture Media
- Emergency Medical Services
- Infection Control
- Mass Screening
- Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
- Middle Aged
- Prospective Studies
- Risk Factors
- Staphylococcal Infections | <urn:uuid:ea62b48b-b17a-4249-a30f-56f9f9ee6e34> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/publications/universal-screening-for-meticillin-resistant-staphylococcus-aureu-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.932427 | 427 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Blue Sapphires and Land Mines
he says the stones are most abundant
in places where the skulls are sweet-smelling
the soil farmed around the graves, perfumed
with mango, banana, and palm. in other places
he is too afraid to break up the hard packed
earth, troubled by the lack of bone. he can’t
recognize dusty slope from dusty slope; can’t
recall how many steps between each mine
just that he laid them. he doesn’t remember
anything more than the sixty cents each petite
stone will bring him. a calculation, he says,
that puts food on the table. he shows no sign
of shame, no clusters of guilt locked on decayed uniform.
his soft voice shoots soot. declares he saved many
lives in his village. it could have been more.
it could have been more, he says, his palms scrimshawed
with blood where life lines used to run. this tiller
of soil says he knows nothing. says he knows
nothing more than the rifle he uses to poke the ground,
the bamboo riddle he uses to flesh out the gems.
he tells me a leg he could lose, an arm he could do without.
and depending on who you ask, it is true. depending
on who you ask, he knows nothing about fear. | <urn:uuid:b92df35b-224f-460b-bebd-3ecf29c5383c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fishousepoems.org/blue-sapphires-and-land-mines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.958306 | 290 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The Level-3 MODIS Atmosphere Daily Global Product contains roughly 600 statistical datasets that are derived from approximately 80 scientific parameters from four Level-2 MODIS Atmosphere Products: Aerosol, Water Vapor, Cloud, and Atmosphere Profile. There are two MODIS Daily Global data product files: MOD08_D3, containing data collected from the Terra platform; and MYD08_D3, containing data collected from the Aqua platform.
A range of statistical summaries are computed, depending on the parameter being considered. Statistics for a given measurement might include:
Simple (mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation) statistics
Parameters of normal and log-normal distributions
Fraction of pixels that satisfy some condition (e.g. cloudy, clear)
Histograms of the quantity within each grid box
Histograms of the confidence placed in each measurement
Histograms and/or regressions derived from comparing one science parameter to another, statistics may be computed for a subset that satisfies some condition
Statistics are sorted into 1 by 1 degree cells on an equal-angle grid that spans a 24-hour (0000 to 2400 Greenwich Mean Time) interval and then summarized over the globe. It should be noted that browse images (see links at left) are available in both the native equal-angle (lat-lon) grid as well as an equal-area (hammer-aitoff) grid.
• Product PI:
• Validated Stage: Stage 2
Platnick, S., P. Hubanks, K. Meyer, and M. D. King, 2015: MODIS Atmosphere L3 Monthly Product (08_L3). NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Goddard Space Flight Center
MODIS Atmosphere Gridded Product Data Products can be found at the LAADS Web website. | <urn:uuid:6c50e344-5b3f-4912-b0c1-be527f9e78a8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/dataprod/mod08.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.790984 | 442 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Jul 19, 2022
Transhumanism as a concept of achieving immortality
Evolving of science and technological developments to enhance people’s cognitive and physical capacities is supported by transhumanism and philosophy, respectively. Major objective is to eradicate all parts of human existence that are seen negatively by society, including misery, illness, aging, and death. Transhumanism supporters are, among other things, looking at the advantages of adopting these technicalities, their advantages, and possibility of a convergence of bio, informational, mental aspects, and nanotechnologies. | <urn:uuid:5ecf1b50-6d9d-4ed1-99e9-2e2bed4df84f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://elifeforum.com/news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.941403 | 113 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Rome, the beautiful capital of Italy, the cradle of Western civilization, is one of the most visited cities in the world. Walking through the streets of the Eternal City you can feel the magic of a historic past that lives on, and the atmosphere of a big city teeming with attractions and entertainment.
Its historic center is bounded by the perimeter of the Aurelian walls and is a spectacular testimony to almost three millennia of Western European historical, artistic and cultural heritage. The museums, palaces and churches, are real treasure chests filled with marvels of art and curiosities to be discovered.
Rome is also the heart of Catholic Christianity, and is the only city in the world that includes another entire independent State: the enclave of Vatican City, where you can admire the largest dome in the world that crowns the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Undisputed symbol of Rome is the Colosseum: The monumental Roman amphitheater steeped in history has fascinated everyone for centuries.
But a tour of the city can not miss out a stop at the Trevi Fountain, where tradition has it that the visitor should throw two coins into it, the first expresses a wish to return to Rome, the second is to wish that you will get what you most desire. | <urn:uuid:f5936149-30ed-45c2-9b19-77a545001e83> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://rigato.it/content.php/en/travel-itineraries/myth-rome | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.924353 | 265 | 1.804688 | 2 |
When creating a great e-commerce web page, you’ll initially need to select the type of items you’ll offer. You’ll need a website name. Fortunately, there are many different top-level domains you can choose from, including a. com, a. store, and a. solutions. The choice of a domain name relies on your business objectives, yet there are some what you should keep in mind when ever establishing your ecommerce website.
The first step in developing a internet site is discovering your Learn More target market. You’ll want to choose a niche market and build a product line based on it. Small businesses should start small and gradually develop to a larger scale. When you’re founded, you can expand your platform to incorporate a large selection of goods and services. Aim to offer everything on a single page. Assuming you have many different types of goods, you should use a template.
Once you have decided on a distinct segment, you can start buying a platform to host your web blog on. Many ecommerce programs offer free of charge templates and can be included with CMS platforms just like WordPress. Receiving an SSL certificate is essential for your website’s secureness. If you’re aiming to sell physical products internet, an SSL certificate will give you the protection you need. A good hosting platform may even offer cost-free SSL certificates for your webpage. | <urn:uuid:4ce4e60d-cb9a-41ad-9841-8290b8d02ee1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://colegioabogadoscat.org/2021/11/28/creating-e-commerce-websites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.927224 | 289 | 1.898438 | 2 |
DP English A HL
IB HL World Literature is primarily a pre-university course in literature aimed at students who intend to pursue literature, or related studies, at university. This course introduces students to the analysis of literary texts. The course is organized into four parts, each focused on a group of literary works. Together, the four parts of the course add up to a comprehensive exploration of literature from a variety of cultures, genres and periods. Students learn to appreciate the artistry of literature, and develop the ability to reflect critically on their reading, presenting literary analysis powerfully through both oral and written communication. | <urn:uuid:3626fe78-7206-47ef-b4e7-35cbfdf9e74f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.amundsenhs.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1420253&type=d&pREC_ID=1589017 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.942549 | 124 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Western politicians failed in their response to the Arab Spring. National leaders saw and saluted the emergence of pro-democracy protests in 2011, but they did little more. When they acted, as in Libya, Western leaders did too little and thought not at all about the future; when they did not act, in Syria most notably, they ushered in a state of affairs where war crimes go unpunished, and dictators engaged in mass murder need fear no redress.
There are reasons for all this. Most politicians are not, by nature, internationalists. For them, the outside world matters only insofar as it can be used politically—or, indeed, to the extent that global problems can become difficult at home.
This may be understandable and obvious to some, if morally difficult to accept. But there are others involved in the formation of foreign policy who are not accountable to an electorate. Those in officialdom—the career civil servants staffing the bureaucracies of foreign ministries, embassies, quangos, and agencies—might be expected to act differently.
These officials may, one might hope, be able to take a longer-term view. They can detach themselves from domestic political concerns. But officialdom has other flaws. In Western countries, officials have been unable and ultimately unwilling to appreciate democratic movements such as the Arab Spring.
People in government service can think they’ve seen it all. They see political careers flower and wither; they may have served an endless cavalcade of ministers.
Those working in foreign policy can succumb to caricatures of regions and nations. They fall victim to lazy institutional thinking. Officials are also, as a class, jaded and cynical people. They have seen too much of the world to have great cause for optimism. They dismiss people from foreign places with big ideas. They downplay their own governments’ abilities to act.
Ambassador Frederic Hof, a special adviser on Syria at the State Department until his resignation in 2012, diagnoses an institutional malaise. Hof, writing in the third person, states that he left government service because of his “inability to convince his superiors that objectives and strategy mattered.” His proposed strategy was empowering the armed opposition to create a Syrian solution to the problem of the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS).
The same institutional mentality met the Syrian revolution when it first began, and has proven an obstacle ever since. When the Arab Spring happened, there were people in foreign offices around the West who did not see in it the possibility of a democratic awakening, but rather a problem to be mitigated.
In Syria this official cynicism has, in tandem with the choices of elected leaders, systematically starved the opposition of support and resources. Some British officials, for example, never quite believed that Syrians wanted democratic self-government or could maintain it. They dismissed as so much talk any calls by Arabs for greater freedoms.
Now, as the revolution reels in the light of half a decade’s indifference from the wider world, they see no reason to revise that view.
This is a bleak view of human nature. But more than this, some in officialdom also habitually talk down the possibility that the nations they work for can do anything to help.
Hof’s former colleagues, having disparaged America’s ability to act in Syria from the beginning, assumed that Russia would fail in its intervention in the country from 2015. But this intervention did not become the quagmire which was forecast. In predicting that it would, US officials unconsciously allowed another state to seize the initiative and transform the situation within Syria.
Other former foreign service types assist dictatorships more actively. Peter Ford, a former British ambassador to Syria, now lobbies for the regime of Bashar al-Assad, having taken a position as director of the British Syrian Society, an advocacy organization founded by the dictator’s father-in-law, Fawwaz al-Akhras.
Craig Murray, another former British ambassador, is a man whose disillusionment with the government has led him to embrace, among other undesirables, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. But he shares some attitudes with his former colleagues. Murray publicly questioned the rationale of the Assad regime’s using Sarin to attack Khan Shaykhun in April. This is a way of soft-pedalling war crimes by denying the logic behind them. It is a diversionary tactic which some British Ministry of Defence officials privately echo.
Murray and Ford are disdained by their former diplomatic colleagues. But they are still, for better or worse, products of institutional cultures which also serve to shape so many currently in government service.
Talk has now turned to reconstructing Syria, and the official consensus appears to favor Assad remaining in power. Western governments are withdrawing from their bases on Syrian soil and ceasing programs to arm rebels.
It has become a self-fulfilling situation. Syria’s rebels, left under-equipped in the face of the militaries of three states—Assad’s, Russia’s, and Iran’s—are deemed unworthy of support for not securing quick victories. Friends have noted a strain of thought in the British Foreign Office which feels vindicated by this failure, an event its officials have helped to create.
This is aided by a monomaniacal focus on defeating ISIS. It is seen in both politicians and functionaries, such as Brett McGurk, the US envoy tasked with working with the global coalition against the terror group. That work includes some impolitic alliances. McGurk and others, such as General Raymond Thomas of US Special Operations Command, embraced without question the rapidly-generated “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) label which was adopted, in a lightning-fast rebranding, by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab proxies.
The priority—perhaps even the sole consideration—in doing this was to reach Raqqa, ISIS’ Syrian capital, as fast as possible. Little thought was given to the future of that city after ISIS, just as little thought has been given, in many Western capitals, to the future of Syria at all.
None of this is to say that officials are necessarily immoral or even callous. But officialdom has grown indifferent to the rhetoric of democracy and freedom, and to its reality. Functionaries are almost unable, not to mention unwilling, to see the point in resistance to dictatorial regimes, no matter how oppressive. And this has allowed Western politicians to feel justified in their failure to seize the greatest democratic moment of this century. | <urn:uuid:2eb28e2a-b33c-40e1-95ec-5898c63dc22b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://aljumhuriya.net/en/2017/10/05/officially-incompetent/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.972503 | 1,350 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Urethritis is an infection and inflammation of the lining of the urethra, the narrow tube that carries urine out of the body. In men, the urethra also carries semen. Urethritis is usually caused when bacteria from the anus travel to the urethra. The infection may affect the bladder, prostate, and reproductive organs. It may also be caused by a sexually transmitted disease (STD), such as herpes or chlamydia.
Urethritis can happen in men and women of all ages. Women, however, are at higher risk because the urethra is closer to the anus.
Signs and Symptoms
There may be no symptoms of urethritis, particularly in women. When there are, symptoms may include:
- Burning during urination
- Pus or whitish, mucous discharge from the penis
- Burning or itching around the opening of the penis
- Blood in the urine or semen
- Abdominal pain
- Painful urination
- Unusual vaginal discharge
- Fever and chills
- Frequent, urgent urination
What Causes It?
- Bacteria and other organisms entering the urethra
- Bruising during sexual intercourse (in women)
- Infection reaching the urethra from the prostate gland or through the penis opening (in men)
- Bacterial infection after you have taken a course of antibiotics
- Reiter syndrome
- Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), such as chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes simplex virus, or HIV and AIDS
What to Expect at Your Doctor's Office
Your doctor will examine your genitals, do laboratory tests on a urine sample, and take a specimen of mucus from inside the urethra and, in women, the vagina.
- Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to get rid of the bacteria causing the infection.
- All sex partners should be treated.
- You should not have sex until you complete treatment, because you can still have an infection even after your symptoms go away.
- Limit your number of sexual partners.
- Always use condoms.
- If you have symptoms, or think you have an infection, seek treatment immediately and notify all sexual partners.
- Practice good personal hygiene.
Depending on the cause of the infection, your doctor may prescribe one of the following treatments:
- Ciprofloxacin (Cipro)
- Levofloxacin (Levaquin)
- Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (Bactrim, Septra)
Complementary and Alternative Therapies
Nutrition, herbs, and homeopathic remedies can help your body fight infection, relieve pain, and strengthen the urinary system. Always tell your doctor about the herbs and supplements you are using. Complementary therapies are best used in conjunction with conventional medical care as part of a coordinated approach among your health care providers to affect the best outcomes.Nutrition and Supplements
- Cranberries contain substances that may keep bacteria from sticking to the urethra. Preliminary evidence suggests that drinking cranberry juice daily may help prevent urinary tract infections, especially in women who get infections often.
- Avoid caffeine and other stimulants.
- Drink 6 to 8 glasses of filtered water daily.
Herbs are a way to strengthen and tone the body's systems. As with any therapy, you should work with your doctor before starting treatment. You may use herbs as dried extracts (capsules, powders, or teas), glycerites (glycerine extracts), or tinctures (alcohol extracts). Unless otherwise indicated, make teas with 1 tsp. (5 g) herb per cup of hot water. Steep covered 5 to 10 minutes for leaves or flowers, and 10 to 20 minutes for roots. Drink 2 to 4 cups per day. You may use tinctures alone or in combination as noted.
- Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon). Supplements to help prevent urethritis and urinary tract infections. You may also drink 8 to 16 ounces of unsweetened cranberry juice daily. Cranberry supplements or juice may increase the risk of bleeding, especially if you take blood thinners such as warfarin (Coumadin) or clopidogrel (Plavix). People with kidney stones and pregnant or breastfeeding women should not take cranberry supplements. People who are allergic to aspirin should not take large amounts of cranberry supplements. Cranberry can interact with a number of medications. Ask your doctor before taking cranberry supplements.
- Bromelain (Ananus comosus). For pain and inflammation. Bromelain can increase the risk of bleeding, especially if you already take blood thinners. People who are allergic to pineapple should not take bromelain. Ask your doctor before taking bromelain.
Some of the most common remedies used for urethritis are listed below. Usually, the dose is 3 to 5 pellets of a 12X to 30C remedy every 1 to 4 hours until symptoms improve.
- Staphysagria. For urinary infections associated with sexual intercourse.
- Apis mellifica. For stinging pains that are made worse by warmth.
- Cantharis. For intolerable urging with "scalding" urine.
- Sarsaparilla. For burning after urination.
Acupuncture may help strengthen your overall immune system and help relieve pain from urethritis.
If your urethritis was caused by a sexually transmitted disease (STD), your sexual partners may need to be treated as well. Possible complications for men include:
Possible complications for women include:
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
- Fertility problems
- Other gynecological problems
STDs can cause permanent damage to reproductive organs and infertility in both sexes. They can also cause problems during pregnancy, premature delivery, low birth weight, and infections in newborns.
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Beerepoot MA, ter Riet G, Nys S, et al. Cranberries vs antibiotics to prevent urinary tract infections: a randomized double-blind noninferiority trial in premenopausal women. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(14):1270-1278.
Berntsson M, Tunback P. Clinical and microscopic signs of cervicitis and urethritis: correlation with Chlamydia trachomatis infection in female STI patients. Acta Derm Venerol. 2013;93(2):230-233.
Cabrera C, Artacho R, Gimenez R. Beneficial effects of green tea -- a review. J Am Coll Nutr. 2006;25(2):79-99.
Cvetnic Z, Vladimir-Knezevic S. Antimicrobial activity of grapefruit seed and pulp ethanolic extract. Acta Pharm. 2004;54(3):243-250.
Dieterle S. Urogenital infections in reproductive medicine. Andrologia. 2008;40(2):117-119.
Doron S, Gorbach SL. Probiotics: their role in the treatment and prevention of disease. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2006;4(2):261-275.
Dryden GW Jr, Deaciuc I, Arteel G, McClain CJ. Clinical implications of oxidative stress and antioxidant therapy. Curr Gastroenterol Rep. 2005;7(4):308-316.
Gonclaves C, Dinis T, Batista MT. Antioxidant properties of proanthocyanidins of Uncaria tomentosa bark decoction: a mechanism for anti-inflammatory activity. Phytochemistry. 2005;66(1):89-98.
Hale LP, Greer PK, Trinh CT, James CL. Proteinase activity and stability of natural bromelain preparations. Int Immunopharmacol. 2005;5(4):783-793.
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Review Date: 6/2/2016
Reviewed By: Steven D. Ehrlich, NMD, Solutions Acupuncture, a private practice specializing in complementary and alternative medicine, Phoenix, AZ. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. | <urn:uuid:d3334fb1-af9d-4ba4-b515-5fceee374813> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ssl.adam.com/content.aspx?productid=107&pid=33&gid=000167&site=riverviewssl.adam.com&login=RIDG9829 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.801273 | 2,588 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Reverend Rebecca Newland
25 December 2006, Christmas
Well Merry Christmas to you all!! But isn't Christmas a season of paradoxes and contradictions? I mean Warnie has just quit!? and right before Christmas! In amongst all the paradox, confusion and stress of the silly season, after we have planned and shopped, wrapped and baked some of us find time to stop and wonder what it is all about anyway. I know I do! Some of us who would not normally step inside a church throughout the rest of the year come along at Christmas time to hear one of the most famous stories in the world. For some it is like a walk down memory lane and conjures up a nostalgic childhood.
Indeed Christmas seems to have become an event exclusively for children and our nostalgia for youth. Perhaps this is harmless. But I wonder. It seems to me a focus on becoming childlike at Christmas is guaranteed to skew the real message of the birth of Jesus. The Christmas story is really an adult story with very adult implications. I want to spend the next few minutes explaining what I mean by that. However when your first look at the story it looks as if nothing much is happening at all. There is a beautiful poem that goes:
This was the moment when nothing happened.
Only dull peace sprawled boringly over the earth.
This was the moment when even energetic
Romans could find nothing better to do
than counting heads in remote provinces.
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
into the kingdom of heaven.
When this simple story takes place Rome is the center of the known world. The emperor's title is "Son of God" and acting as the Son of God, Augustus declared that his whole realm should be counted, measured. This was an act of supreme control and power coming out from Rome. And it causes Joseph to go to Bethlehem, which was frankly in the international scheme of things, nowhere. It would have been like going to Ivanhoe — know where that is?
One of the most famous lines is scripture is "there was no place for them in the inn." Later in Luke's gospel we will read, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." In the gospel of John the author writes: "He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him." It's in the nature of the Messiah that he is always the one left out, always the one in the out-of-the way place. He is the stone the builders rejected. That there's no room in the inn is not incidental to the story; this is what the Messiah is. There's no room in Rome, so go to Israel. There's not room in Israel, so go to Nazareth. There's not room in Nazareth, so go to Bethlehem. There's no room in the inn, so go out to the shed where the animals are.
Out, out, out, out… The Messiah is the one left out, the one at the very outskirts of earthly power and might. The Christmas story is a story of the Son of God beginning his life on earth in poverty and unimportance and obscurity. He ends in the same way — tortured, dead upon a cross. The messiah is not only on the outside, right away from the centre. The messiah is also found where there suffering, exclusion and pain of all types. The messiah is found away from the glitz and glamour of new shopping malls, away from all our delusions of wealth and economic growth. The real truth breaks in on you when you recognize the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, the cornerstone of a new way of looking at the world.
The resurrection of Jesus, to which the angelic chorus of Hallelujahs points, is the climax to the story. The resurrection is the whole point to the Virgin Mary, the shepherds, angels and wise men. Always the nativity leads to Easter and then to the renewal of Pentecost. Christmas is just the beginning of the story of a baby born in obscurity, who grows to teach a radical and new way of living, who died for each one of us and yet rises and loves and forgives through it all.
And who first gets wind of this? It's the shepherds. We have to shake free of some of our Christmas piety about innocent shepherds. This is not some nice little pastoral scene. Shepherds in the first century represented something like bikers, socially. They were the unwashed, unscrupulous, hard blokes around town. People locked their doors when they came into town. They had the lowly social mark of Hell's Angels (no offence to Hell's Angels — I've met a few).
Perhaps in our context the shepherds are like illegal asylum seekers or even legal ones. To such as these the angels appear. No wonder Mary and Joseph are surprised at what the shepherds tell them. Who would have thought angels would appear to such people!
Luke always turns the social order on its head: He is always interested in those on the margins. The Gospel message turns how we see things upside down. It speaks of forgiveness of enemies, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. It speaks of the love of God reaching out to those the rest of the world has abandoned. If we don't see this we are not getting it. If it doesn't challenge us, make us rethink our beliefs and actions we have missed the point. If it doesn't inspire us to confront injustice, distortion of truth and our own self-justification we haven't heard the message.
And finally the baby Jesus is found in a manger: a feeding trough, a place where the animals come to eat. At the end of the gospel, the disciples of Emmaus find Jesus in the breaking of bread, at an eating place. At the Eucharist we come to find Jesus, around the altar, in the sharing of bread and wine, amongst ourselves, in each other.
The theological word that goes with Christmas is incarnation. It literally means to be 'in flesh'. God becomes flesh, like us in everyway, so that we might find our way to God. In year 8 religious classes at Radford College I used to ask the question "If there is something more than what we can see, hear or touch, the physical world, and some being from that place wanted to communicate with humans how would they do it?" Predictably I always got answers like dreams, visions, imagination, angels and prophets. But then always some bright spark would get it and say "well if that being really wanted to talk to us they would become human like us".
And being human is no small task. I have read somewhere that the angels are in awe of humans and what our existence is like with its pain and suffering, its' depths and heights, yet being human means that we can grasp the mystery and wonder of God. We can feel and bleed and love and learn, something a purely spiritual being can never even approximate. We need to be human to create like God, to make music that sours to the heavens, and to feel joy and sorrow.
In the Gospel we heard that Mary pondered in her heart the things that had happened. Not in her mind or her feelings, but in her heart. In the end that is what we must do as we leave this place. Find time to ponder the great story of Christmas in our hearts. Let it sink in and do its work of transformation. Let the Christ within us come to birth in our lives and transform the way we look at and respond to the world around us.Let the Christ within help us to grow up. This is the challenge in Christmas, perhaps the most important challenge we face. It is the challenge to take on this earthly life as Jesus did. To not run away from what disturbs and confronts us, to not slip into illusion and fantasy, to not escape through addiction, to not let fear drive our choices and actions. To be fully incarnated ourselves, to be fully present in the moment. That means to be in our flesh, feeling life and loving fully. Growing up is about becoming fully human, fully alive, fully awake to the Christ within — and taking our part in transforming the world.
If we look and listen carefully, if we ponder deeply, we realize that like the shepherds we too can walk "haphazard by starlight, straight into the kingdom of heaven." Amen | <urn:uuid:17593c4a-df0b-4609-8764-c719a16d4110> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://stphilipsoconnor.org.au/discovery/sermons/docs/2006dec25_rn.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.969915 | 1,779 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Water heaters are appliances designed to provide warmth during cold seasons, such as winter. The central heating system is responsible for the provision of heat in the house. The heating system contains the following parts:
- Heat pump
The function of a boiler is to heat water for steam and heating purposes. Furnaces distribute the warmth around the house. Heat transmission is through radiation, convection, or radiation processes. Steam from broilers is distributed via pipes connected to steam radiators. The hot water passes through the baseboard radiators or radiant floor systems.
Warm air passes through a ductwork unit that supplies and returns air through fiberglass or metal duct. Several systems use a constant duct to distribute cool air from the evaporator coil to regulate heat in a room. The air passes through filters to remove dust and other small particles.
Here you can find our articles on water heaters:
American standard water heaters
Generation of energy
Heaters use various sources of heat energy. They include; liquid fuel, heating oil, propane, gases, solar, electricity, and solid fuel.
Heat pumps may extract heat from several sources like the normal environmental air, air from a building, or maybe from the ground. They transfer heat energy from outside the system into the inside.
Benefits of water heaters
- They are cost-effective. The cost of installing a combined system is much less compared to the cost of installing a furnace and a water heater separately.
- HVAC water heaters are easy to use and operate. The system has a combined unit which is a replacement of a separate water heater and a furnace. Operation is done as a whole, avoiding complications that may come when operated separately.
- The system offers a guaranteed safety. A sole burner has safe combustion and venting elimination solutions. They get rid of spillage in the house effectively.
The danger associated with HVAC water heaters
Using furnaces, boilers, and space heaters as a form of heating may cause incomplete combustion. As a result, poisonous gases such as nitrogen oxide, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and other volatile organic compounds are produced.
Fuel has several compounds, and when a complete reaction does not take place, harmful byproducts find ways into the atmosphere. Carbon monoxide is the most harmful byproduct. It is tasteless and odorless, and it has severe health effects. Proper ventilation is essential when you are using a water heater or HVCA system. Poisonous gases like carbon monoxide block the circulation of oxygen which can cause death.
When installing the system, you should read all the instructions or call an expert do for you. Maintenance of the HVAC system is essential to avoid damages. For quality air, you need to replace air filters on a regular basis. | <urn:uuid:dc2600ef-52b2-42b2-826d-21ee833efaa3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://hvacjudge.com/category/water-heater/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.937927 | 585 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Assam has become the 36th State to implement the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme. With this, the ONORC plan is successfully implemented in all 36 states, and Union Territories, making food security portable throughout the country. This is a one-of-its-kind citizen-centric initiative in the country, which is swiftly implemented in a short span of time covering about 80 Crore beneficiaries, after being initiated in August 2019, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a statement today.
What is the objective of the program?
- The objective of this beneficiary centric high-impact program is to empower all NFSA beneficiaries to become AtmaNirbhar for their food security anywhere in the country, through the portability of their existing ration cards enabling them to seamlessly lift their entitled subsidized foodgrains (in part or full) from any Fair Price Shop of their choice.
- This also enables their family members to lift balance/required amount of foodgrains on the same ration card at their native/ any place from the FPS of their choice.
About the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC):
One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) is a scheme that will nationalise a beneficiary’s ration card by a process called Aadhaar Seeding. Aadhaar seeding ensures that the beneficiary can pick up her or his entitled foodgrain from any fair price shop in the country. So, if the family migrants from one part of the country to another, their claim to food security remains assured.
Important takeaways for all competitive exams:
- Assam Capital: Dispur;
- Assam Chief Minister: Himanta Biswa Sarma;
- Assam Governor: Jagadish Mukhi. | <urn:uuid:0e777f36-56ab-4a18-a2e2-dc3bba98477b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://currentaffairs.adda247.com/assam-becomes-36th-state-ut-to-implement-one-nation-one-ration-card/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571198.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810161541-20220810191541-00272.warc.gz | en | 0.955107 | 366 | 2.0625 | 2 |
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