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Comorbid atypical autistic traits as a potential risk factor for suicide attempts among adult depressed patients: a case–control study Annals of General Psychiatry volume 13, Article number: 33 (2014) The present study aims to examine if autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a risk factor for suicide attempts among adult depressed patients and to elucidate the characteristics of suicide attempts in adult depressed patients with ASD. We conducted a case–control study. Subjects consisted of 336 retrospectively recruited first-time visit patients to our outpatient clinic with a current major depressive episode; 31 of the 336 patients had attempted suicide. The demographic backgrounds (i.e., age, gender, personal/family history of suicidality); specific psychopathology like bipolarity, agitation, and psychotic features; and comorbidity such as physical diseases, alcohol abuse, cluster B personality disorder, and ASD including pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) were examined as potential risk factors for suicide attempts. We compared these variables between the suicide attempters and non-attempters. In addition, we compared suicide attempters to non-attempters within the ASD group and non-ASD group. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed using the significant independent variables from the comparisons between the suicide attempters and non-attempters, and the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that agitation during a depressive episode (OR = 7.15, 95% CI = 2.88–17.74), past suicidal behaviors (OR = 4.32, 95% CI =1.70–10.98), and comorbid PDD-NOS (OR = 4.04, 95% CI = 1.20–13.54) were significantly associated with suicide attempts. The most prevalent suicidal method was drug overdose (59.1%) among non-ASD attempters while hanging was the most prevalent (44.4%) in ASD attempters. Depressed adults with comorbid atypical autistic traits are at higher risk for suicide attempts and may engage in methods that are more lethal. Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction and the presence of restricted, repetitive behaviors. ASDs include three of five disorders known as pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) in the DSM-IV-TR . These consist of autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder (AS), and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). Recently, the prevalence of ASD in adults was estimated to be 0.98% . Thus, ASD has nowadays become a more common disorder than previously recognized. Besides, it has been consistently pointed out that mood disorders are the most common lifetime comorbidity (53%–70%) among ASD adults -. In addition, mood disorders are generally accompanied by suicide risk . Several studies have consistently reported that many individuals with AS experience suicide-related behaviors -. McDermott et al. reported that the relative rate (RR) of self-inflicted injury or suicide attempts was much higher among children with autistic disorder compared to those without the disability in emergency departments and inpatient admissions (RR = 7.62, 95% confidence interval = 1.65–35.21) . Mayes et al. also showed that the percentage of children with autistic disorder who had suicide ideations or attempts was 28 times greater than that of typically developed children (13.8% vs. 0.5%) . These studies indicate that suffering from severe forms of ASD can be a risk factor for suicide attempts. Meanwhile, only a few studies have examined the nature of suicide-related behaviors in individuals with ASD, comprehensively including severe to mild or typical to atypical psychopathology ,, although psychiatrists may encounter depressed individuals comorbid with various subtypes of ASD who may be at high risk of suicidality. Therefore, the present study aims to examine if ASD is one of the important risk factors for suicide attempts among adult depressed patients in clinical settings and to elucidate the characteristics of suicide attempts in individuals with ASD. Initially, 381 patients were enrolled in the present study, and their final diagnosis was reconfirmed in January 2014. Among the 381 patients, 45 did not have precise descriptions of their background or personal history (e.g., insufficient developmental record and family history) and thereafter were excluded from the study as missing data. We finally extracted 336 patients with mood disorders, whose mean age (±standard deviation) was 41.2 (±14.3) years, and the proportion of females was 62%. Of the 336 patients, 206 were diagnosed with major depressive disorder (61%) and 130 with bipolar disorders (39%). The sample included 31 patients visiting after suicide attempts (9.2%) while the remaining 305 cases had not attempted suicide. For the group of suicide attempters, the methods of suicide attempts were recorded as necessary data information for the analyses. Screening and subjective awareness of autistic traits The autistic traits in ASD subjects were quantitatively assessed by using the Japanese version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) , which is a 50-item self-administered questionnaire for adults with normal intelligence. The total AQ score ranges from 0 to 50. Although the scoring of AQ can be affected by patients' self-assessment capability for their autistic traits, a higher AQ score generally indicates a higher autistic tendency. Diagnosis of ASD The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) , Axis II personality disorders (SCID-II) , and the DSM-IV-TR were used for the diagnosis of mood disorders, various subtypes of ASD, and other psychiatric comorbidity. Developmental history for the ASD diagnosis was confirmed by the patients' parents interviewed by the psychiatrists, who were qualified as certified supervising psychiatrist by the Japanese Board of Psychiatry and who were in charge of the outpatient clinic for both child-adolescent and adult psychiatry. Developmental records (maternal and children health handbooks, school reports in primary and middle school) were obtained from the parents as references. In those cases where parents could not visit and be interviewed face-to-face, we collected the developmental information by telephone interview after approval from the patients and their parents. Possible risk factors for suicide attempts were selected according to empirical findings and previous literature, i.e., patients' backgrounds (age, gender, educational level, marital status, employment, and living conditions), past suicidal behaviors, family history (psychiatric disorders and suicide deaths), specific psychopathology of depression (bipolarity, agitation, and psychotic features), comorbidity (physical diseases, alcohol abuse, cluster B personality disorders, and ASD), and treatment at the first visit (untreated vs. treated, drug treatments such as antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers). The rationale for selecting these 16 variables was based on previous findings that reported the following risk factors for suicide attempts or suicide, i.e., younger age ,, female gender ,, low education level ,, unmarried status ,, unemployment ,, living alone ,, past suicidal behaviors ,, family history of psychiatric disorders , and suicide deaths , bipolarity ,, agitation during a depressive episode ,, psychotic features ,, physical diseases ,, alcohol abuse ,, cluster B personality disorders ,, and ASD. Past suicidal behaviors were defined as past histories of overdose, deliberate self-injury, hanging, or jumping. Agitation was assessed according to the criteria B of agitated depression, which was defined by Koukopoulos and Koukopoulos and consists of at least two of the following symptoms: 1) motor agitation, 2) psychic agitation or intense inner tension, and 3) racing or crowded thoughts. Psychotic features during depressive episodes were evaluated based on the DSM-IV-TR criteria. Cluster B personality disorders were assessed by using the SCID-II. Comparisons were made between suicide attempters and non-attempters among all subjects (Table 1) and between suicide attempters and non-attempters within the ASD or non-ASD group (Table 2) by using a Student's t-test (for continuous variables) or Fischer's exact test (for categorical variables). Binary logistic regression analysis (Table 3) examined the individual effect of each risk factor on suicide attempts by using six significant variables from Table 1. As for the age factor, the optimal cutoff (under 29 years vs. 29 or over) was calculated as the best criterion that divided the ASD group from the non-ASD group by using the Youden index (i.e., sensitivity?+?specificity ?1) . Finally, the age factor was changed from a continuous to a categorical variable for the binary logistic regression analysis. SPSS 19.0 for Windows (SPSS, Tokyo, Japan) was used for the statistical analyses. XLSTAT version 2014.1 (Addinsoft, Tokyo, Japan) was used for the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. A two-tailed p value of less than 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant for all analyses. We informed the patients of the anonymous inclusion in this retrospective study together with information that the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of the Ryukyus, Japan. These statements also included the sentence that the participants could withdraw from this study without any penalty or loss of benefits for their treatments, although no patients refused to participate in this study. Profiles of ASD subjects Among the 336 adult depressed patients, 37 (11%) were diagnosed with ASD. In these 37 patients, 25 (68%) were diagnosed with PDD-NOS while 9 (24%) were diagnosed with AS and 3 (8%) with autistic disorder. There was no significant difference in the proportion of females between ASD (54%) and non-ASD subjects (63%). The proportion of suicide attempters was significantly higher in ASD subjects (n = 9, 24.3%) than in non-ASD subjects (n = 22, 7.4%) (p <0.01). The mean score (±SD) of total AQ was 31.4 (±6.5) in the ASD patients. No significant difference in the AQ scores was observed between suicide attempters and non-attempters among ASD patients. Comparisons between suicide attempters and non-attempters Table 1 summarizes comparisons of possible risk factors for suicide attempts between subjects with suicide attempts and those without among the depressed first-visit patients. The mean age was significantly younger in suicide attempters than in non-attempters (p = 0.02), and the percentage of subjects under 29 years was higher in suicide attempters that in non-attempters (p <0.01). The proportions of past suicidal behaviors (p <0.01), family history of suicide (p = 0.02), agitation during a depressive episode (p <0.01), comorbid cluster B personality disorder (p = 0.01), and comorbid ASD (p = 0.003) were all greater in suicide attempters than in non-attempters. The proportions of PDD-NOS in suicide attempters and non-attempters also differed significantly (p = 0.001). Contributing factors to suicide attempts When ASD was initially evaluated for the binary logistic regression analysis as an independent variable to extract the contributing factors to suicide attempts, the contribution of ASD did not reach a significant level (odds ratio (OR) = 1.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.58–6.12). Based on the finding that suicidal attempters with ASD were all diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Table 1), PDD-NOS instead of ASD was used as an independent variable. As a result, agitation during a depressive episode (p <0.001), past suicidal behaviors (p = 0.002), and comorbid PDD-NOS (p = 0.024) were all significantly associated with suicide attempts (Table 3). Comparisons between suicide attempters and non-attempters within ASD and non-ASD group The differences between suicide attempters and non-attempters within ASD and non-ASD group are summarized in Table 2. In the ASD group, the proportions of agitation during a depressive episode (p <0.01), past suicidal behavior (p = 0.01), and comorbid PDD-NOS (p = 0.02) were greater in suicide attempters than in non-attempters. In the non-ASD group, the incidence of past suicidal behaviors (p <0.01), family history of suicide (p = 0.02), agitation (p <0.01), and the proportion of comorbid cluster B personality disorder (p = 0.02) were higher in suicide attempters than in non-attempters. Comparison between methods of suicide attempts in patients with ASD and without ASD Among the 31 suicide attempters, suicide methods were drug overdose in 14 cases (45%), followed by hanging in 8 cases (26%), jumping in 4 cases (13%), serious injury by cutting in 3 cases (10%), and poisoning in 2 cases (6%). Figure 1 shows that the most prevalent suicide method was drug overdose among non-ASD attempters while hanging was the most prevalent in ASD attempters. The current results revealed that comorbid PDD-NOS, which includes atypical autism , was a significant risk factor for suicide attempts among first-visit patients with a major depressive episode together with other classical risk factors such as past suicidal behaviors and agitation during a depressive episode (Table 3). It is not rare for clinicians to encounter patients with potential autistic traits among depressed adults in clinical settings. In fact, 11% of adult depressed patients or 29% of suicide attempters were finally diagnosed with ASD in the present study. Previous studies have also shown that ASD is not a negligible psychiatric diagnosis among suicide attempters, i.e., 7.3% in adults and 12.8% in adolescents . In addition, several studies point out that the prevalence of comorbid depression and anxiety is higher in individuals with ASD than in those without ASD -. These findings imply that there are close relationships between depression, suicidality, and autistic traits. The major subtype of ASD was PDD-NOS (68%) in the present study, although most of these patients were not aware of their atypical and mild autistic traits at their first visit to our clinic. This is consistent with a previous study reporting that the majority of youth with ASD were diagnosed with PDD-NOS (88.5%) in a psychiatrically referred population . Snow and Lecavalier reported that individuals with PDD-NOS have more psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression than those with autistic disorder. In addition, ASD subjects suffering from depressive symptoms show less social impairment and higher cognitive ability than those without depressive symptoms . Moreover, there is a negative correlation between severity of ASD symptoms and internalizing problems or levels of suicidal ideation . Besides, PDD-NOS is not only a milder form of ASD but also has heterogeneous features, i.e., social and communication impairment without repetitive and stereotyped behaviors ,. Some studies have indicated that many patients with high-functioning variants of ASD often stay unrecognized until late in adult life ,. For these reasons, a high rate of PDD-NOS among adult depressed patients with ASD presented as a clinical reality in the current study. From another viewpoint, it is important for clinicians to know that the major manifestation of comorbid autistic traits is usually mild and atypical but sometimes accompanies suicidal risk in real-world clinical settings. It was a striking result that all of the suicide attempters with ASD were diagnosed with PDD-NOS in the present study (Table 1). It is unclear why the "atypicality" of autistic traits contributes to the increased risk of suicide attempts. It is assumed that PDD-NOS individuals without awareness of the disorder or knowledge of the coping strategy may have been suffering from interpersonal problems, experience of isolation, and maladaptation to society for a long time since their childhood. This may lead to lowered self-esteem and failure in accessing support from others even after becoming adults . Cognitive inflexibility, emotional dysregulation ,, and difficulty in identifying distressed feelings may further provoke suicidal ideation or behaviors in these subjects. Thus, individuals with atypical and mild autistic traits paradoxically may be at higher risk for suicidality, which is exacerbated by the long-term preserved hopelessness and helplessness and the unresolved discrepancy between high demands for social adjustment and the low social and interpersonal skills. In the present study, agitation was the most significant contributor to suicidal attempts among all the depressed adults (Table 3), and its incidence was extremely high (89%) among ASD suicide attempters (Table 2). These results suggest that agitation is a potent promoter for suicidal action in individuals with ASD. Although there have been few studies directly focusing on the relationship between agitation and suicide in ASD, some studies showed that agitation was one of the important manifestations among ASD patients visiting emergency departments ,. Considering this fact together with the poor capability for cognitive and emotional control in ASD individuals ,, regular management and treatment of agitation may be important in reducing the potential risk of suicide attempts in ASD individuals. It is also important to advise that agitated ASD subjects with suicidal ideation are more prone to actually attempting or committing suicide. Few studies have focused on the difference in the methods of suicide attempts between ASD and non-ASD subjects although it represents another important aspect for the risk assessment of suicidality. Kato et al. suggested that individuals with ASD tended to choose more lethal methods because of their less active imagination and lower impulsive control than the general population . The same authors also demonstrated that suicide attempters with ASD required longer stays at the hospital or in intensive care as a result. In the present study, most of the non-ASD suicide attempters (59.1%) selected drug overdose as a less lethal and more uncertain suicide method (Figure 1). In contrast, almost a half of the ASD suicide attempters (44.4%) chose hanging, which has a higher lethality. Therefore, suicidality in depressed ASD patients should be considered cautiously from the aspect of frequency but also mortality. The present study has some limitations. First, due to the retrospective study design, we could not completely assess all the subjects because the collected data was incomplete. Therefore, future studies should employ a prospective study design. Second, our ASD subjects were diagnosed using the older classification according to the DSM-IV-TR due to the study period ranging from 2009 to 2012. Therefore, our results should be confirmed by future prospective studies using the newer DSM-5. Third, subjects were recruited from first-time visitors to our outpatient clinic in a typical clinical setting. Therefore, there was an apparent imbalance in the number of subjects between suicide attempters and non-attempters due to the naturalistic study design. In addition, it should be noted that the profiles of suicide attempters in the present study might have been different from those of more risky suicide attempters being treated in psychiatric emergency care. Fourth, we did not assess the severity of depression and intelligence by adequate assessment tools. The present study suggests that comorbid PDD-NOS, rather than atypical autistic traits, are an important risk factor for suicide attempts among adult depressed patients in an outpatient clinical setting. Agitation is a potent promoter for suicidal actions in individuals with ASD. These subjects may also use more lethal methods for their suicide attempts than those without ASD. 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Mazurek MO: Loneliness, friendship, and well-being in adults with autism spectrum disorders. Autism. 2014, 18: 223-232. 10.1177/1362361312474121. Rydén E, Bejerot S: Autism spectrum disorders in an adult psychiatric population. A naturalistic cross-sectional controlled study. Clin Neuropsychiatr. 2008, 5: 13-21. Semrud-Clikeman M, Walkowiak J, Wilkinson A, Butcher B: Executive functioning in children with Asperger syndrome, ADHD-combined type, ADHD-predominately inattentive type, and controls. J Autism Dev Disord. 2010, 40: 1017-1027. 10.1007/s10803-010-0951-9. Samson A, Huber O, Gross JJ: Emotion regulation in Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism. Emotion. 2012, 12 (4): 659-665. 10.1037/a0027975. Bradley E, Lofchy J: Learning disability in the accident and emergency department. Adv Psychiatr Treat. 2005, 11: 45-57. 10.1192/apt.11.1.45. McGonigle JJ, Venkat A, Beresford C, Campbell TP, Gabriels RL: Management of agitation in individuals with autism spectrum disorders in the emergency department. Child Adol Psychiatr Clin Nor Am. 2014, 23: 83-95. 10.1016/j.chc.2013.08.003. We are grateful to our patients and their parents for their voluntary participation in our study and warm collaboration with us. This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (25461736).

A system is a set of interacting or interdependent component parts forming a complex/intricate whole. Every system is delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, surrounded and influenced by its environment, described by its structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning. The term system may also refer to a set of rules that governs structure and/or behavior. Alternatively, and usually in the context of complex social systems, the term is used to describe the set of rules that govern structure and/or behavior. The term "system" comes from the Latin word systēma, in turn from Greekσύστημαsystēma: "whole compounded of several parts or members, system", literary "composition". "System" means "something to look at". You must have a very high visual gradient to have systematization. In philosophy, before Descartes, there was no "system". Plato had no "system". Aristotle had no "system". In the 19th century the French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, who studied thermodynamics, pioneered the development of the concept of a "system" in the natural sciences. In 1824 he studied the system which he called the working substance (typically a body of water vapor) in steam engines, in regards to the system's ability to do work when heat is applied to it. The working substance could be put in contact with either a boiler, a cold reservoir (a stream of cold water), or a piston (to which the working body could do work by pushing on it). In 1850, the German physicist Rudolf Clausius generalized this picture to include the concept of the surroundings and began to use the term "working body" when referring to the system. System programming requires a great degree of hardware awareness. Its goal is to achieve efficient use of available resources, either because the software itself is performance critical (AAA video games) or because even small efficiency improvements directly transform into significant monetary savings for the service provider (cloud based word processors). Cryptocurrencies can be a form of payment and a virtual accounting system due to encryption technology ... Carlossy Caterpillar was created to assist in the development of the blockchain system ... Solana's (SOL) blockchain, like many others, is protected by a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. “This is aligned with both the Ethereum Foundation’s and broader Ethereum community’s decision, achieved via social consensus, to upgrade the Ethereum blockchain to consensus.”. Ethereum is currently scheduled to merge to its new proof-of-stake system on September 19th.

Google’s long talked-about “mobile first” strategy is now rolling out in earnest. Here is a quote from the Google Webmaster Central Blog of Monday, March 26, 2018: The “primarily mobile” users referred to are the 56% of website visits from mobile devices as opposed to the 44% from desktop computers. How the breakdown between desktop and mobile is determined from the far end is somewhat hazy, especially with smaller screen laptops and “netbooks”. Nevertheless, with more than half of website visits now originating from devices other than desktop computers with large displays, Google has decided that how your site performs on what are referred to as “mobile devices” will ultimately determine your site’s ranking. CSS Is Not Enough Pretty clunky by today’s standards, but adequate 15 years ago. Newer versions of HTML and CSS introduced media queries to address this issue: These workarounds, old and newer, try to adjust the look of your site depending on the screen size on which it is being viewed. To really make your site viewable across all devices it must be “responsive”, that is it must respond to changes in screen size and even orientation. To attempt a responsive design usually means a complete site re-do. Early websites were considered amazing if they had some images and iframes. Then tables came into vogue for content layout. When web developers admitted that tables were meant for tabular data, not layout purposes it was all about div’s. Now grid layouts and columns are being used. It is not just the arrangement of the page elements that needs to be considered. Fonts and images need to be resized. Font colours and background colours need to be changed to higher contrast for readability in bright light conditions. Navigation items such as menus and links need to work on a touch screen. Most people, even those with development experience, throw up their hands and use a ready-made template. A Separate Mobile Site Is Apparently Not the Answer When smartphones were still in their infancy I taught a course on programming pocket PC’s. You may remember pocket PC’s as those devices with a delicate screen and a scratchy stylus. A common tactic back then if a user accessed your Internet site on their small-screen device was to redirect the user to an entirely different mobile “site” in a sub-folder of your main site when the small screen was detected. The mobile site was a stripped down version of the “real” site. The mobile site had less text and smaller graphics and was really just a way to keep a user engaged long enough for them to consider visiting your real site from a real computer. According to Search Engine Journal (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-mobile-first-indexing-what-it-is-how-you-can-prepare/212104/): "If you have a site configuration where the primary content and markup is different across mobile and desktop, you should consider making some changes to your site." Ironically, Google’s own “Basic principles” listed on their “Quality guidelines” article (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769#quality_guidelines) include the following: - Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. - Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. The constantly moving target that is Google Search Engine Optimization has spawned an entire industry devoted to promising top-of-the-first-results-page for less than the cost of Google Ad Words. Now it is also padding the retirement accounts of web developers able to deliver responsive design sites. This is not necessarily a bad thing – after all, I do web development myself. What does concern me is that “quality” thing. What Are Users Doing With Their Phones? Back in college, one of my professors said that computers were mostly used for “LUS” (Looking Up Shit). The same can be said for mobile devices. Phones are used to get directions, check store hours, scan QR codes, check the weather forecast, and a host of other simple actions that streamline the user’s day. Few users are going to stumble across a copy of “War and Peace” online and start reading it on their iPhone. SEO guru Neil Patel (https://neilpatel.com/blog/prepare-googles-mobile-first-algorithm/) offers some friendly advice for optimizing your site for mobile devices: “...reduce some of the burdens on the reader. A 3,000-word blog post looks great on a desktop. But it can be intimidating on a mobile device. Using short paragraphs to break up content will help...” Yes, the web is becoming “Twitterized”. The one-liner format is taking over. Resistance, it would appear, is futile. I am currently developing and maintaining a website for a local museum. The site is not “mobile-friendly” and will not be any time soon. The site contains lots of images, slideshows, and long articles that are just not going to work on a smartphone. We have made the decision to go with a separate mobile site that will contain quick lookup items such as hours, directions, upcoming event listings, self-guided walking tours and QR code lookups of information about local buildings. This decision will no doubt affect Google’s ranking of the museum’s site negatively. When the Internet first exploded it was considered essential to have a site – any site – to promote your organization. Comparisons were often made to having a Yellow Pages listing. As sites became more complex and included database connectivity, the much-touted educational potential of the Internet looked like it was becoming a reality. It would seem that the priority being given to small-screen mobile devices is turning back the clock. Find other ways to bring traffic to your site or start dumbing it down.

Persistent coughing, prolonged hoarseness, difficulty swallowing or unintended weight loss, each of these symptoms may be easily explained and treated. Or they may signal a more serious problem; all are common symptoms of esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer develops in the lining of the esophagus, a muscular tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. Approximately 8-10 inches long, the esophagus helps transport food from the mouth to the stomach for digestion. It keeps food from traveling down the windpipe, and when it reaches the stomach, it prevents acid and stomach contents from traveling backwards. Although the disease is considered rare, physicians are seeing an increase in the number of young men being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, according to Kenneth Meredith, MD, FACS, a UW Health surgeon with a special interest in treating gastrointestinal malignancies. According to Meredith, a surgical oncologist with UW Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, WI, the disease is often linked to lifestyle choices. Esophageal cancer patients frequently have a history of smoking or excess alcohol consumption. Alcohol combined with tobacco use increases the risk of esophageal cancer far more than either drinking or smoking alone. People who have been diagnosed with Barrett’s Esophagus, a pre-cancer condition related to prolonged acid reflux, are at particularly high risk. The most effective way to detect esophageal cancer is to recognize the symptoms and see your health care professional. The warning signs are: difficult or painful swallowing, unintended weight loss, chest pain, heartburn/indigestion, persistent coughing or prolonged hoarseness, and human papillomavirus (HPV).

It is a fact that the children learn so much in their childhood than being a grown-up man. Because childhood is the place where all the things have been started and at that stage, if the child learns good behaviour it will automatically reflect in their future image and will help them a lot. But nowadays everyone is busy most of the parents are working both father and children and hence the parents can’t give enough time to their children. And that is the worst thing because nobody knows what the child will learn when their parents aren’t home. That is why these Child Development Center [ศูนย์ พัฒนา เด็ก, which is the term in Thai] are there to help. They provide each and everything to a child that most of the parents can’t give to their children because of their job. They teach the children about good behaviour, manner and how to give respect to others. In simple words, they work on the all-round development of the character of the children. So, the children can get the benefit of it in the future. Is it a good decision to send children to the child development center Off-course it is because not every parent has the time because of the job. And the parents are earning only for their children to give them a better future. Then, if the parents don’t have time due to the job, just send their children to a good child development center. Where they work on every aspect of the children to become a good human. And the parents will also get the result of their children, and it’s called Development Assessment Form [แบบ ประเมิน พัฒนาการ, which is the term in Thai] to check the regular progress of their children.

The willow is a lunar herb herbs and symbolism The crowning of great persons with a wreath of laurel is thus a fitting ritual, symbolizing the unfoldment of their Inner Light, while the wreath, analogous to a halo, displays their inner virtue. Artists also used a laurel wreath as a symbolic device to depict a great man, such as Botticelli's portrayal of the poet Dante. The word bachelor, as an award of higher education (L. e= out + ducare = to lead), derives from the Latin, bacca laurus, meaning the fruits of the laurel. Thus after several years discipline, the student who had unfolded the Inner Light and was able to "draw forth" wisdom, was awarded a bachelorship in recognition of this inner attainment. The graduate had truly earned the fruits of the laurel. The idea that the bay standing next to the house brings good luck stems from the belief that the inner solar virtue dispels the darkness of malevolent influences, traditionally ruled by Saturn. In symbolic terms, the principle of light overcomes the lord of darkness. Thus in Culpeper, bay is said to be the tree that "resisteth witchcraft very potently, as also all the evils old Saturn can do to the body, and they are not a few". Thus the laurel outside the home stands as a faithful guardian, keeping any malevolent influences - literally - at bay! To cut the tree down would destroy this benign protection, hence invite misfortune to befall the home. The act of cutting it down also symbolizes the dissociation of a person from the soul, and the denial of the Inner Light. A person who does not act from the clarity of the heart soon falls into obstruction and difficulties. The Power of Insight It was by visualizing the inner virtues of plants that physicians worked out their medicinal uses. The willow (Salix alba) provides a particularly clear illustration of how this was done. Culpeper cryptically mentions that the Moon owns it. Once again, the Lunar rulership can be traced back to classical Greek times when the willow was sacred to . . . Hecate, Circe, Hera and Persephone, all Death aspects of the Triple Moon-goddess6 and was found growing in the temple confines dedicated to lunar goddesses. The Lunar virtue of the tree is shown by its love for water as the moon traditionally rules the water element. A fact powerfully evidenced by the Moon's influence upon the oceans and tides. This association is shown by willow growing next to streams, rivers and lakes while its leaves also have a silvery lustre. Silver is both the colour and the metal traditionally ruled by the Moon. MediŠval physiology is also based upon this symbolic perspective, so the external form and structure of the body is closely observed to reveal its inner virtue or vital force7. For example, when a person had a fever or if the joints became swollen and painful, this was visualized in mediaeval physiology as a fire burning inside the body. Indeed, the medical word for fever, pyrexia, comes from the Greek word pyros meaning fire, while the word inflammation comes from the Latin inflammare meaning to flame within. Just as water extinguishes fire, so Lunar herbs with their affinity with the water element, were used to extinguish the fire in the body. This is confirmed by the willow having an ancient reputation for allaying fever. The validity of these ancient ideas is confirmed by modern pharmacology, for the main active constituent is salicylic acid, which in a slightly different form is more commonly known as the drug aspirin. Among a range of pharmacological actions, salicylic acid powerfully reduces the body temperature by increasing sweating. Thus, the water of the sweat puts out the fire in the body. The name salicylic acid derives from the generic name of the tree Salix. In turn, the tree's Latin name is derived from the Celtic sal meaning "water" and lis "near" alluding to its natural habitat. Salix is also linked to the Greek name of the tree Helix, which also gave rise to the word Helicon, the mountain abode of the nine muses, priestesses of the moon-goddess8. Interestingly, the name of the chemical still echoes the lunar associations of the tree and its "watery" effects on the body. Rational thought, in its pursuit of objective knowledge, frequently denies the validity of subjective perception. Its reductionist methodology has largely supplanted the symbolic perspective to Western culture. As a result, the material world is predominantly perceived as existing in its own right, dissociated from the person observing it. Against these powerful changes to our perception brought about by our scientific age, herbal lore has become very difficult to understand, however, to learn how to see plants symbolically is to catch sight of the profound knowledge of the ancient herbalists.

Finding repair service for any high-tech product can be tough. Without being very knowledgeable as to the workings, mechanical parts or electrical functions of items like security cameras leaves consumers blind as to costs and fees, as well as to the actual need to service equipment. Many individuals have experienced feelings of uncertainty when it comes to servicing or repairing automobiles or computers, but have been able to address their lack of information by availing themselves of the absolute wealth of knowledge on these subjects available in books and on the internet, usually for free or little cost. When it comes to something as specific as security cameras, particularly specific brands of security cameras which may not adhere to industry standards, consumers may balk at knowing where to find security camera repair services in Atlanta, Georgia, or many other locales. Knowing something about the security industry and the various security camera products available can help, as can investigating a variety of options before ever making a choice, and spending hard-earned money on security camera repairs. Whether they know it or not, almost every person has been taken advantage of in the past when it comes to shopping for goods and services, and shopping for repairs to security cameras is in no way exempt from unscrupulous individuals. Many business persons can spot an uninformed consumer coming a mile away, and are quick to seize upon opportunities to over-charge for services, sell unnecessary goods or to simply invent costs and charges for work that is never performed and never needed. A great deal of trust goes in to making any purchase or paying for repairs to costly equipment, and great care should be taken to inquire as to the reputation and quality of customer service and workmanship available at businesses providing these valuable services. Paying more than is needed is never a great idea, and in tough economic times, all shoppers are interested in saving money for more important needs. Security cameras are a very niche item, and as such, not many individuals outside of the security equipment industry know much as to their workings, parts and maintenance or repair needs. Any time consumers remain ignorant as to such things, opportunities exist for their needs to be taken advantage of, and for them to receive something less than the best value for their money. In this light, it can be very worthwhile to study and learn as much as possible about security cameras and other security equipment before shopping for potentially costly repair service providers. Finding this information can be more difficult than learning about automotive repairs and maintenance, and some shoppers may wish to contact the manufacturers of their security cameras. The product manufacturers should be willing and able to offer some education as the parts, functioning and maintenance needs of their products, and may even be able to offer some suggestions as to where to find security camera repair services in Atlanta. Taking the time to learn more about security cameras will help save money and allay worries and consternation in the event of required repairs to equipment. Reputation and longevity are two of the greatest advantages that businesses should seek, regardless of their industry, and the security camera industry is no different. Most shoppers will feel far more secure in dealing with a long-standing business with a great reputation, rather than spending money on the services provided by a relatively unknown business. One of the greatest opportunities afforded to shoppers by the internet is the ability to avail themselves of online reviews and business information, much of which is provided by experienced shoppers who have had repairs performed by the service providers in question. Taking the time to search for, read about, and talk to previous customers of any business offering maintenance and repairs to costly, complicated high-tech equipment can pay off in the long run, and help smart shoppers to identify their very best options for where to find security camera repair services in Atlanta . Sometimes, taking the time to visit and speak with local law enforcement professionals can open great windows in to the character and quality of services on offer at local security businesses. Another opportunity for finding quality repair providers is to locate and deal with a business that may be out of the immediate area, but which maintains an authoritative online presence. Many businesses all over the world offer their services to far-flung consumers, and may even present the best value for dollars spent on repairs or the purchase of new products. Smaller businesses providing security camera repairs may even operate without the costly overhead of a traditional retailer with a physical storefront, and are poised to pass their savings on to consumers in the form of lower rates and prices, improved customer service and accessibility, and might even be able to offer deals on shipping of goods to and from their locations. Investigating online resources when looking in to where to find security camera repair services in Atlanta may just prove less expensive than a visit paid to local retailers maintaining costly physical storefronts. No consumer wishes to pay for parts and labor on top of a business owner’s lease, electric bill or FICA costs, and great deals can be had shopping online. In some cases, repairs to out-dated equipment may prove more costly and less effective, in terms of providing security to a home or business, than purchasing brand new and significantly advanced security cameras, systems, equipment and service contracts. Vast improvements have been made in the security equipment and technology industries, and whereas many older security cameras provided grainy, hard-to-see images, and were subject to many flaws and faults, new high-tech security cameras and equipment have improved by leaps and bounds. Today, security cameras exist that are smaller than any product ever seen before, easily hidden and undetectable to any but the most critical eyes. Being able to hide security cameras in plain sight offers a great many advantages over earlier, bulkier models, and often capture video of crimes and inappropriate deeds that, had the perpetrators been aware of the cameras, would have been missed or lost. Many businesses and home owners today hide very small security cameras where they will not or can not be noticed, and rest a little easier knowing that their home or business is being monitored effectively. Simple electrical problems, or expected wear & tear on securiyt cameras and other electrical devices can sometimes be addressed by individuals working in similar skilled professions. The differences between a security camera and a hand-held video camera are minor, and many electricians or even electrical enthusiasts have a great deal of knowledge and experience relevant to performing security camera repairs. Sometimes, simply knowing a person skilled with a soldering iron and possessing a basic knowledge of electronics is sufficient to completing repairs quickly and inexpensively. Appliance repair businesses and professionals work on a huge array of different devices and appliances, and for true craftsmen, there may even be an element of excitement when faced with the prospect of working on unfamiliar electrical equipment. One of the downsides to choosing repair services from an individual or business that is not familiar with security cameras and security equipment may be further damage to the item, even to such a degree as to render it unusable, or just more costly to repair completely. While one’s aunt or cousin may, in fact, be quite handy with a soldering iron, entrusting prized and expensive electrical equipment to their tender mercies may not always be the wisest of choices. Most individuals simply have not ever worked on security cameras before, and when faced with a choice, where to find security camera repair services in Atlanta should exclude back alley electrical surgeons. Choosing a skilled, professional and established repair service provider is always the safest bet, both for the wallet and for the longevity and long-term functioning of the equipment being repaired. Just as none of us would entrust our valuable automobiles to just some person with a wrench and nothing to do today, we should be as equally discerning when it comes to finding a security camera repair business. Taking the time to learn about the equipment, even going so far as to contact the manufacturer, can save a great deal of money, and keep shoppers from being abused by unethical business owners. Talking to knowledgeable persons in one’s respective community can pay dividends, and local law enforcement professionals may be able and willing to offer some great advice on local security equipment businesses, and recommend one or more that are not only able to make repairs to security cameras, but who are possessed of good ethics and morals, and will not seek to cheat shoppers. Looking in to online opportunities can be wise, and the savings these businesses enjoy by never needing to pay for costly overhead expenses can be passed on to consumers. Finally, repairs to costly electronics should only ever be entrusted to individuals with the skills, knowledge, tools and reputation necessary to not only complete the job at hand, but to do so courteously, and in such a way as to leave shoppers happy and satisfied with their purchases. Checking in to all of these opportunities to educate and inform consumers can only result in savings and satisfaction, and the time spent learning more about electrical equipment and security will prove invaluable and interesting to shoppers and security professionals alike in the long run. Start shopping today, and learn where to find security camera repair services in Atlanta with these fun, easy steps and suggestions.

A recent paper with an innocent sounding title is probably the biggest news in neural networks since the invention of the backpropagation algorithm. But what exactly does it all mean? A recent paper "Intriguing properties of neural networks" by Christian Szegedy, Wojciech Zaremba, Ilya Sutskever, Joan Bruna, Dumitru Erhan, Ian Goodfellow and Rob Fergus, a team that includes authors from Google's deep learning research project outlines two pieces of news about the way neural networks behave that run counter to what we believed - and one of them is frankly astonishing. I'm going to tell you about both, but it is the second that is the most amazing. So if you are in a hurry skip down the page. The first concerns the way that we had long assumed that neural networks organized data. In a multi-layer network it has long been thought that neurons in each level learned useful features for the next level. At the very least it was supposed that in the last layer each neuron would learn some significant and usually meaningful feature. The standard way of finding out if this is the case is to take a particular neuron and find the set of inputs that makes it produce a maximal output. Whatever it is that maximizes the neuron's output is assumed to be the feature that it responds to. For example, in a face recognizer a neuron might respond strongly to an image that has an eye or a nose - but notice there is no reason that the features should correspond to the neat labels that humans use. What has been discovered is that a single neuron's feature is no more interpretable as a meaningful feature than a random set of neurons. That is, if you pick a random set of neurons and find the images that produce the maximum output on the set then these images are just as semantically similar as in the single neuron case. This means that neural networks do not "unscramble" the data by mapping features to individual neurons in say the final layer. The information that the network extracts is just as much distributed across all of the neurons as it is localized in a single neuron. This is an interesting finding and it leads on to the second and even more remarkable finding.. Every deep neural network has "blind spots" in the sense that there are inputs that are very close to correctly classified examples that are misclassified. Since the very start of neural network research it has been assumed that networks had the power to generalize. That is, if you train a network to recognize a cat using a particular set of cat photos the network will, as long as it has been trained properly, have the ability to recognize a cat photo it hasn't seen before. Within this assumption has been the even more "obvious" assumption that if the network correctly classifies the photo of a cat as a cat then it will correctly classify a slightly perturbed version of the same photo as a cat. To create the slightly perturbed version you would simply modify each pixel value, and as long as the amount was small, then the cat photo would look exactly the same to a human - and presumably to a neural network. However, this isn't true. What the researchers did was to invent an optimization algorithm that starts from a correctly classified example and tries to find a small perturbation in the pixel values that drives the output of the network to another classification. Of course, there is no guarantee that such a perturbed incorrect version of the image exists - and if the continuity assumption mentioned earlier applied the search would fail. However the search succeeds. For a range of different neural networks and data sets it has proved very possible to find such "adversarial examples" from correctly classified data. To quote the paper: "For all the networks we studied, for each sample, we always manage to generate very close, visually indistinguishable, adversarial examples that are misclassified by the original network." To be clear, the adversarial examples looked to a human like the original, but the network misclassified them. You can have two photos that look not only like a cat but the same cat, indeed the same photo, to a human, but the machine gets one right and the other wrong. The images to the right are correctly classified the ones to the far left are misclassified and the middle column gives the differences multiplied by ten to make them visible. In the left-hand panel, the odd columns are correctly classified and the even columns are misclassified In the case of the right-hand panel everything is correctly classified and the even columns are random distortions of the originals. This demonstrates that the distortion has to be very specific - you have to move in a very specific direction to find an adversarial example. What is even more shocking is that the adversarial examples seem to have some sort of universality. That is a large fraction were misclassified by different network architectures trained on the same data and by networks trained on a different data set. "The above observations suggest that adversarial examples are somewhat universal and not just the results of overfitting to a particular model or to the specific selection of the training set" This is perhaps the most remarkable part of the result. Right next to every correctly classified example there is an effectively indistinguishable example that is misclassified, no matter what network or training set was used. So if you have a photo of a cat there is a set of small changes that can be made to it that makes the network classify it as a dog - irrespective of the network or its training. What does this all mean? The researchers take a positive approach and use the adversarial examples to train the network to get it right. They regard the adversarial examples as particularly tough training cases that can be used to improve the network and its generalization. However, the discovery seems to be more than just a better training set. The first thing to say is you might be thinking "so what if a cat photo that is clearly a photo a cat is recognized as a dog?" If you change the situation just a little and ask what does it matter if a self-driving car that uses a deep neural network misclassifies a view of a pedestrian standing in front of the car as a clear road? The continuity and stability of deep neural networks matters for their practical application. There is also the philosophical question raised by these blind spots. If a deep neural network is biologically inspired we can ask the question, does the same result apply to biological networks. Put more bluntly "does the human brain have similar built-in errors?" If it doesn't, how is it so different from the neural networks that are trying to mimic it? In short, what is the brain's secret that makes it stable and continuous? One possible explanation is that this is another manifestation of the curse of dimensionality. As the dimension of a space increases it is well known that the volume of a hypersphere becomes increasingly concentrated at its surface. (The volume that is not near the surface drops exponentially with increasing dimension.) Given that the decision boundaries of a deep neural network are in a very high dimensional space it seems reasonable that most correctly classified examples are going to be close to the decision boundary - hence the ability to find a misclassified example close to the correct one, you simply have to work out the direction to the closest boundary. If this is part of the explanation, then it is clear that even the human brain cannot avoid the effect and must somehow cope with it; otherwise cats would morph into dogs with an alarming regularity. The bottom line is that deep neural networks do not seem to be continuous with respect to the decisions they make and exhibit a new sort of instability. Rather than patch things up with adversarial training cases, research is needed to explore and eliminate the problem. Until this happens you cannot rely on a neural network in any safety critical system..

There is little doubt that 21st century technology has offered most of us advantages over those of the past. We are able to transport ourselves with little effort, feed ourselves with little strife, and communicate with the same degree of ease. Simple chores, such as laundering our clothes and cleaning our homes are no longer grueling; all easily accomplished using modern day conveniences. However, hard as we try, when it comes to producing exquisite images… Mother Nature still out does even the most up to date cameras. And though we have come a long way from the first image makers, earth’s natural splendor from the beginning of time is still superlative. Her winter vistas produce the most daunting of black and whites while springtime, autumn, and summer test the boundaries of original colors beyond any means we can imagine. Alas, with her infinite array of vistas and spectacles, we are only privy to her delights for a wink of time. Like a lovely dream we try to remember, so are her dawns, her sunsets, her sun showers so very elegant. All she asks of us is to indulge in these fleeting moments and then… sigh; for no modern trick nor gimmick can hope to offer such a grand performance as hers. Today’s blog returns the esteemed thinker: Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946 b. Hoboken, New Jersey.), the innovative photographer and art promoter who received his formal education in engineering in Germany. Upon his return to the New York City in 1890, he set his sights on establishing photography as a “legitimate” form of art. In his early career he began to promote photograph as ‘art’, comparing his use of the camera as a tool to an artist and his/her paintbrush. Stieglitz’s artistic and creative talents harnessed the use of natural elements, such a weather, to create effects he wished to achieve and the camera’s focusing abilities to soften the frames. In 1905, he founded the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York, with Edward Steichen, which later became known simply as ‘291’. Here he succeeded to elevate photography to the status of sculpture and painting. In 1917, he met the much younger American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, who became his lover and finally his wife in 1924. Over a period of 20 years, he had taken over 300 individual pictures of her, demonstrating his unique and undeniable artistic ability to capture many facets of a single subject.

17 Dec 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Massage Therapy 1. Massage therapy is an $18 billion industry. Yes, you read that right. According to the American Massage Therapy Association along with other statistics, in 2018 the massage therapy industry was valued at over $18 billion! This is up from $12 billion in 2010. It has grown over $6 billion in just 8 years and is continuing to grow, meaning more massages at competitive pricing and job security for massage therapists. 2. Pets can benefit from massages too. You thought massages were just for people? Well, guess again! Studies have shown that pets can benefit from receiving massages as well. Just like humans, our pets’ bodies respond to massage in a positive way. Pet massages can reduce pain and stress as well as increasing emotional well-being. We love our pets and want them to be happy and healthy, so why not try pet massage? 3. Receiving a massage while drunk will make you even more drunk. Disclaimer: This is not recommended. While it may sound quite relaxing to have a glass of wine (or two) and then a massage, most massage therapists don’t condone drinking before massaging. Why is that? Well, massages boost the body’s circulation and if there is alcohol in the body it will circulate faster and stay longer in the blood stream. Yes, this might sound like a great idea to some of you, but what this can really mean is cancelling out the positive effects of a massage. It can also bring about numbed senses and an intensified hangover. Still sound like a good idea? We didn’t think so. 4. Cactus massage – it’s a thing. Most of you are probably thinking “that doesn’t sound relaxing in the slightest”. However, a cactus massage treatment is said to be detoxifying and hydrates the skin. Many people enjoy the benefits and even find it relaxing. According to those who have received a cactus massage, the treatment doesn’t hurt at all, though many people still steer clear. If you are looking to try something different in the way of massage, then cactus massage might be your thing! 5. Massage robots – the next big thing in massage therapy? The first massage robot, named Emma, was introduced to the industry in Singapore in 2016. She was designed to mimic the techniques used by human massage therapists to treat patients. With the massage therapy industry growing so rapidly and the demand for massage so high, it can be hard for therapists to keep up. That’s where massage robots come in. Could it be the future of massage therapy or will human therapists always be in demand? 6. Virtual reality massage is now an actual reality. When people hear about virtual reality massages, they may be a bit confused. Virtual reality massage does not mean that the massage is done in virtual reality, but that the person receiving a massage is able to be transported to a beautiful white sand beach or in the middle of a beautiful rain forest via the VR headset. The only thing better than a relaxing massage is a relaxing massage in a beautiful place surrounded by nature. Well, now VR can make that possible. 7. Julius Cesar used massage to help his epilepsy. That’s right. Massage therapy is that old. Julius Cesar suffered from epileptic seizures throughout his life and used massage therapy to help keep it under control. Don’t believe us? Look it up! 8. An hour-long massage is about the equivalent of 7-8 hours of sleep for your body. Didn’t get enough sleep last night? Is your body exhausted? Well, a 60-minute massage might just be what the doctor ordered. Our bodies need sleep and relaxation. They do so much for us all day, every day. What better way to repay it than by receiving a massage? Studies have shown that when you receive an hour-long massage, it equates to around 7-8 hours of sleep for your body. So if you are feeling run-down and exhausted, perhaps your body is requesting a massage. 9. Massage therapy may be one of the oldest forms of medical treatment. Massage therapy has been utilized for centuries as a form of medical care. There are pictures in the Egyptian tombs of people receiving massage. This dates to the years of BC and it is still around today. 10. There are around 75 common massage modalities used today. If you thought massage was all the same, think again! There are over 350 different modalities in massage therapy and 75 of them are commonly used. Depending on the ailment, a massage therapist can choose from many different types of bodywork to treat a client.

GMT symbols for Whale-watchers and marine biologists¶ This is a collection of custom symbols for the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) software that may be of interest mainly to whale-watchers or whale researchers. With this, you can show your data in a map created with GMT as fine and detailed marine mammal’s icons instead the usual circles or squares. GMT is a very complete GIS software so you could add also bathymetric and coastal lines, the locations of the main cities and ports in your area, or other useful data like plankton concentration or water temperatures in your map. The collection currently comprises symbols for 8 species of Baleen Whales, 16 of Toothed Whales, 2 species of seals and 4 more for “unidentified” seals, beaked whales, dolphins or whales. Several versions (low/normal/high) of most symbols are also available, and you can change easily between color or gray symbols in 57 of the 90 symbols provided, therefore you can choose really between more than 150 different symbols. How to use the symbols?¶ Before to start, think in the type of map you want to obtain and prepare your data. If you want to create a 2D map (most common situation) you need plot, if you want a 3D map you should use plot3d instead. Think also in how many different symbols you want to show in each individual map. You should have at least a different .xy file for each species that you want to show. You could want also to show separately males and females or adults/youngs/calfs. In this case, you will either need to give a different size to each group or place the data for each group in a different .xy (or .xyz) file and provide different symbols. A valid input datafile.xy is simply a text file containing several lines like this: #common dolphin data, file: cdolphin.xy #longitude latitude (symbolsize) (symboltype) (...others) -5:40:44 30:30:01 0.10 k 6:45.70 -43 0.12 k 355.707 42.7543 0.17 k ... plot can deal with several lon/lat formats. All of this are accepted. The symbolsize field is optional, but if not provided you must specify a common size (used for all observations in this file) in the script with -Sksymbolname/simbolsize The symboltype field is also optional, k means custom symbol. Currently I can’t pass different symbols to plot in the same file (I need split first the file) and must provide a unique symbolname in the script for all lines, so the interest of having this field is reduced. Probably I’m missing something. You can also add other fields like font, angle, position or a last field with a short remembering note in a text line, they are ignored by plot but you could pass it to text. Take a look at the pics (.png) and choose the symbols that you want. No installation needed, simply browse the directory symbols and copy the files with extension .def having the same name as the desired pic to your working directory. This is the list of symbols available: English name (scientific name) - symbols available - Toothed Whales, SubO. Odontoceti - Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - ddelphis_low.def - ddelphis_midlow.def - ddelphis.def - ddelphis_midhigh.def - ddelphis_high.def - Stripped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) - stripped_low.def, stripped.def, stripped_high.def - Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) - bottlenose_low.def, bottlenose.def, bottlenose_high.def - Atlantic White-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) - atlanticwhitesided_low.def, atlanticwhitesided.def, atlanticwhitesided_high.def - Killer whale (Orcinus orca) - killerwhale_low.def, killerwhale.def, killerwhale_high.def - Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) - rissosdolphin_low.def, rissosdolphin.def, rissosdolphin_high.def - Short-Finned Pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) - shortfinnnedpilotwhale_low.def, shortfinnnedpilotwhale.def - shortfinnnedpilotwhale_low.def - Long-Finned Pilot whale (Globicephala melaena) - longfinnedpilotwhale_low.def, longfinnedpilotwhale.def - longfinnedpilotwhale_low.def - Southern Rightwhale Dolphin (Lagenodelphis peronii) - srightwhaledolphin_low.def, srightwhaledolphin.def - Common porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) - commonporpoise_low.def, commonporpoise.def, commonporpoise_high.def - Burmeister’s porpoise (Phocoena spinipinnis) - burmeistersporpoise_low.def, burmeistersporpoise.def, burmeistersporpoise_high.def - Spectacled porpoise (Australophocaena dioptrica) - spectacledporpoise_low.def, spectacledporpoise.def, spectacledporpoise_high.def - Beluga (Delphinaterus leucas) - beluga_low.def, beluga.def, beluga_high.def - Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) - cuviersbeaked_low.def, cuviersbeaked.def, cuviersbeaked_high.def - Unidentified beaked whale (Mesoplodon spp.) - unidentifiedbeakedwhale_low.def, unidentifiedbeakedwhale.def, unidentifiedbeakedwhale_high.def - Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - spermwhale_low.def, spermwhale.def, spermwhale_high.def - spermwhaletail_low.def, spermwhaletail.def, spermwhaletail_high.def - Pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) - pigmyspermwhale_low.def, pigmyspermwhale.def, pigmyspermwhale_high.def - A dolphin (gen. unknown) - unidentifieddolphin_low.def, unidentifieddolphin.def, unidentifieddolphin_high.def - Baleen Whales, SubO. Misticeti: - Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) - minkewhale.def, minkewhale_low.def, minkewhale_high.def - Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) - finwhale.def, finwhale_low.def, finwhale_high.def - Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis) - seiwhale_low.def, seiwhale.def, seiwhale_high.def - Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) - humpbacktail_one_low.def, humpbacktail_one.def - humpbacktail_two_low.def, humpbacktail_two.def - jumpback_low.def (yes, with j, look at the pic ;-)) - jumpback.def, jumpback_high.def - Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) - graywhale_low.def, graywhale.def, graywhale_high.def - Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis, Eubalaena australis) - southernrightwhale_low.def, southernrightwhale.def, southernrightwhale_high.def - northernrightwhale_low.def, northernrightwhale.def, northernrightwhale_high.def - A whale (unknown species) - unidentifiedwhale_low.def, unidentifiedwhale.def, unidentifiedwhale_high.def In your script you’ll need to reduce the normal size of the symbols. A range of sizes between 0.12 and 0.18, (rarely more than 0.2) should be OK. Some symbols are a little bigger than others, so play with the size in the script until you obtain the right for you. Remember that you can easily modify the size of the symbol directly in your GMT script (-Skoorca/0.8 -Skoorca/0.2) or in your file xy. I recommend to use different sizes for males, females and calfs. I don’t want color symbols!¶ You can easily obtain the same symbol in graytones editing the def file with your favourite text editor. Follow the instructions you will find inside the .def files. Some symbols like the killerwhale have only a b/w version for obvious reasons. How can I change the colour of the symbols?¶ The colour of each area is specified inside the def file, so you can’t simply specify a colour directly in your GMT script or you will obtain strange results. You should open and edit the -W and -G in the def file. After editing the def file I obtain strange polygonal patches instead the desired symbol but all points are the same than in the original .def! Check that you don’t have deleted the pt specification in a line with -W. This (-W100) is erroneous, (width line 100 pt) while this (-W025.pt/100) is ok. Why they are so may similar symbols low, high, etc… for the same species?¶ Sometimes some symbols will overlap severely with their neighbors. Specially with the most common species like Delphinus dolphins. I think that this looks ugly, so you will obtain a nicer map if you use a little more tall or short symbol for these specific animals. Try with the different versions of the same symbol until you obtain a satisfactory presentation. Remember that you must place this problematic specimens in a different xy file first. The representation of multiple strandings or sightings in the same point can be also problematic and sometimes you will need to obtain more complex symbols to show a multiple and heterogeneous stranding, for instance a mother/calf stranding or two different species sighted in exactly the same point. You can deal with those cases if you stack several low/high symbols until you obtain the complex symbol desired. You will need duplicate or triplicate the plot lines in the script and perhaps play also with the size and color of the symbols. For instance if you see a killer whale harassing two dolphins and you want to show all in the same map:plot a_killer_whale_data.xy -Skkillerwhale_high/0.8 … etc plot a_common_dolphin_mother_data.xy -Skcommondolphin_midlow/0.7 … etc plot and_its_calf_data.xy -Skcommondolphin_low/0.3 … etc For a better result place the lines calling the taller symbols first and the shorter symbols at the end. Where fall the real coordinates in the figure?¶ In the small black circle below the symbol. I think is more precise this way so probably most if not all symbols in the future will have a line and a small circle in the 0,0 point.

People in helping professions often struggle with secondary trauma (also known as vicarious trauma). This happens when a person becomes overwhelmed by continuous exposure to other people’s trauma. Social workers, law enforcement officers, counselors, first responders, and others can be at risk. Symptoms vary, but can lead to professional burn out, unhealthy coping strategies (like substance abuse) and family or relationship problems. Help is available and healthy coping strategies can help prevent problems.

Cervical spinal stenosis is a medical condition caused by the narrowing of the spinal canal, possibly leading to the compression of the spinal cord or other nerve roots . Surgical options include an anterior approach involving decompression and fusion or a posterior approach involving laminectomy and fusion or laminoplasty. Laminoplasty, considered an alternative to laminectomy, is a procedure intended to relieve pressure on the spinal cord while maintaining the stabilizing effects of the posterior elements of the vertebrae.

Electrophysiological modeling of cardiac tissue is commonly based on functional and structural properties measured in experiments. Our knowledge of these properties is incomplete, in particular their remodeling in disease. Here, we introduce a methodology for quantitative tissue characterization based on fluorescent labeling, three-dimensional scanning confocal microscopy, image processing and reconstruction of tissue micro-structure at sub-micrometer resolution. We applied this methodology to normal rabbit ventricular tissue and tissue from hearts with myocardial infarction. Our analysis revealed that the volume fraction of fibroblasts increased from 4.830.42% (meanstandard deviation) in normal tissue up to 6.510.38% in myocardium from infarcted hearts. The myocyte volume fraction decreased from 76.209.89% in normal to 73.488.02% adjacent to the infarct. Numerical field calculations on three-dimensional reconstructions of the extracellular space yielded an extracellular longitudinal conductivity of 0.2640.082 S/m with an anisotropy ratio of 2.0951.11 in normal tissue. Adjacent to the infarct, the longitudinal conductivity increased up to 0.4000.051 S/m, but the anisotropy ratio decreased to 1.2950.09. Our study indicates an increased density of gap junctions proximal to both fibroblasts and myocytes in infarcted versus normal tissue, supporting previous hypotheses of electrical coupling of fibroblasts and myocytes in infarcted hearts. We suggest that the presented methodology provides an important contribution to modeling normal and diseased tissue. Applications of the methodology include the clinical characterization of disease-associated remodeling. 1. Various types of heart disease are associated with structural remodeling of cardiac cells. In this work, we present a software framework for automated analyses of structures and protein distributions involved in excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle cells (myocytes). The software framework was designed for processing sets of three-dimensional image stacks, which were created by fluorescent labeling and scanning confocal microscopy of ventricular myocytes from a rabbit infarction model. Design of the software framework reflected the large data volume of image stacks and their large number by selection of efficient and automated methods of digital image processing. Specifically, we selected methods with small user interaction and automated parameter identification by analysis of image stacks. We applied the software framework to exemplary data yielding quantitative information on the arrangement of cell membrane (sarcolemma), the density of ryanodine receptor clusters and their distance to the sarcolemma. We suggest that the presented software framework can be used to automatically quantify various aspects of cellular remodeling, which will provide insights in basic mechanisms of heart diseases and their modeling using computational approaches. Further applications of the developed approaches include clinical cardiological diagnosis and therapy planning.

If using cocoa nibs in the mash, you should crush the nibs as you would crush your grains and add them in with the rest of your grain bill. Adding to the nibs to the mash will extract a more bitter dark chocolate flavor which is preferred in more robust stouts and porters. To roast cacao nibs , pre-heat your oven to 300 F. Spread the nibs out on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes (check them at 12 minutes and stir to ensure that the smallest pieces are not burning). Take them out of the oven when they start to smell like baked brownies. Cacao nibs are great because they can be eaten in so many ways. The easiest way to eat them is straight from the bag, as they are. If you want to make this snack a little more exciting, you can add the cacao nibs to your favorite trail mix as a substitute for chocolate. Cacao nibs are a highly nutritious chocolate product made from crushed cocoa beans. They’re exceptionally rich in antioxidants that help reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. Cocoa products like cacao nibs have been linked to reduced heart disease and diabetes risk, as well as other health benefits. Instructions: Place ground cacao nibs in a french press and pour boiling water over them. Allow to steep for five minutes, then press the plunger down slowly. Pour into a mug and sweeten as desired. Flavored beers can be made a bunch of different ways. You can add herbs, spices, or flavorings before or after the boil, for example. Seeds and roots would usually be added before the boil; herbs would usually be added after. I would probably add fruit after but this is something that folks could argue about forever. However, just 28 grams of nibs added to your morning breakfast provides you with nearly a third of your daily recommended intake. Copper and iron are needed to produce red blood cells, which supply the body with oxygen. Some manufacturers sell their cacao nibs already roasted or toasted, so be sure to buy ones that aren’t — toasting them yourself ensures the freshest, nuttiest flavor. If you see any signs of rot or mold, or if the cacao nibs have a strange aroma, you should discard them. For example, unroasted cacao contains caffeine and theobromine, which are stimulants. Some studies indicate that theobromine may help with coughs – although this is medicinal theobromine. Theobromine-enriched cocoa also impacts blood pressure. Eating raw cacao in excess could be dangerous. “Contrary to popular opinion, cacao is a poor source of caffeine . A typical sample of cacao nibs or cacao beans will yield anywhere from zero caffeine to 1,000 parts per million of caffeine (less than 1/20th of the caffeine present in coffee). Since cacao nibs are the whole form of cacao powder , you can make them into cacao powder simply by grinding them. This can be done with a food processor or a coffee grinder. Cacao nibs contain many antioxidants. These antioxidants can help reduce cell damage in your body, which helps prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and cancer. Cacao is higher in protein, fibre, magnesium and iron. Cocoa powder without added sugar is still high in nutrition and is a more affordable option. Gram per gram cacao is more nutritious. However when you factor in that cocoa is far cheaper it means that per dollar cocoa is the better choice if budget is an issue. While they’re a crucial step in the chocolate-making process, cacao nibs (sometimes called cocoa nibs ) are now being sold on their own as a stand-alone item in specialty markets. Once cacao beans are picked and roasted, they’re separated from their husks, then broken into pieces. These are cocoa nibs .

Time for some more philosophy! After providing trauma care for decades, one begins to see the common threads and underlying principles of their area of expertise. I’ve been trying to crystallize these for years, and today I’m going to share one of the most basic laws of trauma care. The First Law of Trauma: Any anomaly in your trauma patient is due to trauma, no matter how unlikely it may seem. - An elderly patient who crashes his car and presents with arrhythmias and chest pain is not having a heart attack. Nor does he need a cardiologist or a trip to the cath lab. - A spot in the liver after blunt trauma is not a cyst or hemangioma; it is a laceration until proven otherwise. - A patient found at the bottom of a flight of stairs with blood in their head did not have a stroke and then fall down. Bottom line: The possibility of trauma always comes first! It is your job to rule it out. Only consider non-traumatic problems as a last resort. Don’t let your non-trauma colleagues try to steer you down the wrong path, only to have your patient suffer.

The stark increase in youth underemployment rates in the Hunter Region when compared to the national average highlights the need to develop pathways to provide experience, skill building opportunities, and vocational education and training to improve access to employment opportunities. The circular economy provides us with an opportunity to rethink how we approach our future in relation to sustainability, community well-being, economic, social, and cultural development, and job creation. Though, to achieve this impact in the Hunter Region, we require our local workforce to be prepared with the skills, knowledge, and initiative to facilitate these industry transitions. Our networking platform will empower students to make a positive impact, connecting like-minded people to drive the conversation about what their future looks like and effect real change. Our Hunter 100 leadership group will have access to our locally developed education, training, and mentoring programs integrated with a circular economy ethos to equip them with employability skills and provide access to volunteering opportunities. What we are going to do Implementation of a circular economy will pioneer career opportunities for emerging students, attract innovative start-ups to the region, and generate sustainable jobs[2,3]. This project will harness young people’s proven passion and dedication to protect our climate by helping them to gain the skills, networks, and confidence to solve problems around transitioning to a regenerative circular economy. This will provide significant economic benefits for organisations through improvement in environmental initiatives, resource recovery, and the overall liveability of the region. The increasingly progressive culture of the Hunter region will further entice innovation organisations to the region, stimulating growth and providing opportunities for the Hunter 100 leadership group to work or volunteer within these organisations. Ultimately increasing the availability and resilience of circular economy jobs. - The first 50 eligible Hunter 100 network applicants will have membership fees waived. Now what can you do? - Become a circular economy pioneer by sponsoring the project - Apply to join the Hunter 100 network - Apply for an internship The Go Circular team wishes to thank those organisations and businesses who have supported our Hunter 100: Circular Economy Youth Leadership program and continue to be involved in the program’s delivery.

As reported yesterday, security researchers have found a nasty bug in OpenSSL, which allows reading the memory of systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This effectively makes the privacy mechanisms relying on this implementation of encryption protocols non-existent. It doesn’t mean that there is no encryption at all thoughs. It merely means that whoever knew about the bug in OpenSSL 1.0.1 released in 2012, could have exploited its flaw since then, codenamed ‘Heartbleed bug,‘ to eavesdrop on any encrypted communication. The news has been met with steadily growing panic. On the day after initial exposure, the Heartbleed Bug looks pretty much apocalyptic. But is it really that bad? The short answer: Yes. Potentially. The longer answer First of all, it is really really bad. As BBC News put it, “a bug in software used by millions of web servers could have exposed anyone visiting sites they hosted to spying and eavesdropping…” In other words, it looks like one of the biggest information security breaches ever. One of the longest too. For now, nobody can tell how widely the breach has been exploited, but the hole has been open for two years – OpenSSL 1.0.1 was released in March 2012. David Chartier, CEO of Codenomicon security firm, told to Associated Press: “I don’t think anyone that had been using this technology is in a position to definitively say they weren’t compromised.” That’s right. The potential scale of the problem is vast. Paradoxically or not, but it may become much worse now, after the flaw has been widely publicized: it’ll surely take time for all of the OpenSSL users to update their systems, which opens a ‘window of possibilities’ for potential attackers. By the way, a list of the proof-of-concept exploits for the Heartbleed Bug is already in place. It’s not hard to guess how soon it will take these POCs to turn into working malware. OpenSSL is an open-source implementation of the TSL (Transport Layer Security) and its predecessor SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocols. They both use X.509 standard certificates and hence asymmetric cryptography, also known as public-key cryptography: an algorithm which requires two separate keys – pieces of information or parameters those determine, functional output of a cryptographic algorithm or cipher – one of which is secret (or private) and one of which is public. The key used to encrypt a message is not the same as the key used to decrypt it. Each user has a pair of cryptographic keys – a public encryption key and a private decryption key. Similarly, a key pair used for digital signatures consists of a private signing key and a public verification key. The public key is widely distributed, while the private key is known only to its proprietor. The keys are related mathematically, but the parameters are chosen so that calculating the public key from a private one is quite easy, while the reverse process is either impossible, i.e. computationally unfeasible or prohibitively expensive. Thus the public key may be published without compromising security, whereas the private key must not be revealed to anyone not authorized to read messages or perform digital signatures. There is, however, another problem: confidence and proof that a particular public key is authentic, i.e. that it is correct and belongs to the person or entity claimed, and has not been tampered with or replaced by a malicious third party. The usual approach to this problem is to use so-called public-key infrastructure (PKI), in which one or more trusted third parties – known as certificate authorities – certify ownership of key pairs. In other words, the certificate authority is responsible for saying “yes, this person is who they say they are, and we, the CA, certify that”. That is, by the way, the exact reason why cybercriminals attempt to compromise CAs all the time: a successful attack allows them to steal valid certificates or a issue false one, which will be recognized as valid (by browsers, for instance). Well, with the Heartbleed Bug all the precautions regarding cryptographic keys appear to make little sense. A missing bounds check in the handling of the TLS Heartbeat Extension can be used to reveal up to 64k of memory to a connected client or server. As explained by Codenomicon, “The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users.” More to the point, a 64k limit applies only to a single ‘heartbeat’: an attacker can either keep reconnecting or, during an active TLS connection, keep requesting the arbitrary number of 64 kilobyte chunks of memory content until they get enough of the information required. At the time of the Heartbleed’s disclosure, some 17%, or half a million of the Internet’s secure web servers certified by trusted authorities, were believed to have been vulnerable to the attack. At the same time Apache and nginx web server software together hold 66% of shares in the world, and they are both affected by the bug. Clearly, it’s a security sinkhole, as large as the Yellowstone Caldera, but unlike the natural geological formation, it can be and must be covered by sod promptly. Until then, everyone everywhere is in jeopardy. The first recommendation issued yesterday stated that if one needs secure communications and privacy, it’s time to get off the grid until the dust settles. But this time, dust won’t settle on its own: with the amount of people potentially affected, everyone should make their own moves. First – update your OpenSSL to 1.0.1g (released on April 7th) wherever it is used: web server software, open source operating systems; then change all your passwords. Especially those used to access sensitive data. If you are an owner of a web service that uses a vulnerable OpenSSL implementation, there is a reason to go offline just like, according to BBC, Mojang did, the maker of the hugely popular Minecraft game. It took all its services down while Amazon, which it used to host games, did the necessary bug-busting. It does mean possible losses and users’ discontent, but then again: if the risks persist and a possible attack is successful, discontent would be much worse. Unfortunately, for businesses working with other people’s data it is also imperative to notify users about possible leaks and the immediate need to change passwords. The world’s largest news media have already reported on the bug, so public awareness is growing, but people still need to be informed. In addition to changing passwords, new digital certificates should be requested from CAs ASAP and new encryption keys should be generated. Without this, simply updating OpenSSL in your servers will do nothing: if attackers have already exploited the vulnerability, they could steal encryption keys, passwords or other credentials required to access a server, so they just can come in and get out with any critical information, without leaving a trace. Ladies and gentlemen, have you changed your passwords already?

What’s in a name? Juliet Capulet will always remind us that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. While I appreciate the musings of Willy Shakes, naming conventions are so much more complicated. Looking at Shawnee, Chickasaw, and Algonquin Parks, named for the Native people who occupied this land prior to colonization, or the three main thoroughfares named for Dr. W. J. Hodge, Muhammad Ali, and Louis Coleman, who each nudged us toward becoming a more perfect Union, it’s clear. Winners not only write the history books, they get to name stuff, too. Often the story of how a thing receives its name gets lost and we begin to understand less of the narrative our ancestors intended to preserve. As I wandered through Chickasaw, I happened upon Plato Terrace. The area is void of Socrates Way or Pythagoras Drive so I knew there had to be a local Plato with a story I needed to know. Samuel Plato is an architect with 8 structures on the National Register of Historic Places and his influence can be seen all around Louisville. From Broadway Temple at 13th & Broadway to James Lee Presbyterian Church on Frankfort Avenue, we walk past Plato’s buildings everyday. He designed Simmons College, the Virginia Avenue School (now the West End School), and numerous homes meant to be both affordable and beautiful for everyday people. We can attribute almost 40 post offices in Alabama, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia to him. Though Plato lives through his work, he is also honored by two historic markers in the West End. More than that, Samuel Plato can also be credited for establishing trade unions and architectural training for other Black Americans. His legacy is built upon the ideals we hold most dear. Hard work, perseverance, and being the driving force of progress. As we finish celebrate Juneteenth and 4th of July take some time to remember the people who make America great. Those whose names are bestowed on parks, streets, expressways, and buildings. There are great stories surrounding their sense of urgency in creating the America we dream about. Use their names as more than a directional guide. They are daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, who left a legacy we have to remember.

The Meissner effect is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state. The German physicists Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered the phenomenon in 1933 by measuring the magnetic field distribution outside superconducting tin and lead samples. The samples, in the presence of an applied magnetic field, were cooled below what is called their superconducting transition temperature. Below the transition temperature the samples cancelled nearly all magnetic fields inside. They detected this effect only indirectly, because the magnetic flux is conserved by a superconductor, when the interior field decreased the exterior field increased. The experiment demonstrated for the first time that superconductors were more than just perfect conductors and provided a uniquely defining property of the superconducting state. Despite having been known for over 80 years, no dynamical explanation of the Meissner effect exists within the conventional understanding of superconductivity. In a weak applied field, a superconductor “expels” nearly all magnetic flux. It does this by setting up electric currents near its surface. The magnetic field of these surface currents cancels the applied magnetic field within the bulk of the superconductor. As the field expulsion, or cancellation, does not change with time, the currents producing this effect (called persistent currents) do not decay with time. Therefore the conductivity can be thought of as infinite: a superconductor. Near the surface, within a distance called the London penetration depth, the magnetic field is not completely cancelled. Each superconducting material has its own characteristic penetration depth. Any perfect conductor will prevent any change to magnetic flux passing through its surface due to ordinary electromagnetic induction at zero resistance. The Meissner effect is distinct from this: when an ordinary conductor is cooled so that it makes the transition to a superconducting state in the presence of a constant applied magnetic field, the magnetic flux is expelled during the transition. This effect cannot be explained by infinite conductivity alone. Its explanation is more complex and was first given in the London equations by the brothers Fritz and Heinz London. It should thus be noted that the placement and subsequent levitation of a magnet above an already superconducting material does not demonstrate the Meissner effect, while an initially stationary magnet later being repelled by a superconductor as it is cooled through its critical temperature does. The discovery of the Meissner effect led to the phenomenological theory of superconductivity by Fritz and Heinz London in 1935. This theory explained resistanceless transport and the Meissner effect, and allowed the first theoretical predictions for superconductivity to be made. However, this theory only explained experimental observations — it did not allow the microscopic origins of the superconducting properties to be identified. Nevertheless, it became a requirement on all microscopic theories to be able to reproduce this effect. This was done successfully by the BCS theory in 1957. Both phenomenological Londons’ theory and microscopic BCS one describe the Meissner effect in its steady state only and cannot explain the transient stage when the supercurrent grows from zero to its steady value. Indeed, under initial conditions of the Meissner effect, Lorentz force equals to zero, and there are no other electromotive forces in superconductor to accelerate the electrons. This fundamental problem of the conventional theory of the Meissner effect has been pointed out by J. E. Hirsch in The Lorentz force and superconductivity. He has also proposed the dynamical explanation of the Meissner effect in Spin Meissner effect in superconductors and the origin of the Meissner effect.

Highmoor week commencing 15th November Welcome to a week in Highmoor! In maths we have been using different strategies to subtract numbers mentally. This has been very tricky and we will be coming back to this regularly. We have also continued to learn about telling the time with Mrs Griffith. In literacy with Mrs Claridge we have continued to look at non fiction. We have been reading non fiction books in ERIC and have investigated more examples of non chronological reports so that we are clear on what they look like and the features that we need to include in our own. We have started to plan our own reports thinking about what information to include in each paragraph, pictures, captions, fact boxes, title, subheadings etc. With Mrs Griffith we are continuing to read Iron Man and are exploring the descriptive language in the text. We looked at different types of story openings and categorised them. In art we are learning about printing techniques and designed and made our own collagraphs out of cardboard and string.We are looking forward to printing with them next week! PSHE this half term is all about teamwork. We had lots of fun working as 2 teams to get ourselves into height order and then thought about what went well and what we could improve on how we worked together. In small groups we wrote our ideas down about what makes a good team. It was interesting to reflect on how each group had decided on how to record ideas and what to include. In music we performed our melodies we have composed to accompany our cherry blossom haikus that we have been working so hard on. The results were all really beautiful and atmospheric. In Science this half term we are learning about evaporation and condensation and their part in the water cycle. We are investigating how quickly water evaporates depending on it's location and have placed bowls of water around the school and are measuring the amount of water left in the bowls each day. We collated results on Friday. We also had a go at matching scientific vocabulary to the correct image. Homework is timestables on Sumdog and reading every day. Please don't forget to record reading in Home School Diaries. Remember, Home School Diaries shoud be taken home every day and brought back into school the following day. Important log in details and are in there as are records of times tables tests and which table to focus on. Please bring in recorders for music on Tuesday next week.

The Anti-Monopoly Party was a short-lived American political party. The party nominated Benjamin F. Butler for President of the United States in 1884, as did the Greenback Party, which ultimately supplanted the organization. The Anti-Monopoly Party was founded as a national political party in 1884 at its convention in Chicago, which took place on May 14, 1884. Prior to this convention, however, there were Anti-Monopoly Parties operating at the state level, notably in California and New York. The party's platform was similar to those of other parties identified as progressive. The party advocated such measures as direct election of senators, a graduated income tax, industrial arbitration and the establishment of labor bureaus to enhance the legal rights of organized labor, and antitrust legislation, among other matters. The party also opposed the use of the tariff and the granting of public land to railroads and other corporations. Former U.S. army general and Massachusetts governor Benjamin F. Butler was nominated to run as the party's candidate for president in the 1884 election; he was similarly nominated by the Greenback Party. Both parties nominated Absolom M. West of Mississippi for vice president. Butler received 175,370 votes in the election. The party largely disappeared after the election, though a small fringe remained in Kansas, running local candidates until 1886. The People's Party's Omaha Platform contained many planks of the Anti-Monopoly platform. Subsequently, the Progressive movement saw the enactment of many political reform measures first championed by the Anti-Monopolists and Greenbackers.

The 2019 Girl-Powered Planner features 365 days of girls and young women under 25 who have contributed to American history, fun ideas, and year-round inspiration! Looking to the past, it is a challenge to find teen girls who shaped our nation- although they existed. The men who wrote history (and it was mostly white men) did not always leave room to discuss the accomplishments of women and teen girls. The more historians investigate archives and things like diaries and letters, the more we learn about women and teens who changed the nation. Surely, many amazing young women (and men)’s accomplishments are lost to history. Or, they are at least very well hidden. Some of these young women may even be your ancestors. This standard sized planner introduces dozens of girls and women who changed the face of: literature, sports, poetry, music, politics, technology, every aspect of culture you can imagine. Each day includes a young woman or event that changed American history or an idea for a fun and empowering activity. Supplemental pages feature movie and book lists, mantras, and activities that will leave you in awe of the power of women and girls. The 123 page planner is spiral bound with a cardboard cover, size A5; perfect for putting in your backpack or purse. "MissHeard's 2019 Planner is beyond awesome! Everything from the size and layout make it ideal. You've curated a terrific mix of the light-hearted (World Emoji Day) to courageous acts of Barbara Rose Johns and dozens of other. Also love the "Meet Your Representative" month along with telephone script. The additional activists, movies, books, etc. in the back keep the girl power engine running." -Wendy Schaetzel Lesko, founder, Youth Activism Project

From the largest state park in Georgia to one of only two national fish hatcheries in Georgia, our area has many points of interest, including one of three presidential homes in the state. Stay and visit a while! 401 Little White House Road, (706) 655-5870 The 1932 house has been carefully preserved as it was in Roosevelt’s day. The museum showcases many exhibits, including FDR’s 1938 Ford convertible with hand controls, the “Tally Ho” stagecoach, and a theater with an outstanding documentary film. The Legacy Exhibit features “The Unfinished Portrait” along with recently-acquired backgrounds for the original portrait painted by Madame Shoumatoff. Purchase your tickets at the LWH and then visit the historic pools & springs after your visit to the Little White House. Your ticket purchased first at the LWH covers admission to both sites. Historic Pools & Springs Hwy. 27 Alt. at Juke Line Road, Warm Springs. The museum documents the treatment methods of polio and the history of the Warm Springs as a tourist resort and a therapeutic center. The pools are not structurally sound enough to support the weight of the water, so there is no swimming; however, visitors may walk through the dry pools, and feel the natural buoyancy and warmth of the spring water which is piped into a cistern. The spring water flows up from the ground and runs alongside the entrance driveway. A capital funds campaign is underway to raise money to restore the pools and open them on special occasions for swimming. Roosevelt State Park, 2970 Georgia Hwy. 190, (706) 663-4858 At 9,049 acres, Georgia’s largest state park offers hiking, horseback riding, and camping. More than 40 miles of trails, including the popular 23-mile Pine Mountain Trail, wind through hardwood and pines, over creeks and past small waterfalls. Several park amenities were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. Dowdell’s Knob, Georgia Hwy. 190 Located within the state park is a spectacular overlook of Pine Mountain Valley where President Roosevelt loved to enjoy picnics and quiet time. Visiting this beautiful area, it’s easy to see why he loved it so much. His grilling area has been preserved, and a handsome bronze statue draws visitors to his favorite spot. Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery, 5308 Spring Street, (706) 655-3382. Free admission. The fish hatchery is supported by the cold springs on the opposite side of Pine Mountain from the warm springs. Constructed in 1899, fish are raised for restocking regional lakes, rivers, and streams. An aquarium building houses several nature displays. A highlight is an area with native plants and wildlife representative of a typical Georgia wetland. Cyprian Bulloch Jr. gave the water rights from his property to establish the hatchery, and his house is still standing (a private residence) across the road from the hatchery’s entrance gates. Take quarters for the fish food dispensers. Callaway Gardens, 17800 US Hwy 27, Pine Mountain The 2,600-acre nature park and resort founded by Franklin Roosevelt’s friend Cason Callaway is only about twenty minutes away from Warm Springs. Many guests visit Callaway to enjoy their many recreational opportunities including golf, fishing, tennis, and biking, as well as their annual events including Fantasy in Lights, Spring Celebration, and the Labor Day Hot Air Balloon Glow.

South Africa’s fight against outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in various parts of the country is starting to show positive results. The department of agriculture, land reform and rural development confirms to Food For Mzansi that, although the spread is still ongoing in some areas, outbreaks are abating in other provinces. The spokesperson for the department, Reggie Ngcobo, says that spread was successfully prevented from auctions and three farms in the Free State and Gauteng. The affected farms were cleared of the disease since then. “These cases will be officially closed as soon as disinfection processes as well as surveillance have been concluded.” The country has seen a worrying FMD outbreak trend in five of its provinces in recent months, and KwaZulu-Natal remains of great concern. Five new cases have been identified in the past two weeks. This brings the total number of affected dip tanks to 66 since the start of the outbreak in May 2021, in the district municipalities of Zululand, UMkhanyakude, King Cetshwayo, iLembe and eThekwini. The department reports that vaccination in the province is ongoing with more than 190 000 animals having been vaccinated since the start of an intensified vaccination campaign in mid-March this year. Outbreaks in buffalos, however, are posing a serious challenges in the fight against FMD in the province. This, as buffalo with antibodies against FMD were identified in the Hluhluwe uMfolozi Park. Animal disease experts are alarmed as buffalos become permanent carriers of the disease without showing clinical signs. “The department held a meeting with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and discussed options in order to determine the best way forward. The park is undergoing serological surveillance to determine the status of the rest of the buffalos within the park,” says Ngcobo. Enforcing individual farm quarantines Meanwhile, in the past two weeks, outbreaks in North West have increased to 14, and affected farms and adjacent properties have been under quarantine since the start of these outbreaks. Cattle on the affected properties are also undergoing vaccination to decrease the viral load. Ngcobo says the properties will be “depopulated” in a controlled manner as soon as practical routes to do so have been identified. In Limpopo, the first round of vaccinations in the Thulamela area was completed at the end of May. This, after a total of eight positive locations had been identified in the area since the disease was found in April 2022. Further surveillance of dip tanks and farms in the disease management area is continuing. “The outbreaks in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are present in areas where it is difficult to enforce individual farm quarantine, therefore disease management areas were declared,” says the department. Meanwhile, agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo said that uncertainty around meat prices can be directly linked to the FMD outbreak. Despite a broad uptick in all food prices in South Africa, meat remains the one essential product whose price trend remains uncertain. “The recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have led to the temporary closure of some key export markets for the red meat industry, thus adding downward pressure on prices. “Conversely, there are fears of a potential increase in poultry product prices, which could lessen the benefit of softer red meat prices,” Sihlobo said. All farmers and owners of livestock are reminded to safeguard themselves by applying biosecurity measures on their farms and only buy healthy animals from well-known and reputable sources. Farms and feedlots are also advised to isolate new animals before introduction into the resident herds.

Fascinating new research suggests there may be limited benefits in giving joint supplements to older horses. Peter Green MRCVS looks at the evidence Older horses stiffen up — their joints become less flexible, their tendons and ligaments lose their elasticity and things begin to creak. Alongside this, a massive market promotes joint supplements to keep the spring in the step of these ageing horses. Apart from herbal painkillers like devil’s claw, most of these supplements contain “neutraceuticals” such as chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine. Millions of people take these daily as capsules or powder, and thousands give them to older horses in the hope or belief that they keep them flexible, reduce joint ageing and prolong working life. Vets in the Netherlands assessed 24 horses in their late 20s for lameness. The horses were trained to walk and trot on a laboratory treadmill, so stride length and joint flexibility could be accurately measured. Any obviously lame horses were rejected from the study, but those with barely perceptible and intermittent lameness were admitted. This was thought to be acceptable for old, stiff horses. The horses were divided into 2 groups balanced for size and type. 1 group was fed a commercial chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine joint supplement for 3 months; the other a placebo that looked and smelled identical. The grooms and vets did not know which horses had received the active supplement and which the dummy. During the experiment, the horses were turned out to pasture by day and stabled by night. All 24 horses were analysed again after 3 months. If the true joint supplement was going to have any effect, the vets expected stride length and joint flexibility to be increased. The results, published in the Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ), revealed that the supplement had made no difference. There was no increase in stride length in treated horses. Individuals in both groups showed increased joint flexibility, which was simply a result of the limited treadmill exercise. In fact, the horses receiving the placebo actually had slightly better knee flexion than those given the supplement. The conclusion? Exercise keeps old horses more supple than joint supplements.

Sustainable development is all over the place. The concept is broad and vague. The vagueness of the concept has a Janus face. It has been called a unifying concept because its vagueness breeds a consensus that might be utilised later on. Vagueness is an asset if it triggers action. On the other hand, if sustainable development is everything, maybe it is nothing… Although – or maybe because – the concept is vague, it has overwhelming appeal on political agendas, programmes and dialogues. The precautionary principle is the nucleus of a powerful moral imperative. The multidimensional nature of the concept, covering ecological, economic and social aspects of change relates to our needs for integration. Sustainable development as a concept bears a persuasive character. Actors of all kinds may contribute to it, citizens, enterprises, NGOs, governments et cetera. Thinking about the governance of sustainable development leads us to the recognition of a multi-level, multi-scale, multi-disciplinary character of the problematique. Moreover, the term development refers to change, to transitions and transformations. Governance of sustainable development therefore has to cope with complex dynamics. This chapter deals with the specific consequences of sustainability governance inside knowledge democracies. The concept of knowledge democracy sheds new light on the emerging relationships between politics, media and science. It shows how the emergence of participatory democracy besides representative democracy, the revolutionary rise of social media besides corporate media, the emergence of transdisciplinary trajectories besides classical disciplinary science lead to explosions of complex interactions. We will digress upon the variety of possible future variants of knowledge democracies, quiet and turbulent ones, in relation to the quest for sustainable development. Our main conclusion will be that strategies for sustainability may vary with the types of knowledge democracies around.

National Numeracy projects develop effective approaches to improving numeracy and put research into practice. Essentials of Numeracy at 14 Our project with Cambridge Mathematics is looking at what kind of everyday maths skills and understanding young people should have by the age of 14. Q-Step programme to support social sciences Eight universities are using our resources as part of the Nuffield Foundation Q-Step programme to help students feel confident with the numeracy involved in their degree. Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals More than 1,000 hospital staff have engaged so far with a Numeracy campaign we launched in the summer of 2017. Becoming numerate in Hackney We worked with with primary schools in Hackney to get them thinking differently about maths in the classroom and around the school. One year on we measured a positive shift in attitudes among pupils, teachers and parents. Putting consumers to the test Over 20,000 people registered to check their numeracy level when we teamed up with MoneySavingExpert.com and Martin Lewis to get money savers to think about maths. Numeracy and Financial Capability: Exploring the links We worked with the Money Advice Service to launch the strongest evidence to date that people with good numeracy skills are more likely to manage their money well. We are working to increase parents’ involvement and interest in their children’s maths learning and to improve their own confidence. We have been piloting the Parent Toolkit website, scrapbook and leaflets with ten pilot schools across the UK. Firm Foundations for All We have been running a project to trial different approaches to helping adults with the lowest numeracy skills, piloting Firm Foundations resources in four locations across the UK. Find out more about how people use our tools to transform attitudes to maths and improve numeracy in their communities.

What is the COSO Framework? The COSO Framework is a system used to establish internal controls to be integrated into business processes. Collectively, these controls provide reasonable assurance that the organization is operating ethically, transparently and in accordance with established industry standards. COSO is an acronym for the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations. The committee created the framework in 1992, led by Executive Vice President and General Counsel, James Treadway, Jr. along with several private sector organizations, including the following: - American Accounting Association - Financial Executives International - The Institute of Internal Auditors - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants - The Institute of Management Accountants (formerly the National Association of Cost Accountants) The COSO framework was updated in 2013 to include the COSO cube, a 3-D diagram that demonstrates how all elements of an internal control system are related. In 2017, the committee introduced their COSO Enterprise Risk Management Framework. The COSO ERM Framework aims to help organizations understand and prioritize risks and create a strong link between risk, strategy and how a business performs. What are the five components of the COSO Framework? Here are the five components of the COSO framework: - Control environment. The control environment seeks to make sure that all business processes are based on the use of industry-standard practices. This can help ensure that the business is run in a responsible way. It may also reduce an organization's legal exposure if the organization is able to prove that its business processes are all based around industry standard practices. Additionally, the control environment can help with making sure that an organization is adhering to regulatory compliance requirements. - Risk assessment and management. Risk assessment and management -- which is sometimes referred to as enterprise risk management -- is based on the idea that risk is an inherent part of doing business. However, those same risks can sometimes cause a business to suffer adverse consequences. As such, organizations commonly adopt risk management plans that help them to identify risks and either reduce or eliminate risks deemed to pose a threat to the organization's well-being. - Control activities. Control activities are also tied to the concept of risk management. They are essentially internal controls that are put into place to make sure that business processes are performed in a way that helps an organization to meet its business objectives without introducing unnecessary risks into the process. - Information and communications. Communications rules are put in place to make sure that both internal and external communications adhere to legal requirements, ethical values and standard industry practices. For example, private sector organizations commonly adopt privacy policies establishing how customer data can be used. - Monitoring. At a minimum, monitoring is performed by an internal auditor who makes sure that employees are adhering to established internal controls. However, in the case of public companies, it is relatively common for an outside auditor to evaluate the organization's regulatory compliance. In either case, the audit results are usually reported to the board of directors. How is the COSO Framework used? The COSO Framework is heavily used by publicly traded companies and accounting and financial firms. The framework seeks to put internal controls in place that formalize the way in which key business processes are performed. This helps organizations to adhere to legal and ethical requirements, while also focusing on risk assessment and management. In addition to integrating such controls into key business processes, the framework places a heavy emphasis on monitoring and reporting, especially as it relates to using internal auditors to monitor adherence to established controls. What are the benefits and limitations of the COSO Framework? One of the primary benefits to implementing the COSO Framework is that it helps business processes to be performed in a uniform manner according to a set of internal controls. Depending on how these controls are designed, they can improve efficiency while also reducing risks. Another benefit is that an organization that fully employs the COSO Framework is often in a better position to detect fraudulent activity, whether that activity is perpetrated by cyber criminals, customers or trusted employees. Because the framework focuses on risk mitigation and adherence to established best practices, vulnerabilities can be significantly reduced. Finally, some organizations find that when they implement carefully crafted internal controls, it helps them to make existing business processes more efficient. This can help reduce costs and make the organization more profitable. Despite the benefits associated with implementing the COSO Framework, it is not without its limitations. The most significant of these limitations is that the framework can be difficult to implement for two main reasons. First, the framework is relatively broad in scope, which means that it can be applied to a wide variety of organizations and processes. But this broad scope also means that the framework lacks a significant amount of prescriptive guidance. The second limitation that can make the framework difficult to apply is its organizational structure. The COSO Framework is broken into a series of rigid categories. Organizations often find that there are certain processes that could conceivably fall into multiple categories, or that do not align well with any of the categories. As such, organizations will often have to make some tough decisions when implementing the framework.

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There are so many history research paper topics for college students in this field: slavery issues, the division of the central powers in the U.S., or the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – they are all enthralling topics to discuss. 19 th Century American History: The Declaration of Independence. Feb 25, · Art History Research Paper Topics. The combination of old traditions and new ideas in Neoclassicism sculpture. What were the main reasons for the Roman artistic style shift in the 4th century? The most frequently used symbols in Frida Kahlo’s paintings. Compare and contrast the Baroque and Rococo art komori-co-jp.somee.comted Reading Time: 1 min. essay on social networking sites dissertation writing experts - Topics ranging from Major Historical Eras, to World Wars to an individual Country's history, Paper Masters helps write great college research papers in world history. Major Historical Eras - Overviews major historical eras such as the Dark Ages, 20th Century European History, The Bronze Age and other importance ages of historical significance. 20th Century US History Research Paper Topics 20th Century US History Research Papers cover the past Century in the United States, with topics that range from the Stock Market Crash to the Beat Generation. Research papers on recent events that happened in the 20th Century can be hard to write. Category: History Research Paper Examples This collection of history research paper examples have been designed to serve as model papers for most popular historical topics. Each research paper covers the topic in a comprehensive manner and to provides a . 100 most popular essays ever written droit concurrence dissertation - Jul 29, · Picking a topic is perhaps the most important step in writing a research paper. To do it well requires several steps of refinement. First you have to determine a general area in which you have an interest (if you aren’t interested, your readers won’t be either). Mar 06, · Check out 60 art history research paper topics and ideas for brilliant essays. Plus, we have great art history research paper samples that will serve as a good template for your writing. Art History Research Paper Topics: Ancient Civilizations. This subject is for those who want to dig deep! The ancient world is full of mysteries and komori-co-jp.somee.comted Reading Time: 6 mins. Jun 16, · When you write a historical research paper, you are creating a secondary source based on your own analysis of primary source material. Examples of primary sources include diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, photographs, videos, public opinion polls, and government records, among many other things. friend need friend indeed essay essayant synonyme essay compare and contrast - The United States is so rich in history and culture making it very interesting to study and consequently one of the top research paper topics for college students. Research papers on recent events though, especially in the 20th century, can be quite hard to write with the lack of perspective and the differing opinions of experts with regard to. Controversial topics for research paper There are some subjects that might trigger different responses from people because most of these subjects are controversial and are prone to raise a series of other issues. Most of these research titles are related to politics, religion, gender roles, Estimated Reading Time: 9 mins. This page lists environmental history research paper topics and ideas and provides links to example papers on history of environment and ecology. Anthropocene Human activities have become so pervasive and profound that they rival the great forces of nature and . creative writing course montreal case study analysis essay samples - Research Paper Topics By Subject. Another way of choosing the best research paper topic is based on the subject, whether you are a college or high school student. Whether it is on biology, physics, science, literature, history, or psychology, this approach works at all levels of education. Research Paper Topics on Technology. An Alternative Reading in Philippine History, Assessment Paper by Keno Dorog The World War 2 was a vital part in the world’s history books. 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This list of World history research paper topics is meant for students that are learning interested in areas of the discipline that have not been studied commonly:. This list of conflict and compromise in history topics deals with issues historical research paper topics in discussion on the web:. History project topics dealing with the art throughout the centuries and their impact on historical research paper topics. Interested in interesting us cite research paper topics? This list of interesting topics in US history is for younger students in college. They are simple enough for students historical research paper topics learning gujarati essay swachata abhiyan this discipline:. Dissertation on training effectiveness our US history essay topics can make it easier for you to find an idea that piques your interest, it can still be hard to settle on history research topics that fit your needs. 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Essay nas?l yaz?l?r ytu History Research Paper Topics History project topics dealing with the art throughout the centuries and their impact on culture: What does the art of Ancient Egypt symbolize about its culture? Are illuminated texts from the Middle Ages a form of art? Describe the influence medical science had on ancient sculptures. Explain the history historical research paper topics dramatic costumes in China and Japan. What impact did Christianity have on Renaissance art? Is classical music the last veritable form of art? How does Salvador Dali inspire modern-day sculpture? Explain the modern architectural works of a major US city. What role did Ben Franklin have on the American Revolution? How did the War organ donation essays Vietnam improve the living historical research paper topics of its citizens? How did the American culture of the 60s inspire counter-culture in Europe? In what ways has American Foreign Policy changed in the last decade? 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All evidence agrees that completed suicide is very rare in Kaska society. In the other hand, observations and communications agree that attempted suicide by men is of frequent occurrence and very likely to appear during intoxication. There is a general pattern for such attempted self-destruction. In the two cases of the sort observed during field work, the weapon selected was a rifle. As he brandishes the weapon the would be suicide announces his intention in an emotional outburst. This becomes the signal for interference to block the deed. One or more men leap forward to wrest the gun from the intended suicide’s possession and toss it out of sight. The would be victim is now usually emotionally overwhelmed by his behavior. This pattern is illustrated by Louis Maza’s behavior during intoxication. Several times during the afternoon, Louis had manifested aggression toward himself, crying: “I don’t care if I’m killed. I don’t care my life.” After several hours of such emotional outbursts interspersed with quarreling and aggression toward his companions, he seized his large caliber rifle and threatened to kill himself. Old Man threw himself on the gun and as the two men grappled for the weapon, Louis succeeded in firing one wild shot. John Kean and the ethnographer ran to the camp and together wrenched the gun from the drunken man. John fired the shells in the chamber and Old Man tossed the gun half-way down the cutbank. No punishment or other discrimination is reserved for attempted suicides. The individual is comforted and in the future, while intoxicated, he is watched lest he repeat the attempt. The dynamics of attempted suicide in Kaska society are extremely interesting, their interpretation contributing much to our understanding of deference. The goal of deference has been defined as warm human relations; from the psychiatric standpoint this is equivalent to saying that the goal of deference is love. Consciously, it must be made clear, the Kaska does not so much want to be liked as not to be disliked. The significance of this statement will be further clarified in connection with emotional isolation. Kaska individuals are afraid of giving offense and arousing hostility in a wide circle of human relationships, because they are anxious lest they be disliked. Evidence comes from the fact that people are readily hurt or offended. Thus, Nitla’s fear that his father-in-law would hear a false story about how he had neglected Adele led to his desire to tell his wife’s father his side of the story so that the latter would not dislike him. Old Man once expressed a complaint that Louis Maza was receiving visitors from downriver, but that nobody was continuing upriver to his place. Visitors are an assurance of popularity, so that a lack of them suggests being disliked. Unquestionably an attitude which fears dislike equals an unconscious fear of the loss of love plus the desire for love. It is against this theoretical backdrop that we may understand the significance of attempted suicide following a sequence of hostile and uncontrolled behavior. By his aggressive behavior the intoxicated individual violates personal standards of deference, betrays hostility, and earns the loss of love. Guilt follows and, while intoxication continues to reduce the efficiency of the egocentric defenses, he reacts to this guilt by a sudden reversal of activity. Aggression and hostility are deflected toward the self and this reversal leads to such behavior as Edward Prince manifested just before he attempted suicide, complaining that he was all alone in the world without relatives; or else the individual announces his intention of self-destruction. The function of this announcement is clear. It is a plea for help and a defense guaranteeing that the attempt will be unsuccessful. People immediately rush to stop the suicide. This is the would-be victim’s pay-off. In the attention he receives, he is assured of the affectionate regard which a moment ago he so strongly doubted. By this time the attempt is a thing of the past. The gun has been safely thrown away, the anxiety of loss of love and assurances of love pile up in the catharsis of emotion that typically terminates a sequence of hostility. From now on defenses can once more restore the emotional isolation of the personality which alcohol tore down. While all self-pity in intoxication is expressive of an unconscious demand for love, not all such emotional expression is immediately determined by aggression released during intoxication. It may also be a result of the affect hunger which the individual feels more keenly while his defenses have been reduced by alcohol. Some reported episodes of psychotic behavior may also be regarded as representing a disintegration of deference and the exposure of the individual to the excitement of hostile impulses which he can no longer control.

Corporate Finance is the procedure of matching capital must the operations of the business. It is different from accounting, the procedure for the historic recording from the activities of the business from the monetized perspective. Captial is money committed to […] Corporate Finance is the procedure of matching capital must the operations of the business. It is different from accounting, the procedure for the historic recording from the activities of the business from the monetized perspective. Captial is money committed to a business to create it into existence and also to grow and sustain it. This can be different from capital that is money to underpin and sustain trade – purchasing recycleables the funding of stock the funding from the credit needed between production and also the realization of profits from sales. Corporate Finance can start using the tiniest round of Family and Buddies money put in a nascent company to finance its initial steps in to the commercial world. In the other finish from the spectrum it’s multi-layers of corporate debt within vast worldwide corporations. Corporate Finance basically involves two kinds of capital: equity and debt. Equity is shareholders’ investment in business which carries legal rights of possession. Equity has a tendency to sit inside a company lengthy-term, with the hope of making a roi. This could come through either dividends, that are payments, usually yearly, associated with a person’s number of share possession. Dividends only have a tendency to accrue within large, lengthy-established corporations that are already transporting sufficient capital to greater than adequately fund their plans. More youthful, growing and fewer-lucrative operations are usually voracious consumers of all of the capital they are able to access and therefore don’t have a tendency to create surpluses that dividends might be compensated. Within the situation of more youthful and growing companies, equity is frequently constantly searched for. In very youthful companies, the primary causes of investment are frequently private individuals. Following the already pointed out family and buddies, high internet worth individuals and experienced sector figures frequently purchase promising more youthful companies. Fundamental essentials pre-launch and seed phases. In the next phase, when there’s a minimum of some feeling of a cohesive business, the primary investors are usually investment capital funds, which focus on taking promising earlier stage companies through quick growth to some hopefully highly lucrative purchase, or perhaps a public offering of shares. Another primary group of corporate finance related investment comes via debt. A lot of companies aim to avoid diluting their possession through ongoing equity choices and choose that they’ll produce a greater rate of return from loans for their companies than the others loans cost to service by means of charges. This method of gearing-in the equity and trade facets of a company via debts are generally known as leverage. Although the chance of raising equity would be that the original creators can become so diluted they ultimately obtain precious little return for his or her efforts and success, the primary chance of debts are a company one – the organization should be careful that it doesn’t become swamped and therefore unable to make its debt repayments. Corporate Finance is ultimately a juggling act. It has to effectively balance possession aspirations, potential, risk and returns, optimally thinking about an accommodation from the interests of both internal and exterior shareholders.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, air travel in the Asia-Pacific region was busiest worldwide. However, air traffic in the region suffered the most from the restrictions caused by the pandemic, making it the region with the fewest passenger flights now. International Airport Association Airports Council Internationalin (ACI) data show that air passenger traffic in the Asia-Pacific region decreased by 62.7 percent between 2019 and 2021. By comparison, worldwide passenger traffic fell by only 48.3% over the same period, according to ACI. Air traffic between some Asian countries and Europe and the United States is already showing signs of recovery. Of the developed economies in Asia, Australia, Japan and Singapore have been the first to open their borders. International Air Transport Association (IATA)According to the Commission, demand for international passenger traffic in the Asia – Pacific region reached 17% of the pre – pandemic level in March. Demand for passenger traffic has been less than 10 per cent of the pre-pandemic level for most of the two years before. Demand has still recovered weaker than in other world markets, as the market has recovered to 60% of pre-pandemic levels globally. No more quarantine in Singapore Of the developed economies in Asia, the city-state of Singapore has opened up to the rest of the world the fastest. When traveling to Singapore, there is no longer a need to quarantine on arrival if the traveler has received all appropriate coronary vaccines. The country can also be reached with a tourist visa. The opening up of Singapore is already somewhat reflected in the country’s airline results. Singapore Airlines however, only managed to reduce its losses in the second half of the financial year ending in March. The airline’s sales nearly doubled to $ 3.49 billion. The company’s net loss in October – March was the news agency Bloombergin according to $ 90 million. The improvement in earnings is still significant compared to a year ago, when Singapore’s borders were tight and the airline made a loss of $ 585 million in the second half of the fiscal year. Of the major advanced economies, only China is not opening up its air travel. On the contrary, China has tightened travel restrictions since late March. Foreign flights depart from the country in various ways, in addition to which access depends on, for example, possible curfews from your own residential building. The only area in China where air travel is somewhat possible is the country’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. However, flights to Hong Kong may suddenly be disrupted, as the airline will be banned from the city if more than five interest-positive people enter its flight or if none of them is missing a document required for travel. Before flying to Hong Kong, in addition to the negative PCR corona test, the passenger must have an ISO quality certificate from the laboratory that performed the test. In addition, the passenger must have a reserved and self-paid seven-day hotel quarantine, the prices of which easily rise to more than a thousand euros. Interest rate restrictions, combined with the city’s tightening political situation, have begun to accelerate brain drain, which has raised the prices of some airfares severalfold. If you can travel and fly to Hong Kong via Qatar, for example, a one-way trip to a European city with a change can take up to 25 hours. Because Qatar Airways flights and the airport must wear a mask at all times, travel requires wearing a mask for at least more than ten hours. Finnair stopped direct passenger flights between Helsinki and Hong Kong in February when the Hong Kong administration banned flights operated by foreign pilots and Hong Kong cabin crew. Finnair announced that it will resume direct flights to Hong Kong in the first week of June. Finnair outsourced cabin crew on Hong Kong flights to a person registered in Hong Kong To OSM Aviation during 2015. Finnair’s cabin crew is likely to remain in quarantine for seven days after each flight. There are only one flight a week in its direction. The travel time of flights will be extended by several hours, as Finnair, like other Western airlines, cannot use Russian airspace. Previously, the direct flight between Helsinki and Hong Kong was about 11 hours.

Making artwork is an incredible hobby that you can keep and hang on the wall, or you might sell to generate income. Since this article is for the beginners out there, I’m making sure that every detail is easy and understandable. I am encouraging also that creating artworks are not just as exclusive for artists, everyone can make their own artwork because it is a product of creativity from ideas and imaginative stories. Since I was a kid, I always make different drawings of the things that I imagine. I influenced by making storylines and skits that I heard from random stories like catastrophic events, world news, and superhero movies. It was my daily habit to draw different stuff in my notebook until I grew up and taking up a fine arts course. It’s such an amazing feeling to accomplish things from my ideas and I want to make it as sustainable as I can earn money from it. That’s why I’m now into illustrations and I worked for different people and brands by making illustrations and simple graphic layouts. This time around, I want to list down some important elements to create artwork whether you are a newbie artist or a normal person who wants to make artwork as a hobby. The message of the artwork really matters. We can tell an artwork by its subject and storyline, which can communicate by its composition or what the viewers feel about it. But there are few illustrations that don’t have direct subjects or stories to tell. There are times we need to understand deeply about the artist’s point of view on his masterpiece. For me, the story is really important to make an effective illustration. The rule of the principles of design is a gateway method to construct artworks. Most of the fine art students have this topic in their fine arts class or in a graphic designing class as an introduction to various mixes of the elements of art or design in different mediums such as painting, illustration, photography, and more. So I listed some of the important elements or principles of design that can help you to make an effective illustration. Start By Sketching You probably use certain lines and curves when you sketch and try to construct your ideas in a paper as a draft drawing. That’s why the line is considered as the most fundamental elements of design. Every creation starts with fine line drawings as a starting place. In fact, I tried so many sketches before I produce an illustration artwork. Sketching can help you also figure out your ideas to avoid errors. Aside from line, Emphasis, Balance and Alignment, Contrast, Repetition, Proportion, Movement, and White Space are also important to make an effective art and design. Choosing Right Colors Have you heard about the color wheel? Or are you familiar with the colors of the rainbow? Talking about colors can be technical for others because this kind of topic is very long to discuss. If you want to know about this topic, you can check some of the reliable websites on Google when you search it. For me, choosing the right colors really depends on your context. The color wheel helps you to determine what kind of colors suit your masterpiece, but you have to identify which colors is contrasting and comfortable in your eyes. In my own process, I choose one main color for my artwork and I added monochromatic colors in the same hue. For example, I pick orange as my main color and I added yellow, yellow-orange, and red-orange as monochromatic colors in addition to my color choices. Then I pick contrasting colors to contrast my artwork or to create a split complementary scheme. And lastly, the tone refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a color. The rule of tone in making artwork is to identify your light source and the shadow part of your subject. It is similar to photography that without light the image is not interesting. There are lots of mediums for your artwork. It really depends on your preferences or what kind of medium really gives you comfort to produce an artwork. As a digital creator, I prefer to use designing tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to produce digital illustrations for online platforms or for print. I also used the watercolor pad to paint a subject using a watercolor. At the end of the day, you have the decision to choose what kind of medium that suits your workflow and your artwork too. The Final Output Showcase your design by posting it online or in an exhibit house. Social media is a free and open space to introduce your masterpiece and it might be your place to get opportunities to grow and expand your creativity. Also, Behance is a great platform to showcase your sample works and there are a lot of designers, illustrators, traditional artists, and photographers there that you can stalk or view their sample works as an inspiration. Start making now your illustration or artwork. You can see good progress when you fulfill to make artworks daily. Don’t pressure yourself to make a perfect artwork because everything starts at a bad phase where we can’t see perfection in our own artwork. Later on, you can see a lot of difference when you enjoy doing it and interpret your ideas on it. I hope you can learn something on my blog.

As one of three siblings, I've known for quite a while that birth order personality traits are a thing. I'm the youngest, and by far the most outgoing. My oldest sister is reliable and a leader, and our middle sister... Well, it's safe to say that she may be suffering from "middle child syndrome." You know what I mean: Sometimes they joke that they’re the "odd one out" of the family; the quiet one, the one that often gets left behind. It's not just me saying that, either — even she jokes around about it. But middle child-dom is not an actual disorder, according to Moraya Seeger DeGeare, licensed marriage and family therapist and the co-owner of BFF Therapy in Beacon, NY. "It's not like, diagnosable," she tells Refinery29. "I definitely think it's a real thing. But you're not going to be like, I'm coming in for treatment for middle child syndrome." Still, the theory that birth order has an effect on psychological development has been kicking around since the early 1900s, thanks to psychologist Alfred Adler. His theory suggested that middle children often feel neglected and have trouble fitting in. And when people talk about MCS now, they're usually referring to feeling excluded or overshadowed, like they have to compete with their siblings for attention or even like they'll never be their parents' favorite child (kind of dark, right?). Additionally, a 2019 study in the journal Sex Education found that middle children were the least likely to feel comfortable chatting with their parents about sex and sex education. Another study published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine also found that middle children were less family-oriented than their older siblings. It kind of makes sense that these are the traits associated with being an in-between sibling, when you consider how they were parented. "Attachment-wise and parenting-wise, the parents are adjusting as they have more kids," DeGeare explains. "The second kid is getting, theoretically, a less-anxious parenting style [than the first] because the parents aren't so hyper-focused on them." They also still have their eldest child to care for, so their attention is somewhat divided. Then, you guessed it: Parenting style changes yet again once another child is born. "When the third kid comes [the parents] have this baby they're giving attention to, potentially thinking, 'Oh, it's three, we're done,'" DeGeare says. The parents' attention splits again. If they think the third kid will be their last one, the newborn might get more attention for a while, while the parents soak up the "baby stuff" for the final time. And the middle child may feel lost in the shuffle — they get none of the special alone time they hear the eldest received and none of the additional doting they see being lavished on the youngest, just the "you'll be fine" attitude typical of (some) not-my-first-kid parents. Middle child syndrome doesn't happen to every in-between kid, though. According to DeGeare, parenting style makes a huge difference. If you have three-plus kids, being conscious to adjust yours may be enough to make sure your middle kiddo feels connected and appreciated. "I think if a parent wants to interrupt [birth order], they should make sure that they're giving each kid at least 30 minutes of one-on-one attention per day," she explains. "That way, the kid knows no matter what their birth order is that they have that unique attention." Some parents do this naturally; some kids may simple be less likely to have middle-child feelings, despite being one. Plus, DeGeare says, there are plenty of positive traits that come out of being a middle child. They're typically more creative, more independent, and the peacekeepers in the family. On a personal level, I can say it looks like my middle child sister has turned out just fine. At least, for now.

In Romania there are non-migrant goose species (Anser Anser) as well as migrant goose (Anser Albifrons, Anser Fabalis) . Is the biggest goose from our country(3-4 kg). Generally,the collour is brown-grey,and the outline feathers are hemed by white. The beak and the eyelids are orange-pink,with the nail beak-white,and the leggs are pink-red.Between male and female there are not visible differences.It has an extremely hearing and seeing, and is extremly cautious. Goose hunting is possible starting with October, when the migration starts in the wintering districts. They remain here, on the Danube Delta lakes and along the Danube until the snow falls cover the wheat and rape crops, which are excellent feeding places for them. The optimum hunting period is between November 1 and February 28 , when the goose stocks are in maximum number. The weight of one piece is between 2 - 5 kg depending on species. The type of hunting practiced is the still (blind) hunt in the morning at the feeding places or in the evening in the overnight places, on lakes and wide ponds. Depending on the existing conditions, the hunting may be organized in the following manners: Still (blind) hunt on ponds , when the birds leave or return from the feeding places; Still (blind) waiting in the field , on the direction to the feeding places, early in the morning when the birds "fly corridor" is known: from the overnight places to the feeding places. For this type of hunting, camouflage is done in special pits along the irrigation canals. It is a fascinating hunt, depending on every day's weather conditions (fogg, wind, snowfall). Still hunt in crop fields when the feeding places are exactly known. 0n a hunting day a hunter may shoot between 2 and 10 pieces, depending on the weather conditions. We recommend groups of 6 and 10 persons . Recommended gun: shot gun, pellets diameter 3.5 mm - 4 mm (no.3; 1; 0) .

Louis Theroux’s latest documentary, Selling Sex, aired amid controversy that the programme did not fairly represent the sex workers who took part. Two of its participants, Ashleigh and Georgia, published an open letter to the show’s creator and the BBC accusing them of editing the footage to frame sex workers as damaged victims in need of rescue. Meanwhile, on Twitter, Charlotte Rose said her contribution to the documentary had been removed entirely, writing: “After watching ‘Louis Theroux Selling Sex’ doc I realised why they took me out – I spoke about my therapy work with people with disabilities and my loving relationship – a loving couple with one in sex work wasn’t what they wanted.” The documentary saw Theroux don his most concerned face and relentlessly mine his subjects for trauma. Daddy issues, sexual abuse, and repressive religious upbringings were all unearthed and presented to the viewer as the root cause for these women’s ‘unhealthy’ behaviour. Theroux wrung his hands and worried about women “providing what is usually understood to be the most intimate physical act to a stranger for money” and how they “really felt about what was happening”. Despite all the subjects stating they did not want to be rescued, the documentary’s heavy emphasis on psychological trauma and false consciousness nevertheless framed them as tragic victims who know not what they do. Ultimately, Theroux privileged his own voice above that of his subjects, rather than allowing space for constructive dialogue among equals. It is a well-worn saviour narrative, and all felt very lazy. The reluctance of Selling Sex to engage with sex workers unless they confirm to a certain victim trope that validates the saviour dynamic is not unique and speaks to a wider social ambivalence around the sex trade. Viewing the sex worker as a victim may satisfy the moralist’s agenda, but it reinforces social hierarchy and ultimately stigmatises and disempowers the ‘rescued’. But this dynamic is nothing new. The sex-work saviour complex has been shaping media narratives since at least the nineteenth century, and when we examine it’s history, we can see just how little has changed. Historians have long noted that debates around sex work intensified significantly in the middle of the nineteenth century, and that there was a distinctive softening of public attitudes towards women working in the sex trade. Industrialisation, urbanisation, and grinding poverty all played their part. As did the 1864 Contagious Diseases Act, which tried to regulate venereal disease in the armed forces by forcing ‘common prostitutes’ to submit to examination and treatment. The Acts made sex work very public and galvanised growing public sympathy for the victims of what Josephine Butler called ‘surgical rape’. Rather than viewing the sex worker as a lustful sinner, she was repackaged as the pitiful victim of an uncaring world. Common Victorian euphemisms for a woman selling sex were ‘fallen woman’ and ‘unfortunate woman’. The debate was thrashed out in parliament as lawmakers sought to save sex workers from themselves. Doctors, police, social reformers, and the church all claimed ownership of the ‘problem’ and tried to remedy it. Newspapers referred to ‘the great social evil’ of prostitution and if it was a social evil, it must be society’s responsibility to save her. Adopting the position of saviour gave British newspapers permission to write about sex work, and they went into overdrive. In 1858, The Oxford University and City Herald reported on a surge of media interest in sex workers: “We trust that the attention which in London and throughout the country is being given to the painful and important subject of prostitution will not prove a mere transitory outbreak of popular enthusiasm and indignation.” By the following year, The East London Observer wrote that “the press is no longer ashamed to discuss the subject of prostitution. We believe we should not be beside the truth if we were to say that there is scarcely an English newspaper which has not directed public attention within the last twelve months.” Widespread media coverage was mirrored by the hundreds of charitable organisations that sprang up to rescue and reform fallen women. The Cardiff Female Refuge Society, the London Society for the Rescue of Fallen Women, the Portsmouth Social Purity Organisation, the Glasgow Midnight Rescue Brigade, the Staffordshire County Refuge for Discharged Prisoners and Fallen Women and the Liverpool House of the Ford are but a handful of the many such rescue charities dedicated to rescuing unfortunate women. Of course, these efforts only work if there is a victim to save, and the reformers were very particular about the kind of woman they wanted to rescue. The first edition of The Magdalen’s Friend contrasts the “poor, weary, outcast, bowed with grief and shame, who stands craving admission to a Home of Mercy”, with the unrepentant sex workers who are “living phantoms of sin”, concerned only with “obscene merriment”. In the final publication of The Magdalen’s Friend, an essay titled ‘How Do They Get Here’, considers what leads a woman to sell sex and concludes it can only be the result of deep personal suffering: “Public opinion says of the fallen, ‘they adopt their mode of life from choice.’ The moralist thinks they are such ‘from the force of circumstances, over which they have little or no control.’ The Christian philanthropist affirms, ‘They have become what they are because they were more sinned against than sinning.'” Sound familiar? Many of the rescue houses only accepted women who were within a certain age range, childless, free from disease, and generally appearing contrite and subdued. For example, the Marylebone Female Protection Society would not accept “openly depraved prostitutes”, only first offenders deemed worthy of help. In 1858, Charles Dickens, himself a patron of Urania Cottage, a home for fallen women, heard of a letter that had been written to The Times by a sex worker calling herself “another unfortunate”. Having not read the letter himself, Dickens contacted the paper “with the view of doing good to someone”. However, upon reading the letter, Dickens did not find a victim to save but an angry woman who rails against the staggering hypocrisy of “the Society for the Suppression of Vice, you the pious, the moral, the respectable”. Dickens was so “staggered and disconcerted” by what he read he swiftly removed his offer of help and hoped that it would not be seen by anyone at Urania Cottage. It’s 156 years later and documentary makers are still casting the sex worker as a victim in order to validate a moral agenda. Of course, there are sex workers who have experienced traumas, but only creating space for victim narratives does little to explore the complexities of those in sex work. The Victorian media discourse focused less on genuine experiences of the sex worker and more on the moral agenda of those who wished to save her. It was never about listening to sex workers but about imposing the values of the religious middle classes on the working poor. Yet we are still turning to Victorian cultural scripts to discuss sex work, which, though often well-meaning, exclude and disempower the very group that is the focus of the rescue effort. It’s time to change the script.

Nutritional Cure for Gum Disease Periodontal disease or popularly known as gum disease affects one in every three individual who are over 30 years of age in the United States. Gum disease in the inflammation of the gums by which could lead to tooth loss or even heart disease. The most common symptom of gum disease is the bleeding or pain of the gums. However some periodontal disease does not inhibit pain making the individual unaware that he or she already has gum disease. As a matter of fact, gum disease is responsible for more tooth loss to individuals who are over 30 than dental cavities. However, nutritional cure for gum disease may be possible. Eating foods rich in vitamin C can help relieve gum disease because vitamin C is an antioxidant. Also, vitamin C can lower the risk of developing severe gingivitis. It is well known among dental professionals that vitamin C and gum disease are related. Vitamin C is needed to repair the connective fibers and it also hastens the regeneration of the damaged bone. Another nutritional cure for gum disease is vitamin D. vitamin D has some anti-inflammatory properties that helps soothes the inflamed gums. Also, recent studies show that high vitamin D level in the blood can lessen the bleeding of the gums. Sun exposure is one of the most abundant sources of vitamin D. Experts recommend a total of 10 to 15 minutes of exposure done twice weekly can meet the recommended amount of vitamin D. Folic acid is also a nutritional cure for gum disease. Folic acid when taken in a form of a capsule can be very effective. Rinsing the mouth with a folic acid solution can also reduce the bleeding and inflammation of the gums. On the other hand, folic acid in capsule form has no effect on pregnant women who have gum disease. Only the mouthwash solution is effective on pregnant women. Some doctors recommend calcium as a nutritional cure for gum disease. A 500 milligram intake of calcium twice a day in a span of six months can reduce the symptoms of gum disease. Although calcium can reduce the bleeding of the gums and tooth loss, it has little effect on most cases. Cranberry juice is a good nutritional cure for gum disease. Cranberries helps fight gum disease by preventing bacteria from sticking on the teeth. A recommended four ounces of cranberry juice a day is sufficient enough to prevent gum disease. Experts recommend that you consult your doctor for proper nutritional cure for gum disease to prevent any complication on the gum disease. Follow the doctor’s advice and visit your dentist regularly to monitor the progress of the gum problem. Remember, gum disease may and can lead to heart problems. Take good care of your gums to have a healthy heart.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on health-care systems globally and potentially on maternal and neonatal outcomes, with an increase in maternal deaths, stillbirths and maternal depression. A recently released systematic review, published in the Lancet Global Health Journal, titled “Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis” has indicated that the rates of stillbirth and maternal deaths rose by around a third during the COVID-19 pandemic with outcomes showing considerable disparity in stillbirths between high and low resource settings. The review, which analysed data from 40 studies across 17 countries, reveals that the collateral effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal health are not limited to the morbidity and mortality caused directly by the disease itself. Population Foundation of India’s analysis of the Health Management Information System (HMIS) data on maternal health outcomes for the period of April 2020 to June 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, revealed a significant decline in several maternal health indicators. There was a 27% drop in pregnant women receiving 4 or more ANC, a 28% decline in institutional deliveries and 22% decline in prenatal services during this period. Global lockdowns, disruption in maternal health services, reduction in health seeking behaviour and fear of getting infected from health providers added to pregnancy risks and led to worsened health outcomes for women and infants. An increase in reported maternal anxieties could be an outcome of reduced medical attendance, limited permissible movement and lack of childcare access during lockdowns. The review also acknowledges that unequal digital access in low and middle income countries made remote consultations less feasible leading to disruption in preventive antenatal care for vulnerable groups. Going forward, there is an urgent need to prioritise safe, accessible, and equitable maternity care in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts as well as in future health crises. The increase in domestic violence during the pandemic could have also contributed to the increase in maternal mortality. School closures and loss of employment during the pandemic led to an increase in the caregiving burden and loss of economic security among several women. As the review rightly states, “the resultant financial and time constraints are likely to have far-reaching consequences for mothers’ physical, emotional, and financial health during pregnancy and in the future”. Commenting on the report, Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India said, “As the ramifications of the pandemic and its subsequent lockdown become clearer, there is an urgent need to ensure that maternal health services remain integral to our public health system’s response in any emergency situation. We must ensure that our vulnerable populations and communities are not negatively affected. Women’s health is often impacted adversely during humanitarian crises and must be highlighted in any emergency response.” To quote the article, “there remain opportunities to be seized as well as challenges to be faced as we work to end the grip of the pandemic on our global community.”

07 Jun 2017 François Houtart and the Common Good of Humanity François Houtart has passed away. He founded CETRI (Centre Tricontinental) in 1976 and was its director till 2004. We are sadly, painfully mourning. From ‘third-worldism’ to alter-globalism, from liberation theology to the ecology of creation, François Houtart has been and will always remain an important thinker in favour of the emancipation of peoples. He was a reference, a voice and a heart for hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, more particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America, from heads of State to the most humble of landless peasants. Better than any list of all his work, his articles, his speeches, his lectures and conferences, his trips, his qualifications, rewards and recognitions, François Houtart is best remembered for his personal qualities. Most of all, his stubbornness, his energy and his availability. He stubbornly and systematically was on the side of the oppressed, the alienated, the marginalized. He scientifically and politically shed light on the mechanisms of domination, denouncing them and promoting alternatives for an environment-friendly egalitarian social organisation. His never flinching energy, his untiring enthusiasm were characteristic. It is an understatement to say he never stopped working, he never counted the hours. Never ever did he stop acting, till just a couple of hours before the end … for the very first time. His availability was endless, his accessibility proverbial. Never disturbed, always ready to welcome, to listen, to speak, to commit himself in some new initiative, in a new fight for more justice. François also was the – sociological – conscience of the pregnancy of social relationships, of social determinants which made him humble and lucid concerning his own trajectory. ‘If I were born in a poor family in India, Mali or Nicaragua, I would never have had the social, cultural, symbolic resources that paved my way’. This is what he said to those who were close to him, at an anniversary some years ago. Yet, the choice was his, better than anyone else he chose the way of condemning injustice and promoting the liberation of the oppressed. The worldwide struggles of the social movements are in dire need of a holistic vision. Only with a holistic vision concrete actions can be based on profound analyses. Different aspects of the crises must be taken together. Here the role of the intellectuals becomes very important. We have to rethink the interrelation of the four fundamental aspects of our common life: nature, the material bases of our societies, organization and culture. We need to envision the whole; we need a perception of the wholeness of social processes. In the 16th and 17th century the enlightenment period marks a break with the until then hegemonic holistic vision of life on earth. The time has come to take up what was lost a few hundred years ago. We need a dialectical vision to define the process of the transition between the crisis of today and the possible world of tomorrow. Actors and strategies have to be identified. In this process we have to learn from the failures of the last century. Our way must be a dialectical way, we can’t afford to think and act in a linear way, instead we have to practice a historical approach, which a priori accepts the fact of permanent change of knowledge, technologies etc. But not only these more of less objective facts and tools change; we too have to change ourselves, as much as the common understanding of the common good is changing. Today three terms are used, which sound pretty similar, and all of them are used by social movements and parties around the world. Where is the difference between the “common good”, the “common goods”, and last not least the common good of humanity (CGoH)? The common good is based on ancient philosophical/religious ideas. The idea of the common good as special way of the public interest was popularized by Aristoteles in the fourth century BCE, it was taken up again by Thomas Aquino in the 13th century CE when the closed world of the European feudal method of production came under pressure from trade capitalism, slowly destroying the well known local economies. It’s difficult to talk today about the common good as the capitalist mode of production is in need of the state and social service for its own reproduction. For that reason the public interest, as is it presented to us today, is deeply influenced by the needs of capitalism. For that reason city planning, infrastructure, or even education and culture can be assisted by the state in the name of the public interest without posing the slightest challenge to capitalism. The Christian churches have also contributed to this system stabilizing interpretation of the concept of the common good. Large parts of the Christian social doctrines are based on the perception of social stratification, not of the understanding of classes. In the interpretation of many Christian scholars there are no structurally antagonistic interests, which prevent successful cooperation between different social actors in favor of the common good. As the common good can thus be included into capitalism, and can even legitimize this mode of production, the critical social movements and intellectuals have to transcend this concept. The same problems exist with the even narrower concept of the common goods. These, too, have their origin in pre-capitalist mode of productions. For that reason one of the first victims of the emerging capitalists actors were the commons of the “commoners”, the ordinary people, like forests, water and land. The recent land-grabbing movement is another attempt to privatize as much of the „unused“ assets as possible, in order to squeeze out profit where ever it is possible. The concept of the common goods is not only (until now) often capital friendly. Worse than this, supporters of the common goods approach often neglect the fact that antagonistic interests are inherently dominant in our societies. The reservation of some social fields for common goods should, in this approach, pacify the virulent antagonisms in our society. As the last year’s conference was devoted to the debate on the CGoH, there is no need to reiterate this. It should be just mentioned here that the main issue to think about more radical is the metabolism of our societies with nature. We can thus conclude that we are here to discuss in a profound way the possibilities for a post-capitalist paradigm, which is not determined by profit but by the needs of life. We thus also need a critique of the socialism of the eastern bloc, but not only in the negative sense. What we have to do here in Rome is thus to debate on the content of the socialism of the 21st century.

I would like to explain the vital role of clinical pharmacists in ensuring better medication use. In 1968, Varro Tyler, PhD, a leading professor of pharmacognosy, provided one of the better descriptions of clinical pharmacy. He called it “that division of pharmacy which deals with patient care with particular emphasis on drug therapy.” Dr. Tyler stated: “In practice, it is patient-oriented and includes not only the dispensing of required medications but also advising the patient on the proper use of all medications, both prescribed and patient-selected. It also utilizes the pharmacist as the information source for members of the medical and other health professions on all matters pertaining to drugs and their dosage forms.” While the field of clinical pharmacy has advanced significantly in the past few decades, this definition still holds true.

Every police officer is issued with a personal hand-held radio. It keeps them in contact with the force control room. They can do vehicle/address and person checks. They can request backup or assistance (one is more urgent than the other) and jobs are passed via the radio from the control room to cop. In a previous Writing Crime post, I posted a couple of videos which showed the importance of the radio. You can find it HERE. Today I am going to explain the very basics of the radio system. Each force is allocated a force call sign so if a cop travels from one force area into another they know the channel and the call sign of that force. My series is set in Nottingham so my cops when shouting the control room would call out to NH. Saying each letting individually. N. H. So, for instance, N.H from Bravo Romeo 3.2. (BR32 is made up) You can find the other 50 force call signs on the Wikipedia page HERE. (It’s 51 lines long, I thought it a little lengthy to rewrite out here.) If you need to spell words out when requesting a person/vehicle/address check, this is the phonetic alphabet you use. Several years ago when talking on the radio we used to use something called the 10 code, but with the new Airwave radio that gave forces the ability to cross county lines, they needed to come up with a code system that all officers could understand. Because each force 10 code was unique to their own force. You’ll maybe recognise the 10 code with the use of the old 10:4 for received transmission. It was replaced with the Status codes. These are below. Status 0 – Emergency Assistance State 1 – On Duty State 2 – On Patrol State 3 – At Station (Available) State 4 – Refreshments State 5 – En route to Incident State 6 – At Scene State 7 – Committed – Deployable State 8 – Committed – not Deployable State 9 – Prisoner Escort State 10 – At Court State 11 – Off Duty State 12 – Confidential Message State 13 – Non-Urgent Call Back State 14 – Urgent Call Back State 15 – Received State 16 – Repeat The College of policing has a great document on how to use the Airwave radio which you can find HERE should you want to trawl through it for further information.All of your uniform officers carry a personal radio – which is stored in their locker at work and batteries charged in a large multi-battery charger in room in the station somewhere. Detectives still have the radio they were issued as a uniformed officer but they are not as religious about carrying it and may tend to rely on their mobile phones more. But for direct access to the control room they will want their radios. So if they are going on a job where they feel they need access to the control room, say a warrant or an arrest, they may take their radio. If they are going out on inquiries, it is possible they will only have their phones. This, of course, is personal experience of how I worked in my department in my force. But, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility for your cop in your story to have or not have their radio on them. I hope you found this helpful.

Jizo & the Jizo Garden About Jizo Bodhisattva Jizo Bodhisattva is an important influence at Great Vow Zen Monastery. A Bodhisattva is an archetypal being dedicated to helping others, and embodying specific spiritual qualities. Jizo is known for making a vow to be present with, and benefit to, all suffering beings, until every single one awakens. It is this vow that inspired the monastery’s name. Jizo is also the protector of women, children, and travelers, and specifically helps children that have died navigate the transition between life and death. There is a tradition in Zen monasteries in Japan of offering Jizo ceremonies to help ease the grief of women who have lost children. Jizo Remembrance Ceremony In the introduction to her book Jizo Bodhisattva, Chozen Bays Roshi describes her work with child abuse, and the accumulated suffering she was carrying after working in the field for ten years. In order to help ease the burden of sorrow she was carrying, she attended a Jizo Ceremony in San Francisco with her Dharma friend Yvonne Rand. She writes, “After the ceremony, as I was heading back to Portland, I realized that my heart was palpably lighter. I hadn’t realized how heavy the burden of sorrow was, accumulated over ten years of child-abuse work. Also relieved was the hidden sorrow of my own miscarriage twelve years before. I did not talk or think much about the miscarriage because people could not understand long-lasting grief over an eight-week-old fetus. Until then I had discounted the power of an ‘invented’ ceremony. When I realized how important this ceremony was, and how deep and long-lasting its effects could be, I conferred with Yvonne, and began to offer the ceremony in Portland.” At Great Vow we offer two Jizo ceremonies per year, and in August we have a Jizo celebration called “Jizo Bon”. Many Jizo images stand and sit on the monastery grounds, and we have a Jizo Garden in the forest behind our zendo. There is a dharani (short chant) associated with Jizo, chanted at Great Vow every day. Chanting this dharani invokes the energy of Jizo, and may help dispel distressing, repetitive thoughts. Om - Ka - Ka - Kabi - San - Ma - E - Sowa - Ka Jizo’s name can be translated as “Earth Womb” or “Earth Storehouse”, and this well reflects Jizo’s qualities of caring for those who are vulnerable and supporting anyone in any realm. Jizo’s qualities include unflagging optimism, courage, and gentleness, and a nurturing love for all beings. Jizo plunges fearlessly into any place or situation to help those in need. Jizo has a special relationship with women who have lost children. Jizo is also a benefit for travelers at important life crossroads who may be facing great challenges.

This year, in considering the status of women – especially as it pertains to the participation of women in decision making – we must also consider the status of democracy. At its best, democracy protects human rights; promotes human dignity; and upholds the rule of law. It is a means to establish peace and shared prosperity. It should ensure every citizen, regardless of gender, has an equal voice; and free and fair elections that will respect the will of the people. At the same time, democracy requires constant vigilance, constant improvement – it is a work in progress. And today we know that democracy is increasingly under great strain. For 15 consecutive years, we have seen a troubling decline in freedom around the globe. In fact, experts believe that this past year was the worst, on record, for the global deterioration of democracy and freedom. The status of democracy also depends, fundamentally, on the empowerment of women. Not only because the exclusion of women in decision-making is a marker of a flawed democracy, but because the participation of women strengthens democracy. COVID-19 has threated the economic security; the physical security; and the health of women everywhere. As women struggle to get the healthcare they need, the pandemic appears to be reversing the global gains we’ve made in the fight against HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition, and maternal and child mortality. That’s why, on the first day of our administration, the United States reengaged as a member-state and leader in the World Health Organization; and we are revitalizing our partnership with UN Women, to help empower women worldwide. Eleanor Roosevelt who shaped the universal declaration on human rights once said, “Without equality there can be no democracy.” In other words, the status of women, is the status of democracy. For our part, the United States will work to improve both.

Frederick Henry Harvey Frederick Henry Harvey (June 27, 1835 – February 9, 1901) became known as “the Civilizer of the West” when the West was still wild. He is credited with creating the first restaurant chain and promoting tourism in the American Southwest in the late 19th century. Fred Harvey immigrated to the United States from Liverpool, England in 1853 and found work in New York as a busboy at Smith and McNell’s restaurant. It was here that he learned the importance of quality service, fresh ingredients, and handshake treatment. In 1856 he married Barbara Sarah Mattas, with whom he had six children. He was the kind of immigrant who made America what it is today: innovative and prosperous. As a freight forwarder in the 1870s, Fred Harvey spent time traveling by train in a pre-dining car era to experience firsthand the difficulty of finding good food. Harvey Hotels and Restaurants In 1876, Fred Harvey struck a deal with Charles Morse, the superintendent of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad when he opened restaurants along the railroad, and he was not charged rent. His first warehouse restaurant opened in Topeka, Kansas and two years later he opened his first hotel / restaurant in Florence, Kansas. The deal was sealed with just a handshake. By 1891, 15 Harvey House restaurants were in operation and at their peak, there were 84 Harvey Houses catering to wealthy and middle-class visitors. As a visionary innovator and marketer, Fred Harvey recognized a business opportunity. Harvey House dining rooms, restaurants, souvenir shops and hotels served passengers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads, the Gulf of Colorado and Santa Fe, the Kansas Pacific, the St. Louis-San Francisco and the Terminal St. Louis Railroad Association. Over a period of 90 years, Harvey House employed more than 100,000 young women to work at Harvey Houses, which were located about 100 miles from each other at train stations. Fred Harvey’s diners provided a most enjoyable dining experience. They provided healthy food and service from an engaging staff to passengers on their cross-country train journeys. Railroad staff would notify the restaurant by telegraph, so that each Harvey House of a train’s arrival time and how many people they would have to feed. Fred Harvey also employed Native Americans to demonstrate carpet weaving, pottery, jewelry making, and other crafts at his Southwestern hotels. During World War II, troop trains filled with starving soldiers served. The Harvey girls were pioneers in the West in search of income and independence. The 19th century was a time when working women were often looked down upon unless they were teachers or nurses other than the traditional ones, wife and mother. Fred Harvey hired women between the ages of 18 and 30 with “good moral character” who worked six days a week and 12-hour shifts at the train station diners. They earned $ 25 a month plus room and board, allowing them to save or send money to their families. Harvey’s girls resided in homes adjacent to restaurants and had a strict 10 p.m. curfew. A dorm supervisor routinely checked the bed, as Fred Harvey did not want his female staff to be confused with local prostitutes. Harvey’s girls’ uniform consisted of a long black dress, a starched white apron, black stockings, and black shoes. This image was popularized in a 1946 film of the same name, The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland. The Fred Harvey Company that operated the hotel and restaurant chain was continued by his sons and remained in the family until the death of a grandson in 1965. Fred Harvey’s ham or cheese sandwiches with an extra slice of bread for 15 cents were famous throughout the West for their value. Harvey’s last words to his sons before he died were “Don’t cut the ham too thin, guys.” Another reported account of his last words was “Cut the finest ham, guys.”

An improved method for physician-certified verbal autopsy reduces the rate of discrepancy: experiences in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (NHDSS), Burkina Faso Population Health Metrics volume 9, Article number: 34 (2011) Through application of the verbal autopsy (VA) approach, trained fieldworkers collect information about the probable cause of death (COD) by using a standardized questionnaire to interview family members who were present at the time of death. The physician-certified VA (PCVA), an independent review of this questionnaire data by up to three physicians trained in VA coding, is currently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is widely used in the INDEPTH Network. Even given its appropriateness in these contexts, a large percentage of causes of death assigned by VAs remains undetermined. As physicians often do not agree upon a final COD classification, there remains substantial room to improve the standard VA method, potentially leading to a reduction in physician discordance in COD coding. We present an extension of the current method of PCVA and compare it to the standard WHO-recommended procedure. We used VA data collected in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (NHDSS) between 2009 and 2010 using a locally-adapted version of an INDEPTH standard verbal autopsy questionnaire. Until 2009, physicians in the NHDSS followed the WHO method (Method 1). As an extension of Method 1, starting in 2010, the use of a panel of physicians was added to the coding process in the case where a third physician's final conclusions resulted in an undetermined COD (Method 2). Two independent samples of VA questionnaires were compared for the year 2009 (using Method 1) and the year 2010 (using Method 2). The WHO-recommended method used for 2009 yielded a high level of undetermined CODs, where the final coding was "undetermined" in 50.8% of all questionnaires due to disagreement among participating physicians (Method 1). By introducing a panel of physicians in 2010 for cases where the principal physicians disagreed on the cause of death, the revised method significantly reduced the proportion of undetermined CODs to 1.5% (Method 2). As the extended method of PCVA significantly improved the accuracy of the VA procedure, we suggest the adoption of this method for those countries where alternatives like computer-based VA coding are not available. Based on the results of our study, further research should be pursued. Verbal autopsy (VA) is a technique used to determine the cause of death by asking caregivers, friends, or family members about signs and symptoms exhibited by the deceased in the period before death. It is usually done by trained fieldworkers using a standardized questionnaire that collects details on signs, symptoms, complaints, and any medical history or events prior to death . The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of verbal autopsy to measure specific causes of death [2, 3]. The purpose of verbal autopsy is to describe the causes of death at the community or population level where limited or no vital registration is completed with medical certificates. Indeed, medically certified cause of death data are available for less than one-third of the more than 57 million deaths occurring worldwide annually. The majority of deaths lacking such data are from developing countries . Information about cause of death is essential for public health planning, priority setting, monitoring, and evaluation, but the collection of such information in countries with incomplete or no vital registration systems remains a substantial challenge . Reliable data on cause-specific mortality is also needed by countries to keep track of progress toward the Millennium Development Goals [3, 6]. The use of physician-certified verbal autopsies (PCVA) is common in the majority of developing countries, as well as for Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites (HDSS) that are members of International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in Developing Countries (INDEPTH) . Within the INDEPTH Network, 36 HDSS in 20 countries regularly use VA to assess cause of death . However, the data collection tools are not yet harmonized, which has led to substantial variability in the coding process across sites [7, 8]. Recently, there have been several attempts to introduce alternative methods such as a computer-based verbal autopsy coding method (InterVA) to replace the PCVA approach . This probability-based method was tested in several settings [9–11]. However, the results still show some discrepancies in comparison to PCVA results . Few studies are available on the use of different physician coding methods that produce better results. In contrast, the study by Joshi and colleagues comparing results involving multiple coders versus one single coder suggest that advantages attained from the multiple-coding system remain limited . However, in this study, the approaches for cause of death assignment used either a panel of expert physicians or involved two or more physician coders who independently reviewed the data to arrive at a final diagnosis [14, 15]. The method proposed in this paper was tested with the intention to build on former approaches, such as those presented in the study by Joshi et al . The Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (NHDSS) has existed since 1992 and is in the rural western part of Burkina Faso (Figure 1). It currently covers 58 villages and one semi-urban town and covers a population of about 85,000 inhabitants. The NHDSS is part of Kossi province, which consists primarily of a rural population of multi-ethnic groups. The predominant activity is subsistence farming and cattle keeping. The region is a dry orchard savannah and has a sub-Sahelian climate, which is characterized by a hot climate with short rainy season lasting from June to September with rainfall varying between 400 to 1000 millimeters. The vegetation is mainly scattered short trees. The mean temperature varies from 26°C to 34°C, often reaching 40°C in April, the hottest period . The NHDSS is a member of the INDEPTH Network, a global network of HDSSs with the aim of conducting longitudinal health and demographic evaluation of populations in low- and middle-income countries . The health facilities within the NHDSS consist of one secondary care facility (the district hospital) and 14 primary health centers. The NHDSS has been used as a sampling frame for numerous studies in the fields of clinical research, epidemiology, health economics, and health-systems research. Nouna has a functional vital event registration system, which allows collecting data continuously on pregnancies, births, deaths, and migration . The VA questionnaire The Nouna questionnaire covers background characteristics of the deceased using structured filter questions on specific signs and symptoms experienced by the deceased up to the point of death. Additionally, a narrative section provides an opportunity to describe conditions not covered in the structured questions (see Additional file 1). Although the questionnaire is written in French, interviews with the HDSS population are performed by trained fieldworkers who translate the content into local languages. The Dioula language is the most spoken local language, but several other languages are common, such as Bwamu, Moore, and Fulfulde. Verbal autopsy questionnaire data are collected every four to five months at the household level by interviewers. They are then coded by physicians familiar with the 10th revision of the WHO International Classification of Diseases codes (ICD-10). We used the ICD-10 adopted in 1994 by the World Health Assembly. Its main use here is to classify causes of mortality as recorded at the registration of death. The ICD-10 also covers a conceptual framework of definitions, standards, and methods that have been closely linked and developed along with the classifications themselves. A restricted list based on ICD-10 has been used for the final physician coding (see Additional file 2). Physicians' coding organization The VA coding sessions were organized locally by gathering 12 physicians working in the district hospital with an average working experience as general practitioners of four years. One of these physicians with detailed public health background guided the coding process. All physicians had good knowledge of patient management covering the areas of general medicine, care for pediatric inpatients, care for HIV patients, and basic gynecological and obstetrical care for women. Nevertheless, the panel sought opinion from external specialists in the area of interest when required. Based on the number of available physicians, the panel consisted of three to four members. An agreement upon a given cause of death was only reached when two out of three members (66%) or three out of four members (75%) of the panel arrived at a consensus. Thus the panel coding process was more than majority-based and required that more than 50% of the panel members come up with the same cause of death. The cause was then ascribed to the final cause of death. The panel overwhelmingly agreed to classify the cause of death as undetermined if the available VA information did not allow them to make a final decision. This study was designed as a comparative study using two methods of PCVA to ascertain causes of death respectively on two independent samples of VA questionnaires collected in 2009 and 2010. The first sample, from 2009, was coded using the WHO-recommended method (Method 1). The second sample, from 2010, was coded using the extended method (Method 2). Method 1: As recommended by WHO , two experienced local physicians interpret the answers to the questionnaire and independently determine the most probable cause of death. In the case of disagreement, a third physician is consulted. The cause of death is attributed only if supported by at least two physicians using ICD-10. Method 2: In 2010, Method 1 was extended using a panel of physicians in the case of a coding discordance between referee physicians. The VA coding procedure has been combined in a stepwise process shown in Figure 2. Verbal autopsy data collection Two key actors are generally involved in the process of VA data collection. Since the creation of Nouna HDSS, the event of death is registered in an active reporting system using community reporters, called community key informants (CKIs). Overall, 58 CKIs (one per village) report deaths occurring within households. Afterward, an assigned village interviewer collects information on the death. The trained field staff who visit households with a registered death have no medical background. As described above, they conduct the interview with the caregivers or relatives, translating the French VA questionnaire into the local language. The interview usually takes place several months after the event with the person who assisted the deceased before the death. Figure 3 presents the VA data collection flow chart in Nouna describing the interaction between fieldworkers and the community. Quality control is ensured by several checking mechanisms put in place at different stages of the data collection process. Whenever inconsistencies in collected information do not allow for a final diagnosis, a second interview is done by a field supervisor for consistency. Independently, the interview process at the household level is closely followed up by village supervisors in a random manner. At the data-entry level, attention is given to the attributed codes to reduce errors of coding. Statistical method used The concordance rate was obtained for each method by taking the total number of VAs coded where there is agreement among physician coders over the total number of VAs coded. The proportion test for two independent samples was applied to compare the proportions of undetermined cause of death achieved using the different methods. Verbal autopsy data coded Out of 1,256 deaths collected over the study period, 640 were coded in 2009 using the first coding method (WHO), while 616 deaths were coded in 2010 using the locally-adapted method. Agreement between physician coders Out of 640 deaths coded in 2009 using the WHO method, there was an agreement on 315 diagnoses. This represents a concordance rate of 49.2% for the first method. Applying the same procedure to the VA records of 2010, agreement could be achieved for only 219 records, resulting in a preliminary concordance rate of 35.6%. Involvement of the physician panel increased agreement on the final cause of death to 607 diagnoses. Thus, the latter method yielded a concordance rate of 98.5% among physician coders, given the two stages of analysis. With additional involvement of a physician panel in the case of disagreement among the principal coders, the discrepancy among physician coders could thus substantially be reduced to less than 1.5%. The results of the proportion test showed that the proportions of undetermined causes of death achieved by the two methods were significantly different (p value < 0.0001). The study shows a significant reduction in the percentage of undefined causes of deaths. Predominant cause-specific mortality fraction Our findings indicate that malaria is the leading cause of death, 37.3% in 2009 and 37.9% in 2010, of total deaths registered (Figure 4). Here the undetermined CODs are not displayed, assuming that the non coded CODs follow the same pattern as the coded CODs. Malaria is followed by pneumonia and diarrheal diseases. Figure 4 shows similar patterns in deaths using the two methods. Our findings provide evidence that the choice of verbal autopsy coding method has a highly significant impact on the results of PCVA. It indicates that the improvement of an empirical method of PCVA, like the WHO-recommended method , through use of a physician panel in case of COD-coding disagreements, leads to a high reduction of the proportion of undetermined causes of death. Although this method of panel coding necessitates additional resources and time for physician coders as compared to the standard coding procedure described by Soleman et al , and especially to the single-coding procedure described by Joshi et al , it brings a large improvement in the existing methods determining the probable causes of death. The findings of Fottrell et al support our results, as an initial agreement of 60% among two physicians was shown to increase to more than 80% when a review is done by one additional physician. Thus, our findings are in stark contrast to those of Joshi and colleagues who suggest reducing coding to one physician only . We cannot exclude the fact that the quality of coding might depend on the VA questionnaire used per HDSS site, as discussed in several INDEPTH meetings over the past five years. The current VA questionnaire available through WHO/INDEPTH tries to overcome limitations of existing VA questionnaires, offering separate versions for different age groups and providing comparability over different countries. Thus, NHDSS has moved to the updated WHO/INDEPTH questionnaire in 2011. For coding, the Nouna site uses the restricted classification list suggested during the INDEPTH Meeting in Uganda in 2008, comparable with other HDSS sites. On one hand, our data possibly suggest that the new multicoding system of deaths doesn't necessarily affect the mortality pattern, although it results in changes in the proportion of deaths within the different groups of leading causes of death. Undeniably, the suggested method is more time-consuming and costly, but it is also more efficient. However, this is the first time that such a panel discussed the questionable cases. In summary, the procedure might be especially helpful in HDSS sites where high rates of undetermined CODs are observed. The use of automated Bayesian models to assign the most likely causes of death tested by Byass are currently under investigation in the Nouna HDSS. The main gains achieved from this method are a reduction in time and cost needed to complete the coding process. Additionally, as the model doesn't involve different physicians over time or in different countries, it aims to provide comparable results within HDSS sites over time and across different HDSS sites. However, its use is still limited to certain sites and the result comparison with PCVA approaches still shows some discrepancies in comparison to the PCVA results . However, given that the computer-based probability approach to VA interpretation is designed to overcome the weakness of physicians' reviews, preliminary results are promising, but are not fully convincing [9–11]. At present, the main problem in choosing an optimal method of coding for VA is that no gold standard is available and comparison among various methods remains limited. Currently, both methods might profit from comparing their results with those by the other method. For resource-poor settings, a reliable and affordable method of VA coding remains a necessity, as mortality data remain important to guide decision-makers for health planning purposes. While waiting to scale up use of the computer-based model, the improved WHO method proposed in our study could be applied as an alternative method for coding, as it offers a good rate of concordance among physician coders. Despite verbal autopsy being a useful tool in determining causes of death, the method has some limitations. Previous studies note these shortcomings in detail [2, 5, 9, 13]. Because verbal autopsy is based on data collected through an interview process, and based on signs and symptoms exhibited, it is subject to recall bias and misreporting. Physicians have different experiences and knowledge in coding that could lead to different interpretations of the diagnosis [5, 9]. While PCVA has some well-known limitations , the shortcomings of the tool are known and quantifiable. These deficiencies, however, should not prevent countries requiring information on causes of death from benefiting from the use of VA when no practical alternative for obtaining these data exists. Few studies are available on the use of different physician coding methods that produce better results. However, the approaches for cause of death assignment most commonly used either a panel of expert physicians or two or more physician coders who independently review the data and arrive at a diagnosis [14, 15]. Despite its acknowledged limitations , PCVA is still considered the best possible method to get cause of death estimates in areas where vital events registrations systems are limited or not available. Cohen's kappa as a measure of agreement couldn't be applied, as both samples used here were independent (years 2009 and 2010) and the coding was done independently in a blind manner by different physicians. Given this constraint, we focused only on the comparison of concordance rate between the two samples. This approach to analysis allowed us to attain a simple but effective measure for the improvement of the extended coding method. There is a need for further study to confirm our findings in other settings. This will have the advantage of adopting a unique method for HDSS sites within the INDEPTH Network and to some extent to other sites outside the network interested in more accurate physician-certified verbal autopsy coding methods. Verbal autopsy remains essential to capture and determine probable cause of death, especially in the context of low-income countries like Burkina Faso, where it is estimated that roughly 75% of deaths occur at home . The VA process has the ability to contribute substantially by informing policymakers on real mortality data and allowing countries to monitor trends toward attainment of Millennium Development Goals, in particular those related to maternal and child health outcomes. The advantage of involving a physician panel in the coding process as suggested here is obvious, as it allows coding of an additional 50% of VAs. Importantly, this method promotes interactive discussions among physicians involved in the coding process, similar to what physicians are already doing during their clinical presentations on patients. Thus, the panel method provides a framework for scientific discussion among physicians, allowing everyone to update their knowledge. Our study presents an alternative method of PCVA that substantially reduces the proportion of undetermined causes of death and therefore contributes to the death codification. We also aim to advocate for harmonization in the PCVA process, while encouraging the validation of the computer-based method of death coding. World Health Organization: WHO technical consultation on verbal autopsy tools. Geneva: WHO; 2005. Fottrell E, Byass P, Ouédraogo WT, Tamini C, Gbangou A, Sombié I, Högberg U, et al.: Revealing the burden of maternal mortality: a probabilistic model for determining pregnancy-related causes of death from verbal autopsies. Population Health Metrics 2007., 5: 1, BioMed Central Fantahun M, Fottrel E, Berhane Y, Wall S, Högberg U, Byass P: Assesing a new approach to verbal autopsy interpretation in arural Ethipian community: the InterVA model. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2006, 84: 204-210. 10.2471/BLT.05.028712 Byass P, Huong DL, Minh HV: A probabilistic approach to interpreting verbal autopsy: methodology and preliminary validation in Vietnam. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 2003, 31: 32-37. 10.1080/14034950310015086 Oti SO, Kyobutungi C: Verbal autopsy interpretation: a comparative analysis of the InterVA model versus physician review in determining causes of death in the Nairobi DSS Population. Population Health Metrics 2010, 8: 21. 10.1186/1478-7954-8-21 Joshi R, Lopez AD, MacMahon S, Reddy S, Dandona R, Dandona L, Neal B: Verbal autopsy coding: are multiple coders better than one? In Bulletin of the World Health Organisation. Volume 87. Bulletin de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé; 2009:51. 10.2471/BLT.08.051250 Jha P, Gajalakshmi V, Gupta PC, Kumar R, Mony P, Dhinga N, et al.: Prospective study of one million deaths in India: rationale, design and validation results. PLoS Med 2006, 3: e18. PMID:16354108 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030018 Garenne M, Fauveau V: Potential and limits of verbal autopsies. Bull World Health Organ 2006, 84: 164-5. PMID:16583068 10.2471/BLT.05.029124 The International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health[] Sié A, Louis V, Gbangou A, Müller O, Niamba L, Stieglbauer G, Yé M, Kouyaté B, Sauerborn R, Becher H: Global Health Action. 2010, 3: 5284. Byass P, Fottrell E, et al.: "Refining a probabilistic model for interpreting verbal autopsy data". Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 2006,34(1):26-31. 10.1080/14034940510032202 Centre de recherché en Santé de Nouna: Rapport annuel 2010 du système de surveillance démographique et de santé. In Rapport périodique N°2. Janvier; 2011.

Hands of the faculty at the Tucson Clay Co-op, where I'm currently teaching a class. We came up with this as a statement for the times and the philosophy of the Co-op, but also as a potential arts project that could be done easily with student groups of all kinds, casting hands and making a simple mosaic. So we'll see where this goes! I always seem to love the Circle of Hands motif, Spiderwoman's Hands, weaving the world together. Or in this case, piecing it together, all the broken shards made into Beauty. Monday, February 20, 2017 “While the traditional origin and journey stories are needed, none of them can provide the encompassing context such as is available in this new story.” Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth, 98-9). From the Introduction to the New Story Hub: "For people, generally, their story of the universe and the human role in the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. The deepest crises experienced by any society are those moments of change when the story becomes inadequate for meeting the survival demands of a present situation".......................Thomas Berry, Dream of the Earth As we change our story, we change our world. |My apologies to this wonderful artist. I was given it, but not your name. Thankyou,| "When I began this work, someone asked me, Joanna why are you doing this? I thought I was doing it to make us more effective, working for global peace and justice, that we were doing the work to be better agents of change. But when I was asked that, the answer came right from my solar plexus: I'm doing this work so that when things fall apart, we will not turn on each other. So I think that's the biggest challenge now. The powers that momentarily have gained ascendance in our culture know how to manipulate our fears very well. They know how to try to turn us against each other. So a big challenge is to not buy into that, and to be able to look at each other with trust, saying, "Here is a brother or sister, brought by the intelligence of Earth, to be alive at this moment, then this person can also deep within them have a care that life can go on." February 13, 2017 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Interview It's 3:23 in the morningand I'm awake because my great great grandchildren won't let me sleep my great great grandchildren ask me in dreams what did you do while the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unraveling? We are living in a time of the convergence of multiple cataclysmic forces: runaway anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD), chronic wars and the most grotesque economic inequality ever witnessed on Earth. And all are worsening by the day. Humans have changed the chemistry of the oceans and altered the very atmosphere of Earth. The planet's largest ecosystems are in free-fall collapse as ACD proceeds apace. Racism, sexism, xenophobia and myriad other structural forms of hate are amplifying around the globe as a fascist authoritarian has ascended to the US presidency, the most powerful office in the world. This reality-television star, failed businessman, sexual predator, and hate-and-fear monger is clearly aiming for the fast track toward totalitarian rule. "[The totalitarian leaders'] careers reproduce the features of earlier mob leaders: failure in professional and social life, perversion and disaster in private life," Hannah Arendt, author of the essential The Origins of Totalitarianism, wrote. "The fact that their lives prior to their political careers had been failures, naïvely held against them by the more respectable leaders of the old parties, was the strongest factor in their mass appeal." Sound familiar? Origins, published in 1951, should be mandatory reading for anyone concerned about what is happening in the US right now, and what may be to come. Arendt, a world-renowned and respected philosopher during her time, could have also been called a prophet. "The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist," Arendt also wrote. "But people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists." More recently, just after Trump won the election, Bannon was quoted by The Hollywood Reporter as saying, "Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power." The news on all fronts is truly horrific. Yet as these malevolent forces charge ahead, equal and opposite reactions of resistance, awakening and love for humanity and the planet are emerging. Not even one month into the presidency, the Trump administration has spawned global demonstrations the likes of which are comparable to those that occurred in February 2003 in opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Clearly an awakening is well underway. Hannah Arendt begins Origins with an epigram from her teacher Karl Jaspers that seems apt: "Give in neither to the past nor the future. What matters is to be entirely present." That statement parallels what I was told by one of the great teachers of our time, Joanna Macy. "The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world," she told me in 2006. Macy, an eco-philosopher and a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory and deep ecology, cofounded with her husband Fran Macy a method of grieving, healing and empowerment that evolved into what is now called the Work That Reconnects. I attended one of her workshops in 2006 in order to deal with the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder I was struggling with as a result of my reporting from the front lines in Iraq, and wrote about that experience here. Yet now, in 2017, a new darkness is enveloping the world. After taking some time to herself in the wake of Trump's ascendency to power, Macy emerged with an offering of a retreat in Abiqui, New Mexico, aptly titled, "In the Dark, the Eye Learns to See." The title, borrowed and melded from poet Theodore Roethke's "In a Dark Time," as well as Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote, "Only when it's dark enough can you see the stars," could not have been more appropriate. The moment I was aware of the opportunity to engage deeply in the work again with Macy, who is now 87 years old, I enrolled. Like so many, I have felt utterly overwhelmed by the viciousness and rapidity with which what Macy refers to as "The Great Unraveling" is now occurring. Like a mountain climber beginning to slip down an icy slope, I needed to find a way to check my fall, hold fast and resume the climb, even if it meant climbing up into a storm. Simultaneous to "The Great Unraveling," Macy coined the phrase "The Great Turning" to describe "the essential adventure of our time": the shift from what she calls the "industrial growth society" that is consuming the planet to a life-sustaining civilization. Whether that shift will occur or not is an open question, now more than ever before as we move into the darkness of this ominous storm. But it is this very storm that could very well bring about "The Great Turning." "We need an opposing wind to fly," Macy said to the group the morning before our interview. "It's the hardship that catalyzes our awakening." Joanna Macy: I think the two answers to that, as I see it, are as follows. One is that, as Bill Moyers has said the morning after the election in that piece he wrote, "Farewell America," he laid it at the doorstep of the media: the failure of mainstream media to grow up and report what was actually happening. They let themselves be bought and cowed and distracted, and disrespected the intelligence of the American people by feeding them pap and amusement. They featured Trump up down and sideways. I think that's part of it. Let's not omit Fox News, which has been a force for the distraction and dumbing-down of the United States of America for quite awhile now. [As] one whose spiritual roots are in Protestant Christianity, it makes me quite sick to my stomach to see what the evangelicals' role … has been in the mauling of the public attention and intelligence. So there's that, but then there is something else. For the last 36 years, since the advent into power of Ronald Reagan, public education and the public school system has been gutted. It's criminal that we've seen how two whole generations have grown up with shamefully limited understanding of the world, history and geography. People in this country now have great difficulty in critical thinking and being able to express themselves. The public mind has been shattered, fragmented. In the Vietnam War, for example, 50 years ago, all the protests were visible on television, and people knew where Vietnam was. So to me, one of the great tragedies has been the disintegration of the American capacity to think and pay attention. Number one in your pursuits is the nurture and feeding of the separate ego, separate individual. That leaves you very little to fall back on if you have to confront something unpleasant, like the criminal activities of your own government. So the weakening of the mind, through the reasons I've given, and the culture bred on competition, command and control, power over -- which we inherit from the patriarchy -- these also have bled people of the nerve to challenge the absurdity or criminality of the larger systems. This makes it very easy for people to allow themselves to be lied to and to be bought. There is the fright induced by finding yourself essentially alone. And that is much the story of the American culture. One more reason, and I think about this all the time, is that we have, in the mid-20th century, the release from breaking open the nucleus of the atom. What we did in doing that was to release the strongest binding power in the universe. It's the glue of the universe. And you can't do that. If it ever were to happen, we'd need to be highly integrated, wise beings, who knew just what they were doing. The tragedy is that we managed to do that when we were still very vulnerable to greed and hatred and this isolated ego needing to subdue everyone else for the sake of the ego. That that happened is perhaps the greatest tragedy of planet Earth. And for the sake of our poor ancestors. I've become convinced that people feel unglued, that there is a basic shakiness. People used to be able to rely on certain things. Reliance on the Earth being there. Relying on the teachings you had. Relying on some values that mattered to you. Relying on your relationships with people. But this [relationships] is the strongest power of the universe that holds it together, that we would shatter that. I think about this a lot. As an activist on nuclear issues, I notice how all efforts in environmental activism, peace and justice activism, were [hampered] by this difficulty people have in sustaining the gaze. This is an unfortunate development. Back then we were trying to scare people to pay attention. You don't [know] how bad it is with climate change, you don't know how many nuclear warheads are on high alert. Get roused. And it wasn't working. People thought the public was apathetic. But I realized the etymology of the word was a reflection of what was so. [early 17th century: from French apathie, via Latin from Greek apatheia, from apathēs "without feeling," from a- "without" plus pathos "suffering."] It was not that people didn't care or didn't know, but that people were afraid to suffer. It was the refusal or the incapacity to suffer. So this has been a lot of my work. To help people open to and become enamored of the idea that they'd really like to see what was going on. And to open the eyes and open the heart to discover, again and again, universally in the work, that acceptance of that discomfort and pain actually reflected the depths of your caring and commitment to life. And people became positively charged with determination and caring and creativity, and community. We were re-weaving. But without that people are lost, isolated, scared. And that became conscious certainly under George W. Bush. They were consciously using the plan of Joseph Goebbels, who served Hitler, who said you have to scare people, give them an enemy. And also divide them against each other. So to me, this was a logical unfolding [after] what happened on 9/11…. So that was the release. And the release would come, and as people began to break through their reluctance to suffer with our world, once they took that on and spoke to it, then they found their unity with our world. Often, not only did a sense of bondedness come, but a lot of hilarity. There is laughter and joking, and a shaking off of a kind of spell or curse. A feeling comes, of, "I can be here." And that feels more liberating and true to you and brings you into the moment when you are less dependent on someone giving you a failsafe method to make everything fine, because no one can do that. People dare to be comfortable with uncertainty if they are in solidarity with each other. Dahr Jamail: What are some of the things you see that are posing the biggest challenges to people? When I began this work, someone asked me, Joanna why are you doing this? I thought I was doing it to make us more effective, working for global peace and justice, that we were doing the work to be better agents of change. But when I was asked that, the answer came right from my solar plexus: I'm doing this work so that when things fall apart, we will not turn on each other. So I think that's the biggest challenge now. The powers that momentarily have gained ascendance in our culture know how to manipulate our fears very well. They know how to try to turn us against each other. So a big challenge is to not buy into that, and to be able to look at each other with trust, saying, "Here is a brother or sister, brought by the intelligence of Earth, to be alive at this moment, then this person can also deep within them have a care that life can go on." So there you have something in common right away. Instead of contempt and judgment of them, and we practiced this recently in our work…moving that contempt into curiosity, which is very helpful. We've got to use our wits, and by grace re-knit and find our way into some solidarity with one another. Facing the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced, with climate change and the threat of nuclear war, which I think is very real. We will come together when we die, but I would love for us to come together before that. [Laughs] I would love for it to be before it's too late. Or at least long enough so that we can look into each others' eyes with love. Dahr Jamail: When people come to your intensives, or even just your lectures, what are they seeking? What are you seeing happen to them, from when they come to you, to what happens to them as they do the work that reconnects? Since the ascendency to power of Trump, the Work that Reconnects is being turned to by many more people than ever before, and many who have already experienced it are actually taking it out to more people. I think people are coming so that they can openly speak of their distress, pain, despair, fury. They love that about the work. They come for that, because this is a place where these dark emotions are not pathologized, but taken as wholesome and realistic. Another reason people don't wake up is because the culture and psychotherapy are both so reductionist, focused on making happy isolated individuals. And that has been very good for the pharmaceutical industry too, let alone other forms of addiction. So it's like waking from a kind of addiction. It is a noble thing. It is a choosing. So our breaking free, in order to see clearly, takes many forms, doesn't it? What is called of us now, from the planet? What are we being called to do at this time? To wake up together. That is actually the name of the movement in Sri Lanka that I went over to do field work with. Sarvodaya. Taking the Gandhian term, but using it in a slightly different way, but the same Sanskrit, which is "everybody wakes up together." It's hard to wake up alone now. It's scary to see even what is going on. But there is almost no limit, I've come to believe, to what we can do with the love and support of each other. There is almost no limit to what we can do for the sake of each other. This taps into the Bodhisattva heart. That's that hero figure of Mahayana Buddhism, "the one with the boundless heart." The one who realizes there is no private salvation. If you are going to wake up, you have to wake up together. Never has that been more true than now, at this stage of late stage corporate capitalism. There is a huge force, through the media, through the banking system, through these people and corporations that are locked in runaway system that is very hard for them to stop now. Because once you create something, an economic system or being or contraption that has to keep making more money, it is forced to do that. It is forced into these extractive industries, and the mining. Even the nicest people are caught up in this. These are super-human forces and principalities, and so many are trapped in it. Those who appear to be our enemies, they are just flesh and blood who are also trapped by this economic system. And it's good for that system to keep making nuclear bombs. It had President Barack Obama over a barrel. He was caught in that system before he walked into the White House as president. And his first act had to do with more permission being given to Wall Street. So that can give us compassion for each other. And we don't have to waste time being scared of each other. We can see each other as captives of a force that's got us all by the throat. But we can stop it. We have to help each other wake up to how we are destroying everything we love, before we are turned into robotic instruments of these inhuman systems. Just by their own logic, it is pretty simple to see. It's going to be beautiful to see what we dare to do. Facing our fears, and letting go of and getting over our knee-jerk reactions to what we think we don't like, or are afraid of. To see our capacity to walk into the fire. To discover how much we really love being alive. To give ourselves a taste of what that passion is. To let us fall really in love with our planet, and its beauty, and to see that in ourselves, as well as in each other. The inhuman economic machine does not love us back. It makes us into robots. It sucks us into the destruction of all that is. And even if we can't turn it around now, at least we can wake up, so that in the time that is left we can discover who we are, just looking into each other's eyes. Just looking into the face of the moon at night, or the trees, or the faces of our children and free ourselves. I think we want that. We can do that, we are capable of that, and that is what I see happening. I know that is possible, because I see it. Because it's happened to me, and countless of my brothers and sisters. They don't have to do the Work That Reconnects, they just have to fall in love with life, and there are many ways that people are doing that. And as you do, you find that you are not alone here. We not only have each other, but we have the ancestors. And we have the future ones. And that is the truth. The ancestors are with us because their blood flows in our veins. They made us. We wouldn't be here without them. Every single one of them, back through time, carried us like a seed. They are here. And they are worried sick about us. And the future ones -- we carry the future in us. And the future ones and the ancestors, I feel they surround us at times, as witnesses. And if we open our heart-minds to them, they can give us guidance and strength and strength in our hearts. Because it helps us realize how big we are. We are bigger than the balance sheets of the mega-corporations. But the mega-corporations are not real. We are real! People are starting to take radical actions -- the resistance at Standing Rock, people chaining themselves to railroad tracks to block coal trains, etc. -- valiant acts of resistance -- yet much of mainstream society still has not joined with these movements. Talk about that disparity, and that phenomenon. There again is the betrayal from the media. Fox News and all the others are made to do what they do, skewering the truth as they do. These people who take these valiant actions to help the Earth, they call to me at the center of my soul. They are the cutting edge of human evolution. They have broken free from being captives of the hyper-individualism of our culture. They are no longer held captive by their lonely ego winning out over other people. They are no longer held captive by a shrunken ego. And to me, there is nothing more beautiful. I see beauty in them. Such great moral beauty. They are aflame with meaning. They are like beacons. They are saying, "Don't let it get the best of you. This is just hardware! This is just cement and steel! Don't let this cow you. See, watch! I'm not afraid. I'm going to do it. I'm going to lock myself down…. But see! See how it is to be free!" That's what I hear them saying to the psyche. I think there is nothing more beautiful. They are showing us what we can be. That we can spring free, and walk out of the prison cell of the separate ego and find our true nature in our inter-woven-ness in the web of life. Oh, that just blows my mind it is so beautiful! It makes me so glad to be alive! I'm so glad to be alive now. [Long pause.] I'm so glad that if this had to happen, that I hadn't checked out 10 days or centuries earlier. I'm so glad to be able to, even in the smallest way, to take part in this "Great Turning." To give it a chance for a life-sustaining society. Otherwise we are just right down the tube. We are just flushing everything right down the toilet. But it's not over yet. And I'm here with my brothers and sisters, and even if we go under, and I have to admit looks more likely today than yesterday, we're going to discover how big is our strength, and how big is our love for life. We can do that, and see how much we care. And we can be scared. I can see myself now in a situation where I can forget these words. Because the global corporate economy has developed such tools for destroying the mind through different ways of breaking the mind. But I'm not broken yet. And I'll forgive myself ahead of time if under the pressures that the system has developed and used on plenty of other people, my mind breaks. I'll forgive myself ahead of time if my mind breaks. But right now, I see the people that are working, that I work alongside, I see people like the scientists how they are saving the information about climate chaos. People are being called forth to do some beautiful things. It makes me so glad to see this. And even if in the future, from some cosmic place, they say, "That little third planet out in that little old solar system over there, boy they blew it" -- even so, there were some beautiful efforts made, some beautiful music. Strong hearts, and a lot of loving. What should we each, individually, be doing? What is the most important thing for us to do, right here, right now? To find our strength and our reason, in connection with each other. So that will be different with everybody. Each one will have a different path. People will find different ways. So, if you're a clergyman or woman, you'll find yourself saying new and stronger things from the pulpit. And if you're working in a corporation, you'll find ways to sabotage. There is plenty of that already going on. Do you think we're alive now just by chance that we haven't blown ourselves up yet? There have been Bodhisattvas at work, gumming up the works. The most important thing to do is find your gratitude for life. Take stock of your strengths and give thanks for what you have, and for the joys you've been given. Because that is the fuel. That love for life can act like grace for you to defend life. So don't get too solemn. Don't just spend all your time gritting your teeth. Laugh out loud. Enjoy a kind of wild joy. Ah! Now I have time, to break free from what had stopped me before. Now I've time. This time. To realize my inter-being with all life. So it'll be different for different individuals. But I think we should not make a move to do things alone. Find others. Even if it's one other person to begin with. Then others will come. Because everybody is lonely. And everybody is ready to find what they most want. And if it means that we have to be in such danger for us to find out how much we need each other, then let it be that. So little study groups, and book groups, make a garden together. Keep your ear to the ground. Inform each other. We have to develop the skill of finding that it is more fun to be waking up together, Sarvodaya [Sanskrit term meaning "universal uplift" or "progress of all"], than a single lone star on the stage. " At the conclusion of the interview, thanks were shared, then Macy smiled and said, "I'm going to go walk in the sun now."

Diagnostics that combine imaging techniques such as PET and MRI could enhance disease detection and location if effective multimodal contrast agents can be developed. A nanoparticle called AGuIX has been developed that is comprised of gadolinium-bound by chelates and additional free chelates that can be further labelled with radioactive isotopes enabling both PET and MRI imaging. Herein, we describe the size characterization of these nanoparticles together with their size distribution, which is an important parameter for pharmacokinetics, by a hyphenated method that is hollow fiber flow field flow fractionation (HF5). Once radiolabeled, the size was determined to confirm their integrity. The average radius of these nanoparticles was about 3.5 nm and was not significantly affected by radiolabeling. The labeling of these nanoparticles with radionuclides for SPECT/PET was also evaluated (namely 64Cu, 44Sc and 67Ga). Parameters such as the molar ratio, pH and temperature were optimized. For the three radionuclides considered, 60% to 100% radiolabeling yields were reached, with no further purification at this stage. High specific activities could be attainable for all percentages of free DOTA grafted at the surface of the AGuIX nanoparticles considered in this work. Nanoparticles, Multimodality, Radiolabeling, AguiX, Scandium-44, Copper-64, Gallium-67 Drug delivery systems comprised of nanoparticles are already being used in the clinic as carriers for sensitive chemotherapeutics or highly toxic substances, are an emerging field for imaging and therapy of tumors able to carry and deliver radionuclides for therapeutic or imaging purposes . Gadolinium-based nanoparticles (GBN) have been developed and can be detected by MRI and PET imaging modalities used in routine clinical practice. Additionally, they can be used as radio sensitizing agents in cancer therapy . These GBN, called AGuIX, are composed of a polysiloxane backbone conjugated to DOTA (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid) derivatives. These DOTA complexes are covalently bound at the surface of the particle via an amide bond . After 2 days of maturation in water (final step of purification process), the Gd2O3 core is totally dissolved by a top-down process described in detail by Le Duc, et al. , where the presence of the chelate is crucial to reduce the nanoparticles hydrodynamic diameter from 10 nm to approximately 3-5 nm nanoparticles and promote the dissolution of Gd2O3. One of the limitations for the translation of nanoparticles to the clinic is toxicity. The advantage of ultra-small GBN nanoparticles is their biodegradability and renal elimina-tion that limits the risk of toxicity . Furthermore, the 3-5 nm size of these nanoparticles enables clearance via the kidneys [4-6]. These NPs exhibit two-fold higher plasmatic res-idence time than DOTAREM® in rodents (commercial MRI contrast agent) and display significant accumulation in tumor tissues thus suggesting Enhanced Permeability and Retention (EPR) effect . In addition, to target a tumor, these nanoparticles can be functionalized with different binding moieties such as amine, thiol, carboxylic or methacrylate and a targeting molecule can be conjugated through the selected linker [8, 9]. For instance, targeting molecules such as cRGD, ATWLPPR have been proposed to target malignant cells or neovesssels [10,11]. Peptides highly specific for Aβ amyloid fibrils in the case of Alzheimer disease have also been proposed . The carboxylic acid groups of DOTA on GBN surface can also bind aromatic quaternary ammonium (QA) functions and increase the accumulation in the tumor site in the case of chondrosarcoma. These QA have equally affinity for sulfate and carboxylate groups in the glycosamynoglycan moieties on proteoglycans overexpressed in malignant cells . Moreover, DOTA is a universal chelator for radiometals that has been shown to be a good chelate for binding M3+ and M2+ radiometals with high kinetic and thermodynamic stability for avoiding in-vivo transmetallation and subsequent damage to normal tissue [14,15]. These GBN exhibit sensitizing properties, which render them hopeful therapeutic agents for radiotherapy [16,17] and have recently been demonstrated to be an efficient theranostic tool for image-guided radiation therapy of brain tumors . The continuous quest to improve diagnostic performance and optimize treatment strategies has led to the development of combined imaging modalities: the high spatial and contrast resolution of MRI with the high sensitivity and molecular functional information from PET imaging. The use of positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is mainly because of its ability to provide complementary functional, morphological, molecular, and (patho-) physiological information related to the pathology. This will ultimately lead to a better stratification of patients before therapies, selection of patient candidates, thus, avoiding both toxicity issues and cost of an ineffective therapy. GBN are good candidate as regard of gadolinium core allowing MRI and DOTA chelate allowing chelation of radiometals used for PET. DOTAs grafted at the surface are used to bind essentially Gd3+ for MRI imaging. The quantity of free DOTAs, expressed in percentages by reference to the number of DOTA complexed with Gd3+ ions, are available to complex a metallic radioisotope (e.g. 67Ga,64Cu,44Sc) for SPECT/CT or PET/CT imaging . The final quantity of free DOTA is expressed in percentages by reference to the number of DOTA complexed with Gd3+ ions. Even if the quantity of free DOTA is low, it is sufficient for radio imaging that is very sensitive. The number of free ligands can be increased by post-functionalization or slight modification in the synthetic process. 99mTc is the most employed metallic radionuclide (RN) in SPECT imaging whereas the gold standard for PET is 18F. Another recently established radioisotope for PET is 68Ga (T1/2 = 68 min) with a half-life comparable to 18F, it has a metallic character which facilitates radiolabeling and can be acquired from an in-house generator that can be eluted every 4 hours, thus eliminating the need for an on-site cyclotron. Even though numerous radiopharmaceuticals are available for imaging, certain medicinal applications require RN with a longer half-life. Longer RN half-lives (T1/2) is translated to a longer time for in-vivo target accumulation and, leads to enhanced inter-tissue resolution and image quality. It is especially the case for radiopharmaceuticals with slow pharmacokinetics. Emerging PET RN with longer half-lives are notably 44Sc (T1/2 = 3.97 h), 64Cu (T1/2 = 12.7 h) and 89Zr (T1/2 = 78.41 hrs). In addition, these radionuclides serve as matched imaging iso-topes for tailored therapeutic agents and are named theranostic agents . A theranostic agent in nuclear medicine is one that binds an isotope for both imaging and therapeutic purposes like 44Sc/47Sc or 43Sc/47Sc . The theranostic approach, which is achieved by switching the diagnostic radionuclide with the therapeutic one on the same chelating system [20,21] could also be performed on nanodimensional structures such as GBN. 64Cu (β+ 17.6%, β− 38.5%, and EC 43.9%) is an attractive radionuclide in nuclear medicine for both PET but still with some disadvantages (only 17.6% branching ratio of β+) and radiotherapy. The lower β energy for 64Cu is convenient for small tumors but the issue with in-vivo reduction to Cu(I) has been addressed through the development of more stable chelators [11,23]. 44Sc is another attractive PET RN, with a half-life compatible to the pharmacokinetics of a wide range of targeting vectors (such as peptides, antibody fragments and oligonucleotides). The validity, usefulness and advantages of 44Sc have been demonstrated by examples featuring 44Sc-radiolabeled targeting vectors, including 44Sc-radiopharmaceuticals evaluated nowadays in patients. Its low-energy positron emission like F-18 ensures a high image resolution. One should bear in mind that the 44mSc isomer could be of interest, as its longer half-life (T1/2 = 58.6 h) permits imaging at later times for more accurate assessment of distribution and absorbed doses with high molecular weight targeting vectors, such as antibodies or F(ab')2 antibody fragments, whose biological half-lives are in the order of a few days. As the 44mSc decay is of very low energy, it can be used as an in-vivo 44m/44Sc generator and the in-vivo 44Sc utilization is thus effectively increased up to days. Scandium is generally considered to be chemically like lanthanides in which the coordination chemistry is well established, especially for nuclear medicine . Finally, Ga radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine are 68Ga and 67Ga. The γ energies for 67Ga (Eγ= 173 keV (89%) and 247 keV (95%)) are useful for SPECT imaging , whereas the β+ energies for 68Ga (Eβ= 829.5 keV (1.2%) and 1899 keV (87.9%)) are suitable for PET. But, in the process of optimizing radiolabeling process, 67Ga is more convenient since its half-life of 3.2 days is much longer than the half-life of 68Ga (T1/2 = 1.12 h). The aim of this work was to develop and optimize the radiolabeling of different GBN batches (different grafted DOTA percentage) with 64Cu, 67Ga and 44Sc (Figure 1). Labeling parameters evaluated were molar ratio, reaction pH and temperature. The effect of radiolabeling on GBN size and distribution was checked. Figure 1: Preparation of AGuIX: (a-c) DOTAGA grafting, (d) transfer to water and addition of DTPA, (e-f) core dissolution and polysiloxane fragmentation and (g) radiolabeling with PET tracers. View Figure 1 Analytical grade (MeOH, EtOH, conc. aq. HCl, HNO3, conc. aq. ammonia, ammonium acetate) or pure reagent grade (all other chemicals) reagents are commercially available. They were used as received unless otherwise specified. Deionized water (18.2 MΩ cm-1; Milli-Q, Millipore) was used throughout the work. Commercially available 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA, CheMatech, France) was used as received. Ammonium acetate (99.9%) was purchased from Fisher Scientific (New Jersey, USA or Saint Quentin Fallavier, France). Optima® grade nitric and hydrochloric acid (HNO3, HCl) were purchased from Fisher Scientific (France) and used with-out further purification. TLC silica gel 60 plastic sheets (MKC18F Silica Gel 60Å, layer thickness of 200 µm) were obtained from Merck GaA (Darmstadt, Germany). Chemical grade methanol was purchased from Fluka (Switzerland). BSA (Uptima Interchim #UlP36859A Batch R06L379) was diluted to 2 g/L. Ultrasmall Gd based nanoparticles (GBN) were obtained from Nano-H Company (Lyon, France). The main characteristics provided by the company on the different batches are summarized in Table 1. Their synthesis has been described elsewhere . Regular AGuIX are composed of DOTA ligand, and 97-99% of them complexed with Gd3+ ions. However, these particles can be modified to increase the number of free DOTA. In this work, we worked with 4 different batches designed as AGuIX@DOTA2%, AGuIX@DOTA9%, AGuIX@DOTA37% and AGuIX@DOTA60% presenting respectively 2%, 9%, 37% and 60% free DOTA chelates at the surface available for radiolabeling (Table 1). Table 1: different batches of NPs that have been synthesized and used in this work with their main characteristics (radii are extracted after synthesis from DLS measurements given in number). View Table 1 The nuclear characteristics of the radionuclides (emissions and energies) are summarized in Table 2. 67Ga was purchased from Cis Bio International (France) in the citrate form with a total activity of 173 MBq/mL. The batch was diluted to 5 mL by using aq. HNO3 (1% w/w) prior to its use and is referred to as the 67Ga stock solution. An aliquot of 150 µl was taken for metal concentration determination. To this aim, an ICP-OES (ThermoFischer ICAP 6500 DUO ICP-AES) was used, various metals were analyzed (Al, Ca, Cu, Co, Cr, Fe, Mn, Mg, Mo, Na, Sc, Ni and Zn). For each element, the wavelength was selected to reach the higher relative emissions and was the one with the least interference from other signals. The ICP-AES was calibrated using commercially available single- and multi-element standards (~10 ppm, SCP Science) in dilute nitric acid (1% w/w). The batches to be analyzed were in acidic solutions. Before analysis, they were collected and diluted in aq. HNO3 (1% w/w). Only Al has been identified as a main stable contaminant. Its concentration in the stock solution was approx. 1.15 × 10-4 mol/L. The resulting specific activity was low at 40.7 Ci/g. The procedure of 44mSc/44Sc production at Arronax cyclotron (France) was described elsewhere . Briefly, an enriched CaCO3 (500 mg) target irradiated for 3h with a 16.4 MeV deuteron beam of ≈ 300 nA intensity, was dissolved in aq. HCl (4 M, 10 mL) and the solution was loaded onto a DGA column (Triskem, France). Next, the column was conditioned with aq. HNO3 (1 M, 10 mL) to eliminate metallic impurities. Finally, 44Sc was eluted with 400 µL of aq. HCl (0.1 M). The solution was evaporated to dryness and re-dissolved in HCl solution (0.1 M) to get 44Sc(III) chloride hydrate with a resulting activity > 100 MBq in 400 µL (44mSc/44Sc activity ratio equal to 2% at the end of the chemistry step, around 4 hours after EOB). The final solution of 44mSc/44Sc was counted on a γ-spectrometer (Ortec-Ametek, France). The energy rays used for identification were 271.1 keV and 1157 keV for 44mSc and 44Sc respectively, with a branching ratio of 98.8% and 99.9% (Table 2). After the purification, the expensive target material was re-covered for reprocessing. This 44m/44Sc solution was diluted to 1.5 mL with aq. HNO3 (1% w/w) prior to its use and corresponds to the 44Sc stock solution. The ICP-OES analysis identified the following main stable contaminants (Al, Fe, Ni and Zn) with a total metal concentration of 1.1 × 10-5 mol/L. The resulting specific activity is thus 3484 Ci/g. The deuteron production route is also used for 64Cu production on the Arronax cyclotron (France). A highly enriched 64Ni target was electroplated on a gold disk (99.99% purity). The purification procedure uses HBr on AG1X8 chromatographic column. After the production procedure, the enriched material was recovered with a yield of 95% for further reprocessing. A deuteron beam at 16 MeV was used for irradiation with 50 µA current impinging on a 10 µm thick target for 150 minutes. Copper-64 was recovered as CuCl2 with a high radio isotopic purity (> 99.90%). The total activity for 64Cu was 102 MBq in 50 µL. This solution was diluted to 1.5 mL with aq. HNO3 (1% w/w) prior to its use and corresponds to the 64Cu stock solution. Main contaminants identified by ICP-OES, were Cu, Fe and Ni, with a total metal concentration of 1.2 × 10-4 mol/L. The resulting specific activity was 42346 Ci/g. This specific activity was lower than the one published by Mc Carthy, et al. (i.e.94-310 mCi/µgram Cu) but was sufficient for radiolabeling . HF5 analyses were performed using an Agilent Infinity1260 HPLC system (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) consisting of a degasser, an isocratic pump, an autosampler (HiP BioLS HP 1260, Agilent technologies), a variable wavelength UV detector (MWD RL, Agilent technologies combined with an Eclipse® DUALTEC separation system (Wyatt Technology Europe, Dernbach, Germany). The HF5 channel (Wyatt Technology Europe) consisted of two sets of ferrules, gaskets and cap nuts used to seal a polymeric hollow fiber inside a plastic cartridge. The scheme of the HF5 cartridge, its assembly and the modes of operation of the Eclipse® DUALTEC system have already been described elsewhere . The hollow fiber was a polyether-sulfone (PES) fiber, type FUS 0181 available from Microdyn-Nadir (Wiesbaden, Germany) with the following characteristics: 0.8 mm ID, 1.3 mm OD, and 10 kDa Mw cut-off, corresponding to an average pore diameter of 5 nm. The HF5 channels used in the experiment were a standard cartridge containing a 17 cm long fiber. The OpenLab CDS ChemStation (Agilent Technologies) data system for Agilent instrumentation allows the control of the instrumentation and analytical analysis. The software package Wyatt Eclipse @ ChemStation (Wyatt Technology Europe) was used to set and control the flow rate and to move the focus position during the sample focus/concentration. An 18-angle multiangle light scattering detector model DAWNMD HELEOS (Wyatt Technology Corporation, Santa Barbara, CA, USA) operating at a wavelength of 658 nm, was used to measure the radius of particles in solution. A RID 1260 (Agilent technologies) differential refractive index (dRI) detector operating at a wavelength of 280 nm was used on occasion as a concentration detector, when the capabilities of the UV detector were overcome by the complexity of the sample. ASTRA® software version 18.104.22.168 (Wyatt Technology Corporation) was used to handle signals from the detectors (MALS, dRI and UV) and to compute the protein Mw and concentration values. An HF5 method is composed of the following steps: focus, focus-injection, elution and elution-injection. During focus the mobile phase is split into two different streams entering from the fiber's inlet and outlet; during focus-injection, the flow settings are the same as those described in the focus step when the sample is introduced into the channel through the inlet and focalized in a narrow region. Then, in the elution step, the flow of mobile phase enters the channel inlet and part of it comes out transversely (cross-flow); lastly, during elution-injection, no cross-flow is applied (the flow is not split anymore), allowing for any remaining sample inside the channel to be released; also, the flow is re-directed in the injection line as well to clean it before the next injection. The flow conditions for the different HF5 analysis are shown in Table 3. Longitudinal flow is indicated as Vc, while cross/focus flow as Vx. In flow-injection analyses (FIA) neither focus nor cross-flow are applied, thus allowing all injected analytes to exit from the channel without retention. The solvent used is Ultrapure water that is filtered at 0.45 µm and 0.1 µm on Durapore filters (Millipore) before injection into the HF5 system. Table 3: Flow conditions for HF5 analyses. View Table 3 A stock suspension at 10 mg/ml in ultrapure water was prepared. For each suspension, 2 injections were performed 10 µL and 20 µL leading to a final injected concentration of 100 µg/mL and 200 µg/mL respectively. Labeling of AGuIX@DOTA with Mx+ radioisotopes was performed by mixing a GBN stock suspension in acetate buffer (0.1 M) with a certain amount of Mx+. In all the following sections, we will refer to radioisotope molar amount (noted M) to be the sum of the radioisotope concentration and all the metallic impurities that have been measured by IPC-OES in the initial batch, corrected by the dilution factor in the radiolabeling experiment. Since DOTA ligand is not selective for a given metal, all metallic species in solution could compete for the complexation. Several parameters were meticulously studied for the optimization of the radiolabeling in repeated experiments (at least in triplicate): pH of the reaction mixtures and the ligand concentration (precisely, ligand molar excess over radioisotope molar amount). No attempt was made to play with the temperature since, in contrast to antibodies, these nanoparticles can withstand high temperatures. The solutions were then heated at 90 °C up to 60 min in a sand bath. To determine effect of pH on the Mx+-GBN complex formation, different buffers were used: acetate buffers (C = 0.1 M; pH = 4 or 5.5) or an MES buffer (pH = 7, 0.1 mol/L). Before and after the heating step, pH was measured at room temperature (pH electrode was calibrated using three commercial standards) with no significant changes observed. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) was used to determine radiochemical yield for all metal complexes. At 1 cm from the origin of a 2.5 by 7.5 cm TLC silica gel plate, 1 μL of the sample was spotted. Citrate buffer (0.25 mol/L; pH = 5.2) was used as the eluent for 67Ga and 44Sc-radiolabeling experiments whereas a citrate buffer was used at 0.2 mol/L (pH = 5.2) for 64Cu experiments. These eluents were optimized as a function of the cationic chemistry of the radionuclides used. The metal cation remains at the origin while the Mx+-NPs complex moves with the solvent on the silica surface under these conditions. The strips were read on a Cyclone-Perkin detector (Perkin Elmer, France) to determine radiolabeling yields. First, we developed a HF5method in aqueous media for the size-fractionation of AguiX NPs. These NPs were detected with satisfactory sensitivity, the method has been shown to be robust and reproducible . HF5 allowed sample separation using water as the mobile phase. Thus, samples were analyzed in their native formulation, limiting potential modification due to fractionation conditions. The HF5-MALS flow conditions are described in Section 2.4. The AGuiX NPs analysis is reported in Figure 2. A void peak is observed at 7.5 min for the unretained species (such as unreacted reagents for sample preparation or small species dimension-ally comparable to channel membrane cut-off). The retention peak is observed for a tR = 9.88 min typical for the nanostructure. A hydrodynamic radius of about 3.5 nm was determined for the NPs. It was not possible to have access to the rms value and thus the rg/rh ratio for determining the exact conformation. It is assumed in the following that nanoparticles are spherical. Figure 2: AGuIX@DOTA2%, nanoparticles analyzed by HF5-MALS in water. Light scattering (LS) signal at 90 °C (line) and refractometer signal (dRI dashed line). The two colors represent two concentrations of the same sample, respectively 100 µg/mL (blue line) and 200 µg/mL (red line). View Figure 2 It is also possible to observe that at the end of elution (tR = 20 min) during the elution injection step, a small light scattering (LS) signal is apparent meaning that all eluted samples are separated during the HF5 analysis. Due to the presence of a small LS signal and a non-significant RI signal (data not shown), it means that no NPs species are released at the end of the elution. Usually, for a monodisperse sample, its average radius is not related to the averaging method used; its polydispersity will equal 1. By contrast, in the case of polydisperse samples, containing a mixture of species, the polydispersity will differ from 1. In the case of AGuiX NPs, the calculated polydispersity from the HF5-MALS experiments was found to be 1.002, indicating that the nanoparticles are highly monodispersed. The recovery of the samples analyzed was quite low (i.e. approx. 15%) even after cross-flow release. The assumption is that only PES at 10 kDa for the cut-off exists for the hollow fiber. Since these nanoparticles are ultra-small, a most suitable cut-off would be probably 5 kDa, and even 1 kDa to improve the recovery. Those cut-off thresholds do not exist for hollow fiber and it will certainly consist in a future development that would be required from HF5 supplier, especially in the field of nanomedicine. Despite this fact, the fractionation and size characterization of AGuiX nanoparticles at low concentration (10 mg/mL, injected volume 20 µL i.e. injected weight 200 µg) in water was shown to be reproducible by HF5. Only AGuiX@DOTA2%; AGuiX@DOTA9% and AGuiX@DOTA60% were analyzed by HF5. For these 3 samples, triplicate injections were performed, and we obtained good re-producibility on the retention time for each sample. Typically, retention times were found to be tR = 9.88 min, tR = 9.95 min, tR = 9.65 min for AGuiX@DOTA2%; AGuiX@DOTA9% and AGuiX@DOTA60% respectively. The elution profiles of these 3 samples are summarized in Figure 3. Regardless of the percentage of DOTA grafted at the surface, elution profiles were similar with very close retention times. An exception is for AGuiX@DOTA60% which is more heterogeneous since a peak is observed at tR = 15 min that corresponds to aggregates and/or particles of larger sizes. BSA was used as an external standard for size calibration with a well-known size of 3.5 nm. As noted in Figure 2, AGuiX@DOTA2% and AGuiX@DOTA60% have similar retention times as BSA meaning their sizes are of the same order of magnitude. For AGuiX@DOTA9% the earlier retention time compared to the two other nanoparticles means that its size is smaller than BSA (i.e. 3.5 nm) and AGuiX@DOTA9% are not sufficiently retained by the hollow fiber due to their smaller size. When performing radiolabeling on a polymeric or a nanodimensional system, two different pathways could be used. In the first pathway, the polymer/particle and the label are bound through a synthetic step. It is called pre-radiolabeling. In the second pathway, one compound (in the case of metals this is a bifunctional chelate) is labeled first and subsequently the polymer/particle is formed. It is so called post-radiolabeling. Pre or post-radiolabeling depend on several factors, above all the half-life of the chosen radionuclide. Most of the published labeling procedures belong to the second category (i.e. post-radiolabeling) First, the polymeric or nano-particular system is formed, then a chelate is grafted to this system and finally the radionuclide is introduced. In the present work, this procedure was applied to various AGuiX NPs. The same type of NPs has previously been labelled with different radioactive isotopes either directly with DOTA ligands present at the surface of the nanoparticles (111In) or after grafting of a different ligand (68Ga and 89Zr ). The chelation of Zr(IV), is usually performed via DFO chelates, although no chelation constant is available . In(III) is known to be well chelated by DOTA, with a thermodynamic constant close to that of NOTA (log KDOTA = 23.9 vs log KNOTA = 26.2) (Table 4). After labelling with In(III), an interesting pattern of biodistribution of radiolabeled NPs is observed after intravenous injection in mice with an exclusive renal elimination (quantity of 111In < 0.2% of the injected dose in organs other than the kidneys (29.8 ± 6.8% ID) and bladder ( 57.9 ± 27.4% ID) 3 hours after intravenous injection of the NPs) and a passive accumulation by EPR effect in tumors . In comparison, for the chelation of Ga(III), NOTA is more appropriate than DOTA (log KDOTA = 21.3 vs. log KNOTA = 31.0) . The addition of new chelates at the surface of the nanoparticle is of interest to optimize the radiolabeling for PET/MRI multimodal imaging, but to obtain a quantitative biodistribution of the AGuIX NPs available for clinical applications with no change of the structure of the nanoparticle synthesized in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) conditions, an optimization of the radiolabeling with DOTA chelates is of great interest. To do such optimization, different parameters like pH or molar ratios should be tested for the radiolabeling of the AGuIX with scandium, copper and gallium isotopes. The pH determination for all metals was done with AGuIX@DOTA2% nanoparticles and AGuIX@DOTA60% because these batches offered the minimum and maximum amount of free DOTA (2 and 60% respectively) at the surface available for complexation with PET tracers. These experiments were performed at 90 °C for 60 minutes. For sake of clarity, only results on AGuIX@DOTA2% for 44Sc for 3 M:L ratios (i.e. 1:10; 1:100; 1:1000) are presented in Figure 4. The radiolabeling yield was between 45 and 65% in each case. The radiolabeling yields reached for 64Cu and 67Ga are higher (almost 100%) except for M : L =1:10 ratio with 67Ga for which yields are about 40% at pH 4. Scandium and Gallium are trivalent elements and their ionic radii are not so different; one would expect to reach the same radiolabeling yields for both elements. The observed differences could thus be explained by the specific activity of the initial batch of gallium, which was lower than for scandium. For AGuIX@DOTA60%, with a higher percentage of free DOTA, results are presented in Table 5 for the three radionuclides. From these results (Figure 4 and Table 5), it can be seen that the pH does not influence significantly the radiolabeling efficiency for this range. For the following, it was decided to fix the pH at 4 for studying the influence of other parameters. It can be seen with this last study that the radiolabeling yield obtained with 44Sc for AGuIX@DOTA60% is higher than for AGuIX@DOTA2% (respectively around 97% and 60%). It highlights that it is important to be able to optimize the nanoparticle structure to improve radiolabeling for the isotope of interest. Table 5: 67Ga, 64Cu and 44Sc: labeling yields for AGuIX@DOTA60%; Labeling conditions were 1:100 molar ratio, 0.1 M ammonium acetate buffer, 90 °C, 60 min, n = 3. Values are given with 5% uncertainty. View Table 5 Radiolabeling was monitored with time for the different batches of nanoparticles and for the three radionuclides of interest results are presented in Figure 5. The maximum radiolabeling yields of these AGuiX NPs were attained after 60 min for scandium-44, which is quite long for DOTA radiolabeling, as scandium is generally considered to be chemically like lanthanides whose coordination chemistry is very well established. DOTA labeling with lanthanides is usually done at 80 °C for 153Sm and 100 °C for 177Lu. 153Sm-DOTA optimum temperature is reported at 70 °C with pH 5 for 40 minutes by Hu . Additionally, Stimmel reported a maximal temperature at 22 °C, at pH of 6 after 2 h of contact. Described γ-Fe3O4 and cerium ammonium nitrate inorganic NPs were described by Locatelli, et al. . Their radiolabeling yields at 23 °C did not reach more than 90%. For DOTA-44Sc, it was published that the most suitable conditions are reached for a metal-to-ligand ratio of 1:3 in acetate buffer at pH = 4, after heating at 70 °C for 20 minutes. These conditions provide the best labeling yields > 95% [25,27,39]. These values were in agreement with previous studies performed on 44Sc-DOTATOC and 44Sc-DOTATATE, when the isotope was eluted from a 44Ti/44Sc generator [40,41]. The specific activity was not the major parameter for radiolabeling by DOTA as highlighted by the majority of the studies but would be of major importance for further use with biological vectors. The specific activity will be assessed by varying the metal-to-free ligand ratio at the surface of the nanoparticle in the corresponding section. Figure 5: Radiolabeling yields with time for various M/L ratio at pH = 4, for (A) AGuIX@DOTA2% nanoparticles (1.5% of free DOTA) with 44Sc; (B) AGuIX@DOTA9% (9% of free DOTA) nanoparticles with 67Ga and (C) AGuIX@DOTA37% (37% of free DOTA) with 64Cu. View Figure 5 Among the different chelating agents used for gallium, DOTA (frequently used also for copper or scandium), but also NOTA are potent chelators for the smaller gallium(III)-cation. So far, only NOTA and its derivatives have been used to radiolabel nanodimensional systems (i.e. organic and inorganic) with 68Ga . 67Ga radiolabeling was monitored as a function of time at pH = 4, and for molar ratios ranging from 1:10 to 1:1000. It was showed that the best yields were reached for 30 minutes for the 1:10 molar ratio and this time could be reduced to 15 minutes for the highest metal-to-ligand ratio. Yields ranging between 10 ± 5% and 100 ± 5% were obtained depending upon the metal- to-ligand ratio used. 68Ga radiolabeling performed with NOTA or DOTA resulted in high radiolabeling efficiency after 10 min at RT and, specific activities with 68Ga were as high as 9.8 mCi/nmol (i.e. 362 GBq/nmol) without purification . 64Cu is a radiometal that requires a bifunctional chelator for stable attachment to bio-molecules. DOTA or its derivatives are the most popular ones. DOTA was originally considered for lanthanides (e.g., Gd3+), but has been used for a wide range of (radio)metals as well. Since DOTA has four carboxylic functional groups on the side-chains of the macrocycle bearing four nitrogens, complexation of the Cu2+ ion leads to a deformed octahedral structure, which is preferred due to the Jahn-Teller effect thereby leaving two of the acidic functions free. One acidic function is available for coupling to NPs and the second one allows further derivatization or acts as an additional hydrophilic group. Other macrocyclic chelates are TETA (1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane-N,N',N'',N'''-tetraacetic acid) and NOTA or derivatives of these. In the case of 64Cu, the maximum labeling yield is usually reached between 23 °C to 37 °C, which is the range reported for 64Cu -DOTA labeling conditions in literature [43-45]. At 90 °C, the radiolabeling reached 100% after 15 minutes, for all the nanoparticles considered in the present work. This is higher than the radiolabeling yields previously obtained for the corresponding ultra-small AGuIX-NOTA nanoparticles with 64Cu and 68Ga that were 81-85% , that may be explained by the kinetics of complexation of copper with DOTA that is faster than with NOTA. In an acetate buffer at pH 4, it was shown that radiolabeling was stable out to 24 h. The results of 64Cu radiolabeling with time are presented in Figure 4C for AGuIX@DOTA37% only. For pH 4, 100% of radiolabeling was obtained for all the nano-particles considered in this work after 1 day. From literature data, the case reported were on [64Cu] CuS nanoparticles that have been prepared by metathesis reaction of 64CuCl2, CuCl2, and Na2S at 95 °C for 1 h . Co-heating of 64CuCl2, gold chloride, and copper acetylacetonate in oleylamine at 160 °C for 2 h produced 10 nm [64Cu] Au NPs . The other case reported concerns the production of [64Cu] Fe3O4 NPs by microwave-assisted heating and via hydrolysis of 64CuCl2, FeCl2, and FeCl3 . The chemical reactivity of 64Cu is recognized to be relatively low. Thus, the synthesis of [64Cu]-NPs usually requires high temperatures and longer incubation time, that increases the risk of radiation contamination. Briefly, for inorganic nanoparticles composed of either iron oxide or silicone, with DOTA as chelating moiety, the radiolabeling of 64Cu was performed for 1 h at temperatures ranging from 37 to 40 °C and at a pH range of 5.5 to 6.5. Yang, et al. showed that the radiolabeling yield was 94% whereas Glaus, et al. obtained yields ≥ 95%. In that case, they reached specific activities of 2-4 GBq/mmol. The optimum conditions for M3+ are achieved when a high radiochemical yield (over 95%) is obtained. This yield was selected according to the most common desirable yield reported in literature [32,34] to eliminate the purification step after radiolabeling. Because M3+-DOTA labels at 23 °C, at pH 5-7 and is stable in vitro and in vivo when labeling under these conditions, it is expected to label M3+ -AGuIX@DOTA in high yields (over 95%) [16,45]. The radiochemical yield was evaluated by TLC as described above. Determination of optimum conditions for each isotope was completed and the specific activity assessed. To determine the optimum molar ratio of 67Ga: AGuIX@DOTA the pH was adjusted to 4 with acetate buffer and the solution was heated for 60 minutes at 90 °C. Results are presented in Figure 6A. Surprisingly, to reach high radiochemical yield, the metal-to-ligand ratio seems not to be the most important parameter for a fixed number of free DOTA at the surface. By increasing the number of free DOTA available at the surface of the nanoparticles, one would expect to increase the radiolabeling yields; which was not the case. From the thermodynamic point of view, if the number of DOTA increases, the equilibrium is displaced to higher complex formation; except if a steric hindrance of the ligand occurs leading to lower complex formation, which seems to be the case. For AGuIX@DOTA2% (i.e. 2% of free DOTA), 1:150 metal to ligand ratio was necessary to attain 100% radiolabeling which corresponds to 2.9 nmol of DOTA. For AGuIX@DOTA9% and AGuIX@DOTA37%, these ratios were respectively 1:332 (i.e. 5.75 nmol) and 1:665 (i.e. 11.5 nmol). In 2011, 18F-labeled rare earth containing NPs were developed by Liu, et al. These authors used NaYF4 for doing the surface-modification of their particles with Gd3+ by cation exchange with Y3+ for their use in MRI or in luminescence studies with different rare earth elements (Yb, Er). Radio-TLC indicated an excellent labeling yield of 92% (after 40 min of reaction time at 90 °C). Figure 6: Evolution of the radiolabeling yields (n = 3) as a function of time for various M/L ratio at pH = 4 for AGuIX@DOTA2% (1.5% of free DOTA), AGuIX@DOTA9% (9% of free DOTA), AGuIX@DOTA37% (37% of free DOTA) and AGuIX@DOTA60% (60% of free DOTA) nanoparticles (A) with 67Ga; (B) with 44Sc and (C) with 64Cu. View Figure 6 These optimum metal-to-ligand ratios obtained on AGuIX or functionalized AGuIX particles lead us to evaluate the resulting specific activity reachable for each nanoparticle. The measure of the radioactivity per unit mass of the compound is the specific activity; the higher the specific activity of a radionuclide, the higher both the percentage of radioactive atoms and the deliverable dose are. Specific activity may or may not be important depending on the number of sites available for targeting. For instance, bone is considered a large capacity site and does not require radioisotopes with high specific activity. Low specific activity radioisotopes such as 153Sm in Quadramet® and 166Ho in the Skeletal Targeted Radiotherapy agent have been used for pain palliation and bone marrow ablation, respectively . Low capacity sites such as receptor sites, which are present in low numbers, require high specific activity radioisotopes. The achievable specific activities are 8.0 ± 0.2 µCi/nmol for AGuIX@DOTA2%., 4.0 ± 0.2 µCi/nmol for AGuIX@DOTA9% and 2.0 ± 0.2 µCi/nmol for AGuIX@DOTA37%. These values are quite low by comparison to published values of 500 Ci/nmol . The most surprising result was obtained for AGuIX@DOTA60% which exhibits the highest percentage of free DOTA at the surface, available for complexation. One would expect to reach 100% for low metal to ligand ratio, while only 54% of radiolabeling yield was reached after 60 min. Longer reaction times did not improve the yield and even led to some degradation of NPs. No attempt to proceed with further purification was done in this work. The radiolabeling results regarding the coordination chemistry of the radiometal is shown in Table 4. From published data, DOTA is not the most suitable ligand for coordinating Ga. NOTA is usually the most suitable chelate for Ga. Even though both ligands exhibit high stability constants (log K > 20), the NODA-Ga constant is found to be 31.0 whereas it is 21.3 for the DOTA-Ga system. In this work, DOTA was used as the ligand but by changing the ligand (for instance NOTA), improved 67Ga radiolabeling yields may be achieved as was published for 68Ga (Table 4). Results with 44Sc are presented in Figure 6B. For AGuIX@DOTA9% and AGuIX@DOTA37%, the increment in 44Sc did not result in big differences in yields at the chosen molar ratios (1:10 to 1:1000). Radiolabeling was 100% at all molar ratios. The highest resulting specific activity was determined for metal-to-ligand ratio of 1:10 (i.e. 1.2 nmol of ligand) and was calculated to be 13.7 ± 0.5 µCi/nmol. This difference in the resulting specific activity compared to 67Ga could be explained by the initial specific activity of the radionuclide batch which was 87-fold higher in the case of 44Sc compared to 67Ga (section 2.5). For AGuIX@DOTA2%, the maximum yield obtained was 60%. By increasing the number of free DOTA (up to 60% in AGuIX@DOTA60%), the radiolabeling yield slightly increased to 85% which highlights the importance of structure optimization to improve radiolabeling yield. Regarding coordination chemistry of this radiometal, DOTA is the most suitable ligand for scandium . This probably means that, in contrast to the Sc-DOTA system, the theoretical free DOTA were not totally available for radiolabeling. Additionally, to this, for AGuIX@DOTA60%, the higher number of free DOTA may lead to a less accurate determination of the free ligands by comparison to the other nanoparticles studied in the present work. The same approach was used on other types of hybrid nanoparticles. Mesoporous silica NPs were labeled by Huang, et al. with Gd3+ (T1-contrast agent in MRI) together with 64Cu2+ (a PET radiotracer). Similarly, DOTA was employed by these authors as a chelating agent since copper and gadolinium could be inserted into the surface pores. Their labeling conditions were 1 h at a pH of 5.5 and 40 °C leading to > 98% of radio-labeling. This has been shown to allow a highly stable radiotracer, which exhibits high uptake in the sentinel lymph node. The increment in 64Cu: AGuIX@DOTA did not result in big differences in yields in the chosen molar ratios (1:10 to 1:1000) as seen in Figure 6C. The maximum yield was obtained at 1:10 with 100 ± 5% of the labeled compound for AGuIX@DOTA2% and AGuIX@DOTA37% at 1:150. These molar ratios seem high; though there is no reference to the optimum molar ratio used in the reviewed literature. Quantum dots (QDs) were developed and some groups have coated manganese-doped silicon QDs with dextran Tu, et al. . These QDs were then coupled to a DO3A-derivative for chelating 64Cu. The radiolabeling was performed in acetate buffer (pH 5.5), followed by an EDTA-competition and a radiolabeling yield of 78% was obtained. The minimum yield was obtained for AGuIX@DOTA60%, as previously observed with the other radionuclides since at 1: 10, 80 ± 5% of radiolabeling was reached. Even lower yields were observed by increasing the ligand-to-metal ratio. As already discussed previously, the theoretical free DOTA were not totally available for radiolabeling. For AGuIX@DOTA60%, the higher number of free DOTA may lead to a less accurate determination of the free ligands by comparison to the other nanoparticles studied in the pre-sent work. Other bifunctional Chelators should be considered for improving radiolabeling with 64Cu. As recently published by Lee, et al. , click chemistry could be applied to attach a 64Cu-radiolabeled alkyne complex to azide-functionalized glycol chitosan nanoparticles in vivo. The radiolabeling procedure was performed within 30 min at 40 °C, in which a DOTA-DBCO-conjugate was labeled in 98% yield. For all 44Sc- radiolabeled NPs, HF5 analysis were performed again in the same conditions than the ones described in section 2.4. Same profiles (not shown here) were obtained compared to the native AguiX nanoparticles, indicating the integrity of these nanoparticles when radiolabeled. Gd-based AGuIX NPs were previously developed and designed for theranostic approaches in cancer radiotherapy, with ultra-small size (under 5 nm). For the development of potential bimodal imaging systems, positron emitters are of special interest for patient selection, the development, and optimization of NPs radiolabeling is thus essential. Additionally, for enabling therapy planning and monitoring by PET imaging, the same drug delivery system should be radiolabeled with the corresponding therapeutic radionuclide. Radiolabeling with quite a variety of different PET isotopes have been developed and optimized in this work showing very favorable results. For the three PET/SPECT radionuclides considered, i.e. 67Ga,44Sc and 64Cu, radiolabeling yields ranging from 60% to 100% could be reached, with no further purification. High specific activities were attainable for DOTA-based AGuIX NPs, regardless of the percentage of free DOTA at the surface of the NPs. These radiolabeled NPs have been evaluated for their integrity with regards to their size by HF5 analysis. However, when dealing with the evaluation of nanoparticular systems for PET imaging, one should be aware of certain issues. The first issue concerns the synthesis of the structures and the decision of what labeling approach should be investigated or is suitable for the biological question asked (half-life; biological target). Successively, the radiolabeling becomes the prevalent question (direct labeling, prosthetic group labeling or in situ generation of the radionuclide) in sufficient radiochemical yields and in the right formulation, i.e. volume activity and/or purification. Since all the physicochemical optimizations could be done, then in vitro and in vivo testing must be performed. Preliminary investigations of AGuIX effectiveness have been performed to determine their pharmacokinetics, elimination pathway, metabolism, and potential degradation , showing in vivo safety. The next step is the use of the radiolabeling and PET/SPECT imaging platforms for systematic optimization of NPs towards specific applications.

THE JEREMIAH SULLIVAN BAKE OVEN AND SMOKEHOUSE The Jeremiah Sullivan House Bread has always been a vital part of the diet of mankind and early Madison was no exception. This reconstructed bakehouse fills the gap in our presentation of Sullivan’s early domestic situation Since the basement cooking kitchen does not have any baking facility, it seems reasonable, therefore, to assume a separate bakehouse on the property. This beehive oven -so named because of its dome shape: is based on several local examples that have survived. It makes use of a flue that runs from the back of the oven, over the oven dome, and into the chimney to the left -a “squirrel tail”. The oven bricks were heated by building a fire inside the oven itself and, depending on what type of wood was used, the process took from one to two hours. Hardwoods, for example, make a very hot fire and less time would be needed than if soft yellow pine were used. After sufficient heat had been generated, the remaining coals and ashes were raked out and thrown down into the “ash pit”; the cavity below the oven. How did the early Madison cook know when the oven was hot enough? The author of the American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child, explained in one of the most widely used handbooks of early America “If you are afraid your oven is too hot, throw in I little flour and shut it up for a minute. If it scorched black immediately, the heat is too furious; if it merely browns, it is right. Leavening for bread took two forms in the early 1800s. The simplest was using a bit of dough from previous baking -what today we call “sourdough” The other was yeast which was usually made at home by boiling some grains of hops or rye and bottling the results, where fermentation began. After the dough was kneaded and left to rise in the dough trough, it was made into loaves and left to rise again before baking. Quite often the loaves were set directly on the oven floor using the “peel”, the long-handled paddle, but tin loaf pans were also quite common by the early 1800s. Baking generally took about one-half hour. Here is an old recipe, adapted for present-day cooks, for Sally Lunn, a bread that has been popular for almost 200 years. - 1 pkg. dry yeast - 3 tbsp. sugar - ¼ cup warm water - 2 eggs - ¾ cup warm milk - 1 ¼ tsp. salt - 6 tsp. butter - 3 cups flour In a small saucepan, warm the milk and water to 110 degrees. Combine it with the dry yeast and set it aside until the yeast dissolves. Cream the butter and, sugar and eggs, beating well. Add the yeast mixture Combine the salt and flour and add them gradually to the batter, beating until smooth. Cover and let rise until double, about a how Beat down and place batter in a 9” tube pan. Let it rise until double and then bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the pan and serve warm. THE SULLIVAN SMOKEHOUSE The Smokehouse contains a number of hams and sides of bacon cured in a way common to the Madison area in the early nineteenth century. Hog, butchering was done in the winter, since the cold weather prevented the growth of bacteria which spoiled the meat. Each piece of meat was rubbed with a mixture of salt, saltpeter, and sugar although molasses was often used instead of sugar since it was less expensive. This salting was done every day and took from two to six weeks, depending on the size of the ham or bacon. Each piece of meat was then hung up over a smoky fire of hickory, oak, or apple wood for a period ranging from a few days to several weeks, again depending on the size of the individual piece of meat as well as the flavor desired. Once cured in this manner, pork could be preserved almost indefinitely and still be ready to cook, even two or three years later.

Influence Of Pricing Strategy On The Sales Of New Products The study investigated the influence of price change on consumption of new consumer products, a survey of fast food restaurants uyo, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria . This is because price is one of the most flexible of the four elements of the marketing mix. One frequent problem is that businesses are too quick to reduce prices in order to get a sale rather than convincing buyers that their products are worth a higher price. Another common mistake is applying pricing that is too-cost oriented rather than customer-value oriented. These, among others, form the main concern of this study. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the influence of sales oriented pricing on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants , uyo, to identify the influence of competition on pricing at fast food restaurants , uyo, to establish the influence of sales promotion on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants , uyo and to assess how the quality of the products affects on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants . The researcher employed a descriptive research design. This study was carried out at the fast food restaurants uyo, akwa ibom. The sample population consisted of 86 employees and 160 current and past customers’. Data collection techniques included questionnaire, participatory observation and interview schedule. The data was organized, presented, analyzed and interpreted using descriptive methods of data analysis. The study concluded that it is clear that the firm sets prices to break-even on the cost of making and marketing a product or setting prices to make a target profit. The organization determines the prices at which it will break-even or make the target profit it is seeking. Based on the findings, the study recommends that there is need to apply or use more than one pricing strategy to increase sales volume in the company. The study further recommends that the hotel should continuously improve the quality of their consumer goods for fair prices as the end result. Suggestions for further research are made on factors determining pricing strategies in organizations are also recommended. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION - Background of the study In recent years, the world has experienced a remarkable rise in the prices of vital commodities, including energy and agricultural products. For example, between 2006 and 2008, the average world price for oil rose by 110 percent, rice by 217 percent, wheat by 136 percent, maize by 125 percent, and soybeans by 107 percent. The resulting economic impact on firms, households, and entire economies has renewed attention to the scarcity of natural resources and the best way of managing them in the twenty-first century. According to Kotler (2004), price is the amount of money charged for a product or service or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. The right price should meet the objectives of the buyer and seller. If you hit the optimum price, the theory suggests, the customers are happier, your profit is higher, and your bottom line will be healthier. In reality, pricing is far from simple. Setting the optimum price is one of the most difficult decisions managers ever make. Most companies are so bad at it that they leave money on the table. Pricing is about more than setting prices. Pricing represents a strategy to increase sales volume at a profit while incorporating and communicating critical messages about the value the offering delivers to the customer. In general, most organizations fail to use pricing in such a disciplined fashion (Monroe 2003). The importance of price decision to Marketing Managers is that when a firm’s costs are lower than the competitors, low price that can be used to win customers. More so, Price cutting as a way to build or maintain market share is a strategy that has been used by firms. Consumers rely heavily on price as an indicator of a product’s quality, especially when they must make purchase decisions with incomplete information. Price plays a major role in determining the consumption of new fast food products in any hotel in uyo town and its environs since it determines its performance. - Statement of the problem. Kotler (2004) states that price is the one element in the marketing mix that produces revenue. All other elements represent costs. Price is also one of the most flexible elements of the marketing mix. Unlike product features and channel commitments, price can be changed quickly. At the same time, pricing and price competition is a number one problem facing many marketing executives. Another common mistake is pricing that is too cost oriented rather than customer-value oriented. There has been a decrease in customers patronizing new fast food products restaurant due to increased competition from various hotels which have been opened in the same locality, including Cicada Hotel, Hotel Comfy among others that offer the same services and new fast food products at low prices like those charged at new fast food products restaurant, hence making them preferred choices due to different or lower prices charged. More so, there have been price fluctuations among different hotels and restaurants so as to attract more customers. Since quality is difficult to measure in the industry due to their homogeneity, pricing is quite challenging. Most of the fast food restaurants have experienced problems in its pricing since it has sometimes to lower its price to attract and retain customers and sometimes it has to increase the price of its offering to reflect costs. This has led to customers staying on or turning away, depending on the price charged. This has affected the restaurants since it cannot guarantee specific customers. These, among other factors formed the basis of this study, to determine the influence of price changes on consumption of new consumer products, using the case of fast food restaurants in uyo. - Purpose of the study The main purpose of this study was to determine the influence of price change on consumption of new consumer products at fast food restaurants , uyo, akwa ibom. - Research Objectives The study was guided by the following objectives: - To determine the influence of sales oriented pricing on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants , uyo. - To identify the influence of competition on pricing at fast food restaurants , uyo. - To establish the influence of sales promotion on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants , uyo. - To assess how the quality of the products affects on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants . - Research Questions The questions that the study answered are: - What is the influence of sales oriented pricing on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants , uyo? - What is the influence of competition on pricing at fast food restaurants , uyo? - What is the influence of sales promotion on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants , uyo? - How the quality of the products does affects on consumption of new fast food products at fast food restaurants ? - Significance of the study The study is of significance to a number of stakeholders, including the researcher, the university of uyo and other institutions of higher learning, as wells as managers and business owners in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. The findings and recommendations of this study is useful to the management of fast food restaurants as well as other businesses, since it can lead to developing suitable mechanisms of determining prices of products so as to apply an appropriate price increase that does not impact negatively on sales. The university of uyo, being an academic institution has a library where completed studies are kept for reference by students and faculty members are stored. The study will benefit students enabling them to learn more about effects of price on consumption of new food products, that is, the study will contribute to the existing pool of knowledge, useful to all other institutions of higher learning as well. - Limitation of the study The study focused on the influence of price changes on consumption of new consumer products of a firm which may not be the only factors in determining the firm’s growth or failure because some factors such as production, technology, financing, and level of skilled labor and sources of suppliers contribute to growth. Some of the sources of information by employees was mainly based on memory status and therefore subject to omission of other important facts. Low response from respondents due to suspicion that useful information could leak to competitors - Delimitation of the Study The study focused on influence of price change on consumption of new consumer products at fast food restaurants , uyo. The key respondents were managers, supervisors, employees and the customers. The study was conducted between May to July 2013 in, uyo town.

Spore, Will Wright's far-reaching game about life, the universe and everything, is a journey, not just from microscope to universe, but of discovery and imagination. It's also the clearest example of how, in creating his games, Wright taps deeply into the principals of his grade-school education which was based on a pedagogy built on child development first formulated more than 100 years ago in Rome. Because of this, Wright's greatest achievement isn't delivering the universe as toy in Spore, the digital dollhouses of the Sims or even the planned towns of Sim City. It's his ability to touch a gamer's imagination and inspire their intellect. To create not just games, but places and spaces of exploration The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inner most core. — Maria Montessori In Montessori schools, the emphasis is on instilling a desire to learn in children, not in lecturing them. "In western education we take theories, we deconstruct them, we categorize them and then we teach them in classrooms," Wright says. "You are going to a school, going to a master, learning theory before you could go practice it." "Before that system, it was about practice, it was more of a failure based learning. I think that's almost a more natural approach. It seems that Montessori is going with the grain in that naturalistic sense. It was later we moved to this narrative method, sitting back, listening-to-a-lecture model ." The pedagogy was developed by Maria Montessori while working with intellectually and developmentally disabled children as part of her post-graduate research. By removing the idea that children were adults in tiny bodies that had to learn through lecture and memorization, and instead focusing on sparking a thirst for knowledge, Montessori found children could direct their own learning. "Her aim was to arouse in the children a spontaneous response to the materials and I see that in (Will Wright's) games," said Virginia McHugh Goodwin, executive director of the Association Montessori International, USA. "Creativity is a component to his work and that is also key to Montessori's work, because she sets the tone for creativity, the way she has her educational methods set up. "To be creative you have to have the freedom to explore and to master the specific techniques and that leads to unleashing the human spirit so that the process of creating can come from within." Montessori's first school opened in 1907 in Rome and her methodologies have since spread around the world. Including to places like Atlanta, Georgia, where Wright attended such a school until sixth grade. Another important element of Montessori education is the use of self-correcting toys. These Montessori toys allow children to play without realizing they are learning. "The structure of Montessori toy is that the kid will discover things while playing with a toy," Wright said. "Having the kid discover these principals is so much more powerful than a teacher coming up and saying we're going to learn about this. "The way we approached Spore was a lot like that. What are the components I want a gamer to discover when playing with this?" And that's not an unusual approach for Wright. None of his games are really games, he says. "I build more interesting toys than interesting games," he said. "I always thought of Spore as a toy universe. I think there is an interesting distinction between toy and game. I think a toy is more open ended. "The game is a subset of the experiences you can have with the toy." And toys and play, Wright says, go hand-in-hand. "Play is a toy version of problem solving that we're going to encounter later in life," he said. "Getting people to be playful around serious subjects is the most effective ways to develop an intuition to that. "It gives us ways to kind of map things intuitively." An Elegant Tool "Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world" — Maria Montessori Wright's first experience with Montessori was brief and intense, attending an elementary school in Atlanta until the sixth grade. The school introduced him to the idea of self-directed education through creative inspiration. "I bring it up every now and the," he said of his Montessori education. "It gives people a grounding of where I am coming from. " Goodwin says that many Montessori graduates tend to be more interesting in exploring things, in asking a lot of questions. "They're critical thinkers, problem solvers, because they've had the ability to do that from a very early age," she said. For Wright, Montessori helped him realize that when he was personally involved or interested in something he learned about it much more efficiently. "When I was starting to research SimCity I started reading about urban dynamics," he said. "It became more of an obsession, because I was able to play with my guinea pig simulation, instead of trying to learn facts and figures. "When Sim games started moving forward we wanted to draw that out." He did that by creating games that were a form of autodidactic toy, that taught by inspiring people to become interested in a subject. "It's about getting a player creatively engaged," he said. "Computers can get students very motivated to be interested in things." But Wright contends that Montessori isn't as direct an influence on him as some might think. He doesn't, he says, come up with his idea for games from Montessori. "I pick themes, things I've been fascinated with, then it's ‘How can I convey this to a lot of people?'," he said. "Montessori seems like a very clean, natural way to make these subjects approachable." Instead, Montessori's influence is more subtle. "I don't think it's something you work into a game, I think it's inherit in the structure itself," he said. "It's in the design premise. "It's an elegant tool. It's not the end state goal. It just happens to be the best tool for the job." Loops of Super Mario Bros. Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed. – Maria Montessori As with the Montessori Method, in Wright's games failing is almost as important as winning. "Montessori knew that children needed freedom to make mistakes, to develop skills that are unique to his or her personality," said Goodwin. "The freedom allows for the development of the creative thinking and the problem solving skills. To be able to look at things from a different perspective. "Montessori allows for success and failure. She felt that people learned from mistakes. Mistakes are not looked down upon or frowned upon, they are part of the process." For Wright, that was one of the hardest things to come to grips with as a game designer. "One of the counter intuitive things I needed to learn as a designer was that players enjoy failures more than success," he said. "As long as it's diverse, they like to explore the failure space of a game." All games are made up of what Wright calls interaction loops, events that have both a success and failure side to them. "In Super Mario Brothers, once you succeed at knowing how to make him move you go on to the next step. Now you go up and hit a creature and you fail a different way." Wright's games have always had a diverse and interesting mix of what Wright terms the failure space. "It's the failure that's fun," he said. But what you won't find in Spore is any form of direct competition with other gamers, another tenant found in Montessori teachings. "Montessori does not encourage competition in the traditional sense," Goodwin said. "The idea with Montessori is that children strive to do the best that they can do." Instead, in both Spore and Montessori, the emphasis is on collaboration. "Children learn to collaborate and work with one another and then each child is motivated to reach his or her potential so they can contribute to the project in a collaborative way, their best skills," Goodwin said. "So there is competition, but it is done in a very nice way. And I don't see Wright with a lot of competition in his games." We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry. – Maria Montessori Because Wright isn't trying to lecture gamers or teach them the nuance of physics, evolution, of astronomy or biology, the science of Spore wasn't designed to be "dead on accurate". "If you step way back and look at Spore as a whole it's meant to show a grand arch, the story of life," her said. "The Sims is like the story of life on Earth, Spore is life with a capital L." "I wanted people to have a sense of the vast scope that their life is inside of. There's a journey in Spore from microscopic to galactic. There aren't too many experiences in games, books or movies that gives you that distant perspective." And along with that perspective, the different stages of Spore allow a gamer plenty of aesthetic and strategic creativity, all geared at getting players not to learn but to express their creativity. "A lot of people have a very low opinion of their own creativity," he said. "When you give them a tool to make things that they didn't think they could make it can be very powerful, especially when five or six people comment on it." Goodwin says Spore "amplifies the imagination." "When I look at Spore, that's what it seemed to say to me," she said. "That it really uses the imagination. "Another thing I think I saw with (Wright), is that he is really, really into that idea of discovery and exploration. That is one of the key tenants of Montessori's work. The materials that she designed allow the child to discover" They are, she said, manipulative materials that go from something concrete to the abstract. After the game's launch, Wright and his team started to see people step outside the limitations of Spore and continue to create. "People were creating narratives of who their people are and how they evolve," he said. "It was really about ownership at some level." The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist. — Maria Montessori The more than four hundred pages of Maria Montessori's book, The Montessori Method, is packed with lessons that seem at times written as much for game development as they are for education. It often talks of creating a system of rules that don't inhibit, but enhance the experience. Wright laughs in surprise when I tell him that after reading the book it seems to me that many games treat gamers as children, puppets that are lead through games by a strict set of rules, rules that often harm the experience. He seems to be agreeing with me when he says that Spore was created to be very player focused. But modern games aren't as condescending in their design. They expect more now from players. "If you look at them ten years ago they were more linear," he said. "But now the Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Roller Coaster Tycoon, even the Wii games or music games, they leave a lot more room for creative expression of the player." And it's that desire to free that expression that seems to keep driving Wright back to Montessori's methods. "I'm not trying to evangelize Montessori," he said. "I want people to feel creative and involved and feel like they've doing something constructive. Montessori is a great tool for that purpose."

The first rule of the Swedish coronavirus strategy was to protect the elderly. But we failed. The welfare state, once the pride of the Social Democratic government, has been weakened by decades of austerity and profit-oriented management logic. As a part of building the welfare state in the 1960s and 1970s, the Nordic countries professionalised […] The distribution of both paid and unpaid care work in society is probably the single, largest factor affecting economic inequalities between men and women. Because they provide the overwhelming amount of unpaid care, women have often been excluded from the economic, political and cultural life. And, while the professionalisation of the traditional care sector raises […] The care crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has shed light on the everyday functioning of live-in care migration from Central and Eastern Europe. It presupposes the transnational lives of migrant care workers, but paradoxically also denies them at the same time. Germany and Austria are among the countries with the highest number of live-in […] Characterised by unending transition and constant workforce migration, the economies of the Western Balkans could find balance and become sustainably competitive with green reforms and better attention to welfare and labour rights. Regional cooperation with a strong focus on EU integration could be the right drive for change. Rural citizens must benefit, like any others, from equitable conditions to achieve their professional, social, and personal goals. This is a moral obligation to which we are obliged as a society. It is also an ethical and political imperative if we are genuinely engaged in accomplishing the European Pillar of Social Rights. A strong social Europe that is just, inclusive, and with plenty of opportunities along its green and digital transitions, cannot leave anyone behind. From the local to supranational scale, the Covid-19 crisis forced the world to face the question: who should oversee the solutions? Which authority, and on what ground? This question, and the change of paradigm it brought, is an opportunity to debate and reflect on the place of citizens in the decision-making process, especially in places far from power centres, such as rural areas. Examples of citizens’ participation in rural areas, from successful and less successful strategies to the place of the public sector at the local and European levels in community-led development, can show the way.

Our Kitesurfing Adventure Skills trip Dec 1-8 is a way to build your adventure skills on a week-long kitesurfing journey in one of the most incredible coastal landscapes in the world — the Parnaiba Delta and the Lençois Maranhenses. Barra Grande to Atins Dec 1 – Dec 8 2018 Why focus on adventure skills? Adventure is everywhere, if you know how to find it. We all want more adventure in our life, but how to find adventure is often a mystery. If we aren’t ready, we’ll miss the chance for adventure, and if we over-prepare it won’t happen either. Adventure is the art of navigating the unexpected — and the better we are at that, the better our lives will be. Adventure doesn’t happen by accident While we often think of adventure as something that happens when things don’t go as planned, adventure is what happens when we give ourselves the chance to work at the edge of what we know. We increase the possibility for adventure by expanding what we know, and getting more comfortable pushing our boundaries into the unknown. Adventure skills serve us every day Just as our kites are a tool for moving through the natural world with the power of the wind, adventure skills are tools for moving through life with the power of the known and the unknown. To use a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, adventure skills make us more antifragile. So, what skills will we focus on during the Kitesurfing Adventure Skills trip? First of all, adventure requires leadership. We can’t push our experience into the unknown unless we are prepared to go first. We have to learn to lead, starting with how to lead ourselves. We’ll work on leadership skills such as goal setting, group dynamics, responsibility, and communication, what it means to lead and how we can get more comfortable taking the first step. We’ll also work as a team to practice leadership, taking turns at the front and back of the group on the water. Secondly, we’ll work together on navigation, map reading, route finding and planning, geography, weather, and hazards. Understanding how to navigate effectively without complete information is a key part of making any adventure possible — and also a critical life skill. Equipment is obviously an important part of any kitesurfing trip, and even moreso when we are planning adventures. As we lead up to the trip we’ll share a complete equipment list, discuss gear selection and packing, carrying gear while kiting, food and water, repairs, and more. Perhaps most importantly, we’ll work on the psychology of adventure. Open-mindedness, the beginner’s mindset, flow, calm non-reactivity, understanding fear as a message, positivity, thinking over the horizon, and… fun! Our goal will be to have a ton of fun along the way — and perhaps to redefine what fun means to you. Exploring and solving the riddle of how do we get there is fun! Just ready enough

A vaccine set to be given to most Irish people got the green light from the European regulator yesterday. The AstraZeneca jab was cleared for use here and across the continent by the European Medicines Agency. It means more than a million doses can be rolled out in Ireland as soon as deliveries are made available by the pharmaceutical company. The decision is a huge boost for the Irish vaccine programme, after Germany had earlier said it should not be given to those aged over 65. The AstraZeneca jab is supplied at a low cost, is easily transportable and can be stored at normal fridge temperatures. And jabs can be given by GPs, pharmacists and dentists. EMA chief Emer Cooke said: “We have further expanded the arsenal of vaccines available to EU and EEA member states to combat the pandemic and protect their citizens.” Tanaiste Leo Varadkar added: “This is good news. We have another vaccine in the arsenal. AstraZeneca has met the EMA’s strict criteria. “We will also begin vaccinating the over-85s in the next few weeks.” Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: “Ireland now has access to three vaccines approved by the European Commission which will allow us to accelerate the rollout of our vaccine programme in the coming weeks.” But despite advance delivery hopes, Ireland is likely to receive around 300,000 fewer AstraZeneca jabs than the 600,000 due to arrive here by March. This comes as a result of a shortfall in planned EU deliveries. Around 1.1 million vaccinations are now likely to be completed in the first quarter of the year, rather than the projected 1.4 million doses. Meanwhile, a new one-shot Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine could be rolled out in Ireland as soon as March. The news will come as a welcome shot to the arm for Ireland’s vaccine campaign which has been rocked by the ongoing controversy surrounding earlier delays in securing the AstraZeneca doses. The newest vaccine also does not require the same extreme freezing temperatures as Pfizer’s jab which will make it logistically easier to roll out. The chair of Ireland’s high-level Covid-19 Vaccine Taskforce Prof Brian MacCraith yesterday told the Dail’s Health Committee that the Johnson & Johnson jab could be rolled out in Ireland as soon as March with the country already signed up for 2.2 million doses. The company claims its vaccine has proven effective against multiple Covid variants including the new strain that has emerged in South Africa and is effective for people over the age of 60. Johnson & Johnson also claims its jab is 85% effective in stopping people getting severe Covid-19 and completely prevents hospitalisation and death from the virus 28 days after injection. In comparison, the Pfizer jab, which is currently being rolled out in Ireland, is 95% effective after two jabs and 52% after one dose. The Moderna jab, which has also been approved for use in Ireland, is considered 95% effective in stopping the bug.

Typically, New Zealand travel plans consist of sojourns across both the North and South Islands. With vast mountain ranges, steaming volcanoes, and sweeping coastlines, it is a beautiful country, and its Māori name Aotearoa fittingly translates to “Land of the Long White Cloud”. New Zealand’s South Island hosts some of the purest natural landscapes in the world—truly the best playground for nature lovers, thrill seekers and adventurers. As is customary, our New Zealand travel guide will cover the must-do’s, followed by the local eats, because a country is often experienced and best enjoyed through its food! In this article, we look at top things to do in New Zealand’s South Island, as well as unmissable Kiwi delicacies. Note: This post focuses on the South Island, and is a follow-up to our first post on the North Island. We highly recommend you read both to discover all about the best places to visit in New Zealand. New Zealand Travel Restrictions Before we proceed, here is a summary of the New Zealand travel restrictions. To enter the country, you must: - Be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. - Complete the New Zealand Traveller Declaration before departing. - Receive your New Zealand Traveller Pass. - Complete a pre-departure test. Do keep an eye on the latest developments because the government has indicated that this requirement will be removed when New Zealand reopens to foreign visitors on July 31, 2022. Visitors who arrive in New Zealand will be given a pack of 2 rapid antigen tests (RATs), with instructions on how to use them, at the airport. You must self-test on the day you arrive in New Zealand and on Day 5 or 6. Results should be reported via email to the New Zealand Ministry of Health. New Zealand Travel: More Fun facts - The word kiwi can refer to New Zealanders, the uber cute native flightless bird and the delicious kiwi fruit. So be specific when you use this word during your trip. - Hobbit coins are legal tender in New Zealand. These coins feature characters such as Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf. If you find them, you probably want to keep these coins as souvenirs instead of spending them. - Expect more sheep than people. A popular estimate is a ratio of 10 sheep for every person living in New Zealand. - There are three official New Zealand languages: English, sign language and Te Reo Māori. - You will go far if you learn hongi, the traditional Māori greeting. This is performed by pressing your nose gently against another person’s nose and may include touching of the foreheads (and a handshake). It represents sharing the breath of life. Top 5 Things to do in New Zealand (South Island) 1. Climb Mount Cook, The Country’s highest mountain The Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is home to the highest mountains and the longest glaciers in New Zealand. The park often tops the list for South Island experiences. Historical fact: Aoraki/Mount Cook is where Sir Edmund Hillary developed his climbing skills before scaling Everest. Visitors have a choice from 10 short walks, of varying lengths, that begin near Aoraki/Mount Cook Village. You can also go on a helicopter or ski-plane to visit the park’s fabulous glaciers. Another option is a boat trip to the only accessible glacial lake with icebergs in the world. 2. Admire birds as you hike Stewart Island New Zealand is a bird-watchers’ paradise, and Stewart Island is home to the country’s largest and most diverse bird population. Spending time on this island tops the list of things to do in New Zealand. While not technically on the South Island, it is just a one-hour ferry or a 15-20-minute flight away. Spot the nocturnal kiwi, albatross, penguins and wekas (another flightless bird native to New Zealand) as you walk. The island has just 28 km of road, but 280 km of walking tracks suited to short walks, day walks and multi-day hikes. At night, the Aurora Australis often appears in these southern skies. Walk the three-day Rakiura Track and you will get the full experience of Stewart Island’s wild beauty. 3. Explore Marlborough Sounds Located at the top of the South Island, Marlborough Sounds boasts 1,500 km of New Zealand coastline. If you’re looking for a getaway into the quiet of nature, this is one of the best places to visit in New Zealand. Here you’ll find secluded bays, historic sites, marine reserves, and precious island sanctuaries which foster kiwi and other native species. You can cruise or kayak here and look for wildlife along the way. Or walk or cycle bush-clad ridge lines and admire the view from the Queen Charlotte Track. 4. Take Pictures of one of the world’s street art capitals Christchurch has earned a strong reputation as the home of street art in New Zealand. Local artists can do whatever artwork they want, and the amazing results include larger-than-life spray cans, women-centric drawings and an intriguing piece titled ‘The Cycle of Life and Death’. Exploration of this inner city reveals colourful artworks from a range of inspiring artists. Just perfect for Instagram! You can keep track of the ever-evolving murals in the city with Watch This Space, a map of street art in Christchurch, and contribute your thoughts to its blog. 5. Awaken your inner explorer The stunning lakeside resort of Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world, another one of the best places to visit in New Zealand. You will need some courage for all the adrenaline-filled activities here. This is home to the world’s highest cliff jump, the world’s steepest zip-line, the world’s biggest human catapult, as well as New Zealand’s highest flying fox and highest bungee. There is also cruise-y side to Queenstown with helicopter rides over the Southern Alps to Milford Sound or around the peak of Aoraki/Mount Cook. You can also cruise down the country’s longest lake and cycle the Queenstown Trail network. End each day with a visit to the town’s cosmopolitan bars and restaurants. New Zealand Travel: Top 4 Things to Eat on the South Island 1. Go crazy for crayfish Crayfish are a type of crustacean resembling small lobsters, growing up to six inches long. It turns bright red when cooked. Crayfish have a delicate, slightly sweet flavour, and a meaty, succulent texture like tiger prawns. In New Zealand, crayfish is served in roadside stalls or shops along coastal highways but the best place to eat it is in Kaikoura, on the South Island. Recommended restaurants include Nins Bin, Cods & Crayfish and Kaikoura Seafood BBQ Kiosk. 2. Try whitebait fritters The West Coast of the South Island is the place to try whitebait fritters. Whitebait refers to immature fish, usually around one to two inches long. You can think of whitebait fritters as omelettes with fish, sort of a fishy omelette. Just remember that a true fritter is made with both flour and eggs. While on the West Coast, you may also want to visit Monteith’s Brewery in Greymouth, the original home of craft brewing and one of the longest-running beer breweries in New Zealand. 3. Seek sea snails Pāua is the Māori name for large edible sea snails, i.e., abalone. New Zealand’s three native species of pāua have beautiful multi-coloured shells. You can eat pāua in a variety of ways from plain and raw to curries to pāua fritters. The distinctive pāua shells are known as sea opals and often used in New Zealand jewellery and other decorative souvenirs. 4. Love lamb All kiwis say their country has the best lamb in the world, no ifs, no buts. New Zealand lamb is grass-fed and free-range. Roast lamb or lamb cutlets are always on the menu in most high-end restaurants and some pubs. If you’re ever in doubt about what to eat on your New Zealand travels—all lamb is good in New Zealand. 5. Bonus: Enjoy an L&P One of the most basic things to do in New Zealand is to try an L&P, a proudly kiwi product. The name stands for “Lemon & Paeroa”, and was traditionally made with lemon juice and carbonated mineral water from the town of Paeroa. (Imagine that!) It is a popular soft drink in the country, and its iconic slogan “World famous in New Zealand” has been claimed to be a Kiwi-ism that has been spoofed and referenced over the years. You can pick up an L&P from any supermarket, dairy or fast-food joint. So that covers the South Island portion of your New Zealand travel plans. If you haven’t already read it, pair it with our post on the North Island, and then you’ll have a better idea of all the best places to visit in New Zealand!

Why should Latter-day Saints know more about the founder of Islam? What have prophets and apostles said about Muhammad? Find out in this fascinating article from the Ensign published in August of 2000. Recently I received a phone call from two Church members in Los Angeles who had become acquainted with a Muslim neighbor from Pakistan. When they shared with him the story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, his response surprised them. After stating that Muslims accept no prophets after Muhammad, he said that Joseph Smith’s story shared similarities with Muhammad’s. He said, “We believe Muhammad encountered a divine messenger who informed him of his new calling as prophet. He received revelations of new scripture that contains God’s word to mankind, and he established a community of believers that developed into a major world religion.” Knowing little about Muslims and Islam or about Muhammad, the members were unsure in their responses. The issues raised by this experience imply a broader question that is relevant for all Latter-day Saints in view of the Church’s global presence and the increasingly pluralistic societies in which we all live: What is an appropriate Latter-day Saint attitude toward other religions’ claims of divinely inspired prophets, scriptures, visions, and miracles? The following may be helpful and is based on gospel insights I have gained over the years while studying and living in Muslim societies. Seeing Muhammad’s role in religious history from the perspective of the restored gospel provides great understanding of one of history’s most influential spiritual leaders, helps us appreciate Heavenly Father’s love for His children of all nations, and gives principles to guide us in building positive relations with friends and neighbors of other faiths. . . . Latter-day Saint Interest in Muhammad One of the noteworthy examples of the Latter-day Saint commitment to treasure up true principles and cultivate affirmative gratitude is the admiration that Church leaders have expressed over the years for the spiritual contributions of Muhammad. As early as 1855, at a time when Christian literature generally ridiculed Muhammad as the Antichrist and the archenemy of Western civilization, Elders George A. Smith (1817–75) and Parley P. Pratt (1807–57) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles delivered lengthy sermons demonstrating an accurate and balanced understanding of Islamic history and speaking highly of Muhammad’s leadership. Elder Smith observed that Muhammad was “descended from Abraham and was no doubt raised up by God on purpose” to preach against idolatry. He sympathized with the plight of Muslims, who, like Latter-day Saints, found it difficult “to get an honest history” written about them. Speaking next, Elder Pratt went on to express his admiration for Muhammad’s teachings, asserting that “upon the whole, … [Muslims] have better morals and better institutions than many Christian nations.” Latter-day Saint appreciation of Muhammad’s role in history can also be found in the 1978 First Presidency statement regarding God’s love for all mankind. This declaration specifically mentions Muhammad as one of “the great religious leaders of the world” who received “a portion of God’s light” and affirms that “moral truths were given to [these leaders] by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.”

To understand the ‘schwa’ as a swallowed or neutral vowel sound often found in unstressed syllables. To identify the schwa ‘al’ in a list of words. Identify the schwa in each of the following words. panda, button, cactus, sugar, actor, pattern Revise the ‘le’ spelling, which comes at the end of multisyllabic words, and sounds something like ‘óol’. Clap the words candle, simple and puzzle. Now try these words total, camel, pencil Notice that these words ending in al, el and il have the same ‘óol’ sound as ‘le’ As there is no rule for which one to use the spelling must be learnt. The suffix ‘al’ can be added to nouns to make adjectives like ‘bridal’ but not all words ending in ‘al’ are adjectives. Remember that few words in English end in v. If the word ends in a v sound it is likely to spelt ‘ve’ Complete the spelling list activities in your literacy book. Use the learning apps game to practise definitions. Complete Spelling sheet 22 Write the correct possessive adjective to complete each sentence. Dictation with your teacher. Write out the following sentences, using the correct punctuation, including speech marks and capital letters for proper nouns. 1. She accidentally broke the crystal vase. 2. They listened for the animals in total silence. 3. ‘The festival was terrifically busy!’ exclaimed Ray. Parse the sentence, identify the subject and choose the correct tense.

arthritis the basics If you suspect your dog might have arthritis, or have been told that your dog does have arthritis, then a good place to start is by learning more about the disease. This section of the website contains a wealth of information on what arthritis is, how to identify arthritis in your dog, and what it can mean long-term. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of chronic pain in dogs. It affects 80% of dogs over the age of 8 years old, and potentially up to 35% of dogs of all ages. It is considered a welfare concern in companion animals such as dogs, especially if left untreated. Arthritis is often considered to be a disease of old age, however unfortunately it can occur in dogs of any age. This is due to the fact that developmental joint disease, which is a disease of younger dogs, is the leading cause of arthritis. Developmental joint disease results in imperfectly fitting joints and subsequent early onset degenerative changes. These changes progress to arthritis, resulting in painful, immobile, and grossly abnormal joints. Arthritis simply means “inflammation of the joints”, but in truth the disease is much more complex than this. Arthritis is commonly and mistakenly described as a disease of the cartilage of a joint. It is in fact a disease that affects all structures within the joint, and if left unmanaged, it can lead to complete joint failure. Cartilage within the joint is destroyed and not replaced during the degenerative process of arthritis. The inner lining of the joint capsule becomes inflamed, and the outer fibrous layer becomes thickened and restrictive. The normally nutritious, viscous joint fluid thins and loses its viscous support for normal joint motion. New bone is laid down around the joint margins and the bone underlying the cartilage remodels, thus losing its ability to absorb concussional forces. The supportive structures such as ligaments local and distant to the joint weaken, leaving the joint unstable and weak. Throughout the above degenerative process, the nerve receptors within the bone and joint capsule convey messages of inflammation and tissue damage to the brain. These receptors not only increase in number, but also fire off messages to the brain more easily. If this process is left unregulated, we will eventually see a process called “wind up” where the brain becomes increasingly aware of the pain signals coming from the joints and magnifies them so what was initially a low level of pain is now perceived as a lot of pain. other types of arthritis Arthritis simply means inflammation of the joint, but there are different kinds and should not be confused as each requires a different treatment. A thorough examination by your vet will ensure a correct diagnosis for the best long-term results. THE JOINT CAN BE CONSIDERED AS AN ‘ORGAN’ WHERE ALL COMPONENTS OF THE JOINT ARE AFFECTED BY THE DISEASE PROCESS.

Risk factor surveillance is a complementary tool of morbidity and mortality surveillance that improves the likelihood that public health interventions are implemented in a timely fashion. The aim of this study was to identify population predictors of malaria outbreaks in endemic municipalities of Colombia with the goal of developing an early warning system for malaria outbreaks. We conducted a multiple-group, exploratory, ecological study at the municipal level. Each of the 290 municipalities with endemic malaria that we studied was classified according to the presence or absence of outbreaks. The measurement of variables was based on historic registries and logistic regression was performed to analyse the data. Altitude above sea level [odds ratio (OR) 3.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.34-9.98], variability in rainfall (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.40-2.44) and the proportion of inhabitants over 45 years of age (OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.08-0.38) were factors associated with malaria outbreaks in Colombian municipalities. The results suggest that environmental and demographic factors could have a significant ability to predict malaria outbreaks on the municipal level in Colombia. To advance the development of an early warning system, it will be necessary to adjust and standardise the collection of required data and to evaluate the accuracy of the forecast models.

While it’s easy to assume that hybrid cars are better for the environment, the reality is a lot more complicated. While they do save money on fuel and reduce some types of waste, there are also ways in which hybrids may be worse for the environment than traditional gasoline cars. In this post, we’ve broken down each way that hybrid cars can impact the environment so you can understand what the real deal is. They are not zero-emission vehicles Hybrid cars are cleaner than traditional vehicles. They use less fuel and emit less carbon dioxide, which means they’re better for the environment. But are hybrid cars really more environmentally friendly? Well, it depends on how you define “environmentally friendly.” If you mean saving resources and protecting the planet, then yes—hybrid cars do help with those things. Companies like Ford who opened a company in Craiova, Romania for producing the Ford Puma, obviously think that hybrid is the way to go. People from that country like new cars, but also any new good deals, like the ones found in Casino online România. Hybrids still burn fossil fuels. These aren’t renewable energy sources like solar or wind power—they’re still reliant on finite resources that will eventually run out. So although hybrids may improve air quality when compared against traditional autos (which pollute more), many people believe that we need to find alternative forms of transportation in order for real progress toward sustainability goals. Hybrid car waste While hybrid vehicles are more efficient than their non-hybrid counterparts, they still require batteries. And those batteries need to be disposed of safely. The good news is that hybrids can go longer before needing a battery replacement and have higher capacity for power storage than standard cars. The bad news? Batteries are highly toxic and don’t break down into harmless substances; they need to be recycled carefully or thrown away properly. In fact, some states have banned the disposal of lead acid batteries in landfills because of their toxicity. Those batteries are still dominantly made out of Lithium, which requires mining and destroys the surrounding soil and environment. Many companies who mine lithium are facing protests by local residents and eco fighters, making Lithium hard to obtain. The bottom line is that hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius are a step in the right direction. But they’re not perfect, and there are better solutions out there. Hybrid cars may be very efficient in terms of fuel use, but they’re still dependent on fossil fuels for their energy source. A truly green vehicle would run on an alternate energy source like electric or hydrogen power. The answer isn’t so simple. Yes, hybrid cars are better for the environment than their non-hybrid counterparts. But they’re not necessarily better than other types of alternative fuel vehicles that are also available on the market today—and they may not always be the best choice for your personal driving needs either. If you want to make the most environmentally friendly choice when purchasing a new car, don’t be afraid to consider other options. There are some great electric vehicle models on the market today that have zero tailpipe emissions and even better fuel economy!

Peguis First Nation in Manitoba is no stranger to flooding — but that wasn’t always the case. A few generations ago, the community lived on prime farmland just north of Winnipeg, far from the flood-prone delta on the Fisher River where it is today. Until an illegal land surrender in 1907, Peguis First Nation was located on prime farmland near Winnipeg. The water was quick, unforgiving. In a matter of days, the flooding on Peguis First Nation, believed to be the worst the community in Manitoba’s Interlake has ever seen, displaced roughly 1,600 people and ravaged hundreds of homes. Peguis has 3,521 members usually living on reserve and 6,504 off-reserve members. The largest First Nation community in Manitoba is no stranger to flooding — over the last few decades, residents have been chased from their homes by rising waters several times — but that wasn’t always the case. A few generations ago, the community lived on prime farmland just north of Winnipeg, far from the flood-prone delta on the Fisher River about 160 km north of the capital city where it is today. And in a way, the story of how they were pushed so far north into Manitoba’s Interlake region — a move motivated by racism and propelled by a dubious vote — is the story of Manitoba, said Niigaan Sinclair, a professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba. “You can map Manitoba by the removals of Indigenous peoples. So the story of Peguis is unfortunately not abnormal,” said Sinclair, who’s also a member of the First Nation. “But it is particularly awful for myself in that I witness my relatives every year having [a] massive amount of property damage, their livelihoods being consistently under duress, and the fact that it’s just impossible to make a way of life … in this territory that we’ve been forced to live upon.” At the turn of the 20th century, land just northeast of Winnipeg was known as the St. Peter’s Reserve — a predecessor to today’s Peguis First Nation. Today, the area is home to the city of Selkirk. The people of St. Peter’s were successful farmers, said Karen Froman, an assistant professor at the University of Winnipeg who teaches Indigenous history. But an idea persisted among settlers that First Nations were incapable of using the land properly. “There was pressure and resentment on the part of the settler population to remove Indigenous peoples from productive, valuable land,” said Froman, who is Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River. “It’s racism, pure and simple.” When the growing nearby community of Selkirk experienced an economic boom, government officials began condemning the reserve as “a drain on the prosperity of the district,” she said. So in 1907, they devised a scheme for the reserve land to be surrendered — though the people of St. Peter’s “utterly opposed it,” Froman said. A ‘sham’ vote By all accounts, the vote on whether the First Nation would give up its land to the government “was pretty shadily done,” she said. The vote was held in September, when many members were away hunting, fishing and trapping, and was scheduled on short notice, Froman said. Many St. Peter’s residents weren’t able to fit into the small schoolhouse where the vote was held. The vote itself was also confusing, with an official at one point telling voters to choose a side based on who wanted $90 — not who wanted to surrender their land — though it was unclear which line people were even supposed to stand in, she said. Still, Froman said, the outcome was close: 107 in favour, 98 against. It wasn’t a majority of the 233 eligible voters. But the government decided it had won the majority of the vote, though no record was kept of who was voting, Sinclair said. “You cannot call that a vote. That was a sham,” he said. “The land was stolen, period.” The St. Peter’s Reserve was dissolved, and its people forced from the site where they’d been for generations to a new one selected by the government, Froman said. A new home — for some What awaited the newly established Peguis First Nation — named after Chief Peguis, who had led a band of Saultaux people to establish a settlement at Netley Creek and later at St. Peter’s — was a far cry from the thriving community they once knew, Froman said. There were no houses, no schools, no churches, or even any roads. “They took one hell of a backward step when they moved,” said Bill Shead, whose great-grandfather, William Asham, was a former chief of St. Peter’s who was at the meeting when the vote was held. It was “scrubland, poor land — sort of marshy and no real big trees.” But others refused to leave, Froman said. Some First Nations people who stayed undertook enfranchisement (a process of giving up First Nation status under the Indian Act), while some Métis people applied for scrip in an attempt to hold onto their land. But many ended up losing it anyway, she said. Others refused to leave outright, instead facing legal consequences. Trevor Greyeyes said that’s what happened to his family, who are from the nearby former Netley Creek First Nation, which the government combined with St. Peter’s Reserve to save money after Treaty 1 was signed. That decision meant their lands were included in the illegal surrender, though they occupied the marsh area until they were arrested for trespassing in 1931. At a trial the next year, they got two choices: move to the new Peguis First Nation site, or go to jail. “As you can imagine, there were quite a few people who said, ‘Well, I’m moving,'” Greyeyes said. “There were a number of them who refused to. So those men were jailed.” Though the land surrender was declared invalid in 1911, that ruling was ignored by government officials who insisted the First Nation relocate, Froman said. “The rationale and the explanation provided by officials, and that’s actually been absorbed as part of the settler mentality, was the lie, the fiction that the people of St. Peter’s willingly sold and abandoned their land,” she said. “The people did not go willingly, despite the historical narrative … that people just sort of bowed their heads in obedience and shuffled off quietly to the bush.” But despite all that happened, the people of St. Peter’s — now Peguis — didn’t nurse a grudge, Shead said. “They got on with their lives and rebuilt a community, in very difficult circumstances, that has prospered,” he said, remembering his own grandparents’ house, built with logs from the forest on the new reserve. And they didn’t stop there. In 2009, they voted to accept a land claims settlement worth $126 million to compensate for the land stolen over a century earlier. “They won — that’s the way I see it, anyway,” Shead said. “[They used] their ability and their smarts to get educated and to seek compensation for past wrongs, using our system, education and the rule of law.” But today, the community is still dealing with the aftermath of being relocated to such a flood-prone area, said Chief Glenn Hudson, repeating his call for long-term flood mitigation measures in the area. “We deserve better, especially when our land was taken from us illegally,” Hudson said. “People need to understand and know the history of how our lands have been swindled from us.” It’s a sentiment shared by elder and Peguis First Nation member Ruth Christie — not just to make people aware of her community’s history today, but to make sure its stories are preserved for tomorrow. “The elders that knew these stories, they’re passing away now,” Christie said. “If the young people aren’t interested in the history of their people … that history will be lost.”

"I said I was still a virgin. Emotionally, I still was." Padma Lakshmi, the author, actress, model and TV star, revealed her sexual abuse ordeals as a child and teenager, and understands why someone would wait years to disclose a sexual assault. She has talked about her experience when she was raped at 16 by her boyfriend, who was 23 at the time. The 48-year-old celebrity chef wrote about her sexual assault in an opinion piece (Op-Ed) for The New York Times. Padma also explained why she never reported the incident to police until recently. She also recounted another situation when she was aged seven and her stepfather’s relative ‘touched me between my legs and put my hand on his erect penis.’ Padman Lakshmi has shared her story to inspire other victims of sexual abuse to come forward and there is nothing to be afraid of. Ordeal as a Teenager At 16 years old, Padma lived in Los Angeles and met the man at the Puente Hills Mall where she worked after school. He worked at a high-end men’s clothing shop and would come into the shop where Padma worked and flirted with her. She took a shine to him. Padma said: “He was in college, and I thought he was charming and handsome. He was 23.” When they went out, he was very respectful to Padma’s family as he would come in and talk to her mother. Their relationship became more intimate but she did not know if she felt ready to have sex. She said: “We were intimate to a point, but he knew that I was a virgin and that I was unsure of when I would be ready to have sex.” After a few months of dating, the TV star was raped by her boyfriend on New Year’s Eve. Questions asked in the immediate aftermath of when a woman is raped were answered by Padma. She said: “You may want to know if I had been drinking on the night of my rape.” “It doesn’t matter, but I was not drunk.” “Maybe you will want to know what I was wearing or if I had been ambiguous about my desires.” “It still doesn’t matter, but I was wearing a long-sleeved, black Betsey Johnson maxi dress that revealed only my shoulders.” Both had gone to several parties to celebrate the New Year. After, they went back to his apartment. While talking, she was so exhausted that she lay on the bed and fell asleep. She was woken by an excruciating pain. “I remember waking up to a very sharp stabbing pain like a knife blade between my legs.” “He was on top of me. I asked, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘It will only hurt for a while.” She screamed: “Please don’t do this.” After his assault, he said to her: “I thought it would hurt less if you were asleep.” He then drove her home. She never reported it and on that night she went to sleep, hoping to forget what happened. Soon she began to feel that it was her fault, especially during the 1980s when date rape was unheard of. If Padma reported it, she imagined that adults would say: “What the hell were you doing in his apartment?” “Why were you dating someone much older.” As a teenager, she did not classify it as sex in her head. To have sex according to Padma Lakshmi was to express love, share pleasure or to have a baby. What she experienced was none of those things. “Later when I had other boyfriends in my senior year at school and in my first year of college, I lied to them.” “I said I was still a virgin. Emotionally, I still was.” How it Affects her Now? Since the rape, the advocate for women’s rights has realised that she absorbed certain lessons as a child. She was sexually assaulted at age seven and when she told her parents, it was ignored because of the stigma which surrounds it. “When I was 7 years old, my stepfather’s relative touched me between my legs and put my hand on his erect penis.” “Shortly after I told my mother and stepfather, they sent to India for a year to live with my grandparents.” “The lesson was it you speak up, you will be cast out.” Both experiences have affected Lakshmi and her ability to trust. “It took me decades to talk about this with intimate partners and a therapist.” “Some say a man shouldn’t pay a price for an act he committed as a teenager.” “But the woman pays the price for the rest of her life, and so do the people who love her.” In 32 years, this is the first time Lakshmi has talked about her suffering and could have reduced the suffering had she spoken up. “I think if I had at the time named what happened to me as rape, and told others, I might have suffered less.” “Looking back, I now think I let my rapist off the hook and I let my 16-year-old self down.” Something many survivors of sexual abuse feel much more strongly about today than the past. Simply, because of the huge volume of cases of sexual assault being revealed by individuals, whether they are celebrities or not. Why Padma Lakshmi is Sharing her story? Padma has shared her story so that victims should not suffer in silence as she did, which she now regrets. “Now, 32 years after my rape, I am stating publicly what happened. I have nothing to gain by talking about this.” “But we all have a lot to lose if we put a time limit on telling the truth about sexual assault and if we hold on to the codes of silence that for generations have allowed men to hurt women with impunity.” Padma, who has daughter Krishna, aged eight, with tech executive Adam Dell, has told her simple words for years which took her much of her life to understand. She tells her daughter: “If anybody touches you in your privates or makes you feel uncomfortable, you yell loud.” “You get out of there and tell somebody.” “Nobody is allowed to put their hands on you. Your body is yours.” Padma has told her story so that future generations can learn more. “One in four girls and one in six boys today will be sexually abused before the age of 18.” “I am speaking now because I want us all to fight so that our daughters never know this fear and shame and our sons know that girls’ bodies do not exist for their pleasure and that abuse has grave consequences.” Being able to communicate their ordeals to parents or families is a major problem due to shame, honour, guilt and self-blame. This taboo needs much more awareness and increased visibility for survivors to cope with the trauma they experienced and mental health issues they can face later in life. If Padma Lakshmi and others like her are now breaking this mould, it is time to help more people come forward, so they can get the support they need.

When it comes to an industry as extensive as SEO, you will get many opinions about the most effective way to approach website optimization. While many tactics work, deciding on the best one is somewhat subjective. However, one distinction can help determine which type of SEO will work best for you: black hat SEO and white hat SEO. What Is Black Hat SEO? Black Hat SEO is a set of illegal and unethical practices that people use to improve their website’s search engine results. A Black Hat SEO strategy will usually maximize short-term gains by taking advantage of blind spots in a search engine’s algorithms. This entails spammy practices that negatively affect the ranking of other websites. Black hat SEO practices change and evolve as search engines update their algorithms. Thus, it includes many SEO practices that may violate the search engine’s terms of service. Image Source: https://www.ndimensionz.com/ Let’s take a look at some of the most common techniques in Black Hat SEO: Black Hat SEO Techniques 1. Hiding Keywords Hiding keywords means changing the color of the text to make it appear invisible to the naked eye. These invisible keywords are placed to fool the search engine into giving the website a good ranking on SERPs (search engines result page). 2. Keyword Stuffing Keyword stuffing is the practice of excessively using keywords in your content in an attempt to send amplified signals to search engines. This is supposed to make a website rank higher for a particular search query that is relevant to the keyword. 3. Link schemes Link schemes include various techniques like buying links, link exchanges, sponsored links, and the use of automated programs to build links. By creating false backlinks, these websites will try to manipulate Google’s algorithm into believing their authority and reputation. 4. Spin Content This refers to content created by a bot that is mostly gibberish and filled with keywords to fool how search engines work and increase organic traffic. 5. Misleading Redirects Redirects are meant to take the visitor to another page if the requested web page is broken or outdated. Misleading redirect takes the user to a new web page where the content differs from what the Search Engine Web crawler read Black Hat SEO and Google Algorithm Updates Google evolves over time, and it is continuously updating its algorithm to present the users with the most relevant and authentic results. This is why Google has more than 200 ranking factors now. As Google controls more than 90% of the total search engine market, most black hat practices are primarily targeted at manipulating Google. Ever since the Penguin update in 2012, Google has consistently tried to minimize and obliterate black hat practices. Google now considers manipulative tactics and uses its algorithms to punish websites that engage in such unethical practices. This is why websites that use black hat SEO methods suffer several types of penalties, such as: ● Black Listing ● Algorithm deprioritization Are People Still Using Black Hat SEO Techniques? Unfortunately, many people still use Black Hat tactics under the assumption that they can fool the search engines. No matter how advanced a search engine may become, there will always be blind spots in its algorithms. People will take advantage of these gaps to manipulate search engines. People who use such techniques don’t want to put in the time and effort to offer real value to their Internet users and only want to gain their ranking. What is White Hat SEO? White hat SEO is the right or ethical way of optimizing a website, and it starts with website analysis and competitor analysis. White hat SEO strategy focuses on identifying and solving the issues that hinder website performance on search engines. White hat SEO is based on different strategies and techniques to optimize a website for search engines through various ranking factors like backlinks, keywords relevance authority, etc. Thus, White hat SEO is centered on organic and long-term strategies that increase ranking over time. This is a comparatively slower process, but it promises stable growth. Image Source: White Hat SEO Techniques Here are a few primary white hat SEO techniques: 1. Content Optimization According to the search engine giant, Google, “Content Is King”. Image Source: https://iformatiformat.worldsecuresystems.com/ If you want to create an effective SEO strategy, then content optimization should be your top priority. It involves optimizing the content of a website to suit the search intent. Optimized content is linkable, based on keyword phrase research, and original. 2. Technical SEO Technical SEO focuses on your website’s meta structure, tags, internal links, keyword usage and other aspects of technical merit. Evaluate technical issues and chances for improvement within your website to enhance its performance. You will experience a quick boost in SERPs when you improve the technical merit of a website. 3. Link Building SEO link building plays a vital role because it adds credibility and authority to a website by adding a vote of confidence from another site. Backlinks give signals to search engine algorithms that other websites support and rely on your website’s content. White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO When we compare white hat SEO and black hat SEO, it is always better to use white hat SEO practices. Even though white hat tactics take time, effort, and money to achieve significant results, it offers low risks and higher rewards over time – whether it is for Google or alternative search engines. Furthermore, you will never violate Google’s guidelines and ultimately achieve an authoritative and reputable status.

Agave Syrup and Corn Syrup Identical 5 CAUSES OF A SLUGGISH METABOLISM ARE YOU FAT - BLOATED - OVERWEIGHT - SICK (Part 1) FAT - BLOATED & OVER-WEIGHT Sluggish Metabolism? Grains including - Whole Grains destroy your Metabolism "Whole Grains" ARE definitely better than processed grains, yet NOT much better... * Whole Grains cause you to increase bloat, weight * Unlike fruits and vegetables and most nuts - Whole Grains can NEVER be eaten without some kind of processing. * Processing is the problem. Grains must be ground into flour, which is the evil metabolic cause that makes you fat from the grains...ALL grains. * After whole grains are processed into flour, your digestive enzymes must convert that starch directly into pure sugar. Sugar spikes your insulin and tells your body to start packing on the fat. * Yes, Whole Grains are more nutritional than Refined Grains BUT ONLY the Whole Grains remain "whole" and aren't refined into flour. * By the time you eat the Whole Grain foods: bran muffin, whole wheat toast or whole wheat pasta, cereals or other processed Whole Grain they've been processed into metabolism-destroying your quality health. Instead, you could have gulped down a tablespoon full of pure sugar. (Part 2) This Food Makes You FAT and DESTROYS Your METABOLISM Agave Nectar Syrup is not really from the cactus plant. Instead... * It is high-fructose corn syrup masquerading as * The big "sell * Fructose is the most metabolically damaging kind of sugar on the planet. Right after pure fructose. High fructose corn syrup is about 55% fructose; Agave syrup is between 55-92% fructose. It creates insulin resistance. It will make you FAT. * Agave raises your triglycerides and increases ugly belly fat. Greater risk for diabetes, heart disease * "When you consume fructose you are essentially consuming fat." Professor Robert Lustig, MD, professor of pediatrics at University of California San Francisco, and author of "Fat Chance" (Part 3) Canola Oil Destructive to Heart, Health Mind KNOW THE TRUTH - NEVER EAT THIS OIL EVER AGAIN! Canola oil which is really Rapeseed is Canola oil is a triumph of great marketing over facts regarding a most unhealthy food source. Canola Oil is really rapeseed oil derived from the rapeseed plant. "The change in name serves to distinguish it from natural rapeseed oil, which has much higher erucic acid content." It was renamed hiding the true fact of this very horrid putrid stuff. Rapeseed oil, in its' original state, is a disgusting greenish color that contains a high concentration of erucic acid. It can Cause HEART DAMAGE. No Human or Animal should ever consume this oil. Read all pet and human food labels. Manufacturers and marketers knew they had to deceive the public of the true components of the rapeseed oil and remove the erucic acid. The rapeseed oil is chemically bleached, deodorized and then degum the oil with various of harmful chemicals, including hexane, a chemical solvent. "The canola oil found on supermarket shelves has been refined, heated, and damaged beyond repair". It shouldn't be heated to high, heat yet frequently is. The processing and refining of canola oil Canola Trans-fats CAUSES: * Increased risk for heart disease. * Depression and other mental disorders. * Weight gain and embarrassing. * Hugely marbelized belly fat. * Lower DHA levels in the brain. Trash this oil, and do it fast; otherwise, you may accidentally trigger your body's "obesity response" in which layer upon layer of stubborn fat marble on all over your body. Heal and be healthier, focus on consuming healthy delicious foods that enhance healthy lean body with (Part 4) The Harmful Food with NO Real Nutritional Benefit Corn and All corn products are everywhere in foods, beverages such as beer AND... Pharmaceuticals, such as aspirin and antibiotics. It is in petroleum for your auto, packaging tape, paper products. Corn is in properties of high paste viscosity and strong gels. Corn is used in paper manufacturing for the adhesive property on remoistenable gums for postage stamps and packaging tape. Corn is used in spark plugs, rubber tires, toothpaste, paint and varnish. As well as Maltodextrins, which are sprayed on instant tea and coffee to keep the granules free flowing. Corn is used in instant soup mixes or other packages where the contents must be kept free flowing. Yes, Corn is also in Pesticides, fertilizers and cosmetics, As well as Vitamins and Minerals, hand soaps, animal litters, gypsum and drywall. More than 85% of US corn is genetically engineered (GMO). "Numerous studies over the past decade have revealed that genetically engineered foods can create serious risks to humans, domesticated animals, wildlife and the environment. Human health effects can include higher risks of toxicity, allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and Cancer." - Center for Food Safety. * Corn we consume has been highly processed and is lacking any REAL nutrition. * Corn is very high glycemic index, thus causing spike in blood sugar and insulin that can generate metabolic disaster. * Corn is one of the top food allergens, which make you bloated, retain fluids, and seriously lower your metabolism. (Part 5) XENOESTROGENS - The Fake Hormone That Destroys Your Metabolism and Health Xenoestrogens are compounds that act like estrogen in the human body. Civilization has created an excess of these horrible harming foods. * Male or Female, excess estrogen in your body, regardless of where it comes from, causes estrogen dominance, which proves damaging to health, wellness and weight. * Estrogen dominance is the common denominator for many Female troubles plus causing affecting weight gain, fibrocystic breast disease, PMS, migraines, menstrual disturbances, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts and breast cancer. For Male problems may lead to erectile dysfunction, testicular cancer, breast cancer. * Estrogen dominance is a common occurrence in Males,which causes weight gain, creates breasts and lowers testosterone. * Estrogen dominance forces fat onto your hips, thigh, waist and belly. "Estrogen is produced not only internally but also produced in reaction to chemicals and other substances in our food. When it is not broken down adequately, higher levels of estrogen build up" Nicholas Kristof, who has written extensively about xenoestrogens for the NY Times, tells of frogs with female organs, male fish which produce eggs, and male alligators with abnormally tiny sexual parts. "Endocrine disrupters are everywhere", he writes. "Big Chem" says this is all junk science. Don't believe it for a second. HOW TO AVOID XENOESTROGENS * Consume non-organic and GMO food, especially crops that are heavily sprayed. * Essential to consume Only organic animal proteins, eggs and little or no dairy. * Avoid animal products that contain Growth Hormones / dangerous chemicals that are fed to cattle, hens and other livestock. * Avoid drinking beverages sold plastic bottles; these bottles contain synthetic estrogen. * Diet consisting of white estrogen forming foods must be avoided or at best barely consumed. * Avoid White, Wheat or Soy processed foods generate synthetic estrogen: flour, pastas, cereals, breads, pastry, chips, bakes goods, etc. including cooked potatoes and especially left-over or fried potatoes.

THEY didn't put brakes on the sugar-crushing machinery on Caribbean slave estates. Instead the estate owners put a sharpened machete next to the powerful iron rollers. And if an enslaved African got a hand caught in the rollers he faced a stark choice - face certain death by being dragged through the rollers or use the machete to cut off the trapped limb. The history of slavery is littered with this kind of everyday, casual cruelty. But what has it got to do with Wales? The answer, surprisingly, is lots. Take the African with his hand stuck in the sugar rollers. The rollers could well have been made out of iron from the Dowlais ironworks in Merthyr. The machete he was about to use to cut off his arm may also have been made from Welsh iron. And that's not the end of it. He may have been bought from an African chief in exchange for Welsh copper bangles, pots and pans - either made at Greenfield Valley near Holywell or made in England from copper smelted around Swansea. The ship on which he crossed the Atlantic may well have had a copper-sheathed hull - again made of Welsh copper. This "coppering" was possible because of technologies developed by the Anglesey entrepreneur Thomas Williams. The copper ore might have come from Parys Mountain in Anglesey. The ship would have been armed. It may have carried guns made at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. The Royal Navy ships which kept the sea routes open for the slave trade certainly carried guns made in Merthyr. There was Welsh involvement in every aspect of slavery and the slave trade. Welsh slave ship captains, sailors, plantation owners and financiers were directly involved in the slave business. "British mercantile life was dominated by slavery," Dr Chris Evans, of the University of Glamorgan, tells a special BBC Wales programme to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. "One way or another the Welsh economy is intimately connected and directly connected with the slave system as a whole." Slavery was not just about the carrying of slaves on ships across the Atlantic or the forced labour of Africans in the Americas. Growing crops like sugar in the 18th century was such a lucrative business that a whole range of industries grew up around it. And, as the programme reveals, this had an influence on the way Wales became an industrial nation. The Welsh iron industry, for example, was founded by a man called Anthony Bacon. Bacon grew rich as a merchant trading in slave-grown crops like tobacco. He was also an important government contractor. One contract involved providing "seasoned and able working negroes" for government works on Caribbean sugar islands. Bacon's partners included the future US president George Washington. They formed the Dismal Swamp Company - an ambitious scheme to use slaves to log a huge swamp. It was with this slave-based fortune that Bacon arrived in Merthyr to develop the iron industry. He opened Cyfarthfa Ironworks and turned it into a major centre for gun casting. The market for their cannons was boosted by the need of the Royal Navy and the slave ships themselves to protect the slave trade. But it wasn't just iron and it wasn't just South Wales that benefited. It influenced the development of the copper industry in Swansea and North Wales. Swansea became the world centre for copper smelting by 1800. Eighty years earlier one of the fathers of the industry - Bristol slave trader Thomas Coster - opened the White Rock works. The copper went to plants in the Bristol area and some of it ended up on slave ships. In the late 18th century the Parys Mountain copper mines on Anglesey began to dominate copper ore supply. They were run by Anglesey solicitor Thomas Williams, The Copper King, one of Wales' greatest-ever businessmen. One of his key manufacturing centres was at Greenfield Valley near Holywell. Factories there produced a variety of copper goods, including bangles and "guinea kettles" for trade on the African coast by ships which would return with a cargo of slaves. Thomas Williams was another larger- than-life character. He was a ruthless and fabulously successful businessman who amassed a fortune of #500,000. He remained true to workers in his native Anglesey, where he was known as Tom Chwarae Teg (Tom Fair Play) but his fair play did not extend to enslaved Africans in Britain's colonies. He was not ashamed of being associated with the slave trade. He petitioned parliament when they considered abolition. He said he'd invested #70,000 in factories, including Swansea and Holywell, which were "entirely for the African market". Williams was not directly involved in slavery, but other Welsh people, though, were up to their necks in it. The Pennant family had built up vast estates in Jamaica and returned to Britain in the 1730s, eventually settling on the Penrhyn estate near Bangor. Richard Pennant took over running the estates in the 1780s and was keen to manage every aspect of his affairs in Jamaica. His papers discuss the lack of "breeding" among his plantation slaves. Richard Pennant used his fortune to leave a lasting legacy in Wales. He industrialised the slate industry, developing Penrhyn Quarry, which is still the world's largest slate quarry, built Port Penrhyn in Bangor to ship his slate around the world, built roads and improved agriculture. When the campaign to abolish slavery went before parliament he was one of its leading opponents saying it would ruin the colonies and destroy the livelihoods of seamen.In many ways he was recognising important truths. The British colonial economy, in which Wales was deeply involved, was built in large part on slavery. Welsh sea captains bartered for men and women on the coast of Africa with Welsh copper and iron. They sailed ships sheathed with Welsh copper and protected by Welsh guns. Welsh sailors worked their ships. Some slaves would end up on Welsh owned estates using equipment made from Welsh iron. And some of the profit from the slave business found its way back to Wales building industries like iron and slate, and developing rural areas.

Did you know that 70% of adults with an intellectual disability in New Brunswick are either unemployed or underemployed, while many are ready, willing and able to work? While the statistics seem grim, there is a great effort to change attitudes and increase the employment rate. Thanks to Ready, Willing and Able (RWA), a national initiative by the Canadian Association for Community Living and the Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorders Alliance, engaging employers and raising awareness about the value of hiring people with disabilities has helped to change the hiring practices of Canadian employers. How does Ready Willing and Able work? NBACL and other partners throughout Canada are working with businesses to solve their labour needs through leveraging the unique abilities and strengths of people with an intellectual disability and people with autism spectrum disorder. Through this partnership we can assist you to recruit, hire, train, and support job-seekers that match a business’s specific needs. Generally, it works by: - Identifying the particular need(s) of the employer, - Facilitating a connection to job-seekers to fill those particular need(s), and - Ensuring successful employment outcomes are achieved by providing support to both the employer and employee. Ready, Willing and Able recognizes that there are several “pillars” that need to be in place to produce and sustain an inclusive and effective labour market. These key elements include: - Employer Capacity and Confidence - Employer-to-Employer Networks - Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development - Inclusive Post-secondary Education - Service System Modernization - Youth Transitions to Employment All of these components work simultaneously to increase the capacity for employment success. I am a job seeker. How do I find employment? Once we work with an employer and find a new job opportunity, we look for people who are interested in and qualified for that job. We connect the job leads we find with our many local employment agency partners who have a lot of experience helping people with an intellectual disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder prepare for work and transition successfully into the work force. With the help of Ready, Willing and Able, our partner agencies can offer various on-the-job supports for potential employees (if necessary). Job supports might include everything from job coaches, to workplace modifications, assistive technologies and more.

WHY IMAGINATION MATTERS Living in the Wild West or Endless Color What was it like to be famous gunfighter Jesse James in America’s Old West? A gunfighter possesses extraordinary courage in the face of danger. He fiercely defends himself and community from dangerous outlaws and rivals. With a cautious eye and closed-off heart, gunfighter James erected an impenetrable mental and emotional wall between himself and outsiders. Now, make a mental snapshot of becoming a famous artist like Picasso. Picasso’s world embodied color, scenes, images and light. He passionately channeled creativity through sculpture, printmaking, ceramic works, stage design and writing. Picasso tapped into a never-ending supply of original works using his wide-open mind and playful heart. How can we translate the roles of gunfighter and artist in ourselves? The gunfighter represents our head or ego; the artist represents our mind or imagination. Since Plato’s time, society has operated from the head where rational and limited thinking rule the roost. From one generation to the next, parents have conditioned their children to be smart, logical and practical. Read here for how to sing your song. The head invests time and effort in pride, defense, power and showmanship as hallmarks of success. However, this success model has many pitfalls. Overuse of the head results in various forms of over-analyzing and escapism. In our heads we - are consumed by thoughts that fail to provide useful or long-lasting solutions. - compare ourselves to others who we perceive make progress not accessible to us. - merely exist, losing our power, peace, love and joy. - judge ourselves unworthy of belonging. - attach to various artificial versions of reality – daydreaming, fantasy, illusion – to try to cope with constant mental chatter. The Treasure Within Unlike the egoic gunfighter staking property claims, the imaginative artist claims the unlimited free space of his mind. Here he spreads his dreams. While overseeing his mind’s vast abundance, he allows his bounty room to flourish. For most of us, moments spent at this creative banquet are fleeting. Why? We grossly underestimate our imagination’s immense value. We’ve got it backwards! We allow our heads free reign to dominate mental operations, yet distance ourselves from our divine gift of imagination. With the prevalence of ego chaos and distraction (mental drama), isn’t it time to revalue imagination as our true treasure chest? Imagination calls us forth to unlock and yield her precious riches. Lucy Finds Another Way Home Lucy starts working with a coach, out of desperation. Her life has little joy, and routines hold no meaning. The main source of her sadness is the loss of her beloved husband, Ron, of 26 years. Through a flood of tears she reports how life unfolds each day. Lucy wishes she had died first, if only to relieve herself of this terrible pain. She carries plenty of unresolved guilt for not being a good enough caregiver. Her embittered stepchildren accuse her of making poor caregiving choices, even blaming her for Ron’s death. Every day Lucy wakes up and looks in the mirror. At first her mind tells herself that today is the day to feel better. Then her head sabotages her intention by convincing her that feeling good is a sign of not grieving enough. Then Lucy looks in the mirror and sees the same tired face, angry heart and empty eyes. Her head says she doesn’t matter to anyone anymore so why bother feeling good. She often recalls Ron’s face before he died and her heart breaks all over again. Lucy can’t stop remembering the past from the point of loss and her future seems pointless. Step 1. Determine the differences between ego and imagination. - reinforces brokenness and suffering - isolates the Self with doses of insecurity and self-pity - pursues a hostile mental takeover with despair and loneliness - convinces the Self it is stuck and incapable of healing - roams in the past and future - rules the Self with overdoses of fire and earth – causing destruction and collapse - offers the possibility to to stay present, grounded and connected to truth - welcomes beauty, kindness and gratitude - encourages a willing mind and an open heart - allows faith and forgiveness the opportunity to happen - infuses strength and awareness in the self for recovery - dedicates time for air and water – allowing for flow and acceptance Step 2. Write down examples of how ego takes charge and blocks growth. The considerable size of the ego list (perfect metaphor!) halts their conversation. Lucy is beginning to grasp the ego’s mindless and unrelenting agenda. No wonder she feels drained and heavy! Step 3. Describe how imagination can help manage grief and mental abuse. Once Lucy had completed this exercise, she proclaims: My imagination is a safe place for my mind and heart to occupy right now! I say ‘no thank you’ to the ego and its tricks. It’s time to imagine hope and warmth lifting me out of the rubble. Although this new adventure takes work, I am finally ready to allow my Imagination to uplift me and to feel better. Gunfighter or Artist? You decide. The path of knowledge is a limited picture of gunfighting, shielding emotions and anticipating dread to show up at any minute. The ego loves to hold us hostage to habit, patterns and programming. Relinquishing the egos mighty hold on us is a choice. We are more than capable of walking over the ego line and into our beautiful minds. The mind partners with us to discover, expand and connect with our divine compass. Its only mission is to guide us to the truth and help us shine.

Small Cell Lung Cancer Over A Billion Recovered Nationwide Asbestos-Caused Small Cell Lung Cancer If You Think Asbestos Exposure May Play a Role in Your SCLC Diagnosis, Call Us To Learn About Your Rights Less common than NSCLC, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is the second-most common type of lung cancer. Seen in 10-15% of cases, it is also known as oat cell lung cancer due to its appearance. Small cell lung cancer generally originates in areas surrounding the bronchi, which are the airways that connect the windpipe and lungs, and then spreads to the glands known as the bronchial submucosa. Unlike NSCLC, it metastasizes in the early stages of the disease and infiltrates the lymph nodes in the space between the lungs, bones, liver, adrenal glands, and brain. Because it spreads so quickly, most often SCLC is often not caught until the viable care options are palliative treatments. This cancer can take lives in as little as a few weeks after its discovery, causing heartbreak and upheaval in you and your family’s lives. Anyone who developed SCLC as a result of asbestos exposure has the right to file a claim against a negligent company or companies to blame. Doing so can help you cover the high costs of cancer care and provide financial support for your family moving forward. Diagnosing Small Cell Lung Cancer Signs and Symptoms of Small Cell Lung Cancer The symptoms of SCLC are often the same as those of NSCLC at the beginning. Patients with SCLC are more likely to develop additional symptoms as the disease metastasizes. They include: - New and lingering cough - Coughing up blood - Shortness of breath - Chest pain - Unexplained weight loss - Bone pain In addition, the patient may also develop certain syndromes (characterized by certain groupings of symptoms) such as: - SIADH (syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone): This condition causes the sodium level in blood serum to fall too low possibly resulting in too much fluid in the blood. If untreated, it can cause seizures and/or coma - (Ectopic) Cushing syndrome: The hormone adrenocorticotropic is produced by the cancer cells rather than the pituitary gland. This hormone promotes the creation of cortisol, a stress hormone, and can cause a number of symptoms including a fattening of the face and neck, puffy eyes, and a ruddy complexion. - Lambert-Eaton syndrome: This condition causes muscles to weaken, starting with those around the hips. It may expand to threaten shoulder muscles as well. Causes of Small Cell Lung Cancer Though genetic risk factors for SCLC may apply, most cases are caused by some form of toxic exposure: - Smoking is the primary cause of SCLC. Approximately 98 percent of all diagnosed patients are or were smokers. Secondhand smoke exposure can also increase someone’s risk of developing this cancer. - Asbestos exposure, whether in the workplace or secondhand, puts someone in danger of developing lung cancer. If they are also a smoker, this risk increases. - Radon exposure can happen to those who work with uranium or at home if you live near a natural source of uranium that is breaking down. - Previous radiation therapy targeting the chest can increase a patient’s risk of later developing lung cancer. Small Cell Lung Cancer Prognosis SCLC only has 2 stages: limited and extensive. Limited stage SCLC has only affected one side of the chest, meaning treatment is possible using only one radiation field. Extensive stage cancer has spread throughout the lung and/or to the lung and lymph nodes on the other side of the chest. It may also have metastasized to other body parts. Nearly 65-70 percent of SCLC patients present with extensive disease at the initial diagnosis. At this point, there is sadly no cure possible. If left untreated, the average survival time is six weeks. However, patients who present with early-stage SCLC who are left untreated have an average survival time of 12 weeks. Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatments Treatments for Limited Stage SCLC The standard of care for small cell lung cancer is usually a 3 to 6 week chemotherapy regimen of cisplatin (brand name Platinol) and etoposide (brand names Eposin, Etopophos, Vepesid) combined with radiation to the thorax. These therapies are given concurrently. However, if a patient presents with a smaller tumor involvement, a doctor may suggest a mediastinoscopy. Using an endoscope to look at the area between the lungs, a doctor will search for signs of lymph node involvement. Where there is none the patient may be available for surgery. Options include lobectomy, which is the surgical removal of the diseased lobe of the lung; wedge resection, which is the surgical removal of only the affected area of the diseased lobe; or a pneumonectomy, which is the surgical removal of the entire diseased lung. Surgery is typically followed by chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. Treatments for Extensive Stage SCLC The first-line treatments for patients with extensive stage SCLC are typically chemotherapy and immunotherapy. When the cancer has spread to the other side of the chest or elsewhere in the body, neither surgery nor radiation are effective treatments. Chemotherapy may shrink the cancer enough that radiation treatment becomes an option. Unfortunately, even when SCLC seems to have disappeared, it is likely to recur. Metastasis is also common and depending on the location can call for additional specialized treatments. Brain metastasis is typically addressed with a combination of high doses of corticosteroids and radiation therapy. If the patient presents with spinal cord compression, the standard management includes radiation therapy and/or surgical decompression. When chemotherapy is not a viable option for a patient, a doctor may recommend laser surgery or other palliative measures to help relieve the cancer’s symptoms. Preventative Therapy After Remission It’s rare for SCLC to be diagnosed quickly enough to be beaten. Patients who have complete remission may be offered cranial irradiation to prevent future brain metastasis—a common location for the spread of SCLC. Smoking Can Hurt Treatment Efforts Because cigarettes contain toxic materials, smoking can interfere with any sort of cancer treatment. However, the risk is especially clear with lung cancer. Smoking can cause lung cancer and, if a patient does not quit after being diagnosed, can increase the risk of developing another form of cancer. Your doctor has likely advised you to quit before, but after a SCLC diagnosis, it’s more important than ever to make the change. They may be able to provide you with nicotine patches or anti-craving medications. Or, you might turn to a counselor who can help you find other ways to manage stress and strong emotions as you stop smoking. We Can Help Patients with Asbestos-Caused Illness Despite the long history of asbestos harming employees, companies continued to use the product well into the 1980s in the U.S. Though it has been mostly banned from our marketplace today, there are still some older products that contain the material. Additionally, people who were exposed a long time ago may still be developing related diseases. The companies who caused this should be held responsible, and our team at Shrader & Associates, L.L.P. is here to help you do that. By filing a claim for SCLC, you may be able to recover damages like missed work, loss of earning potential, medical treatment, and more. Having financial options can help reduce your stress during this time, and so can having a dedicated legal team fighting for you. Our team can take on the work of filing a claim, so you have more time to spend on your health and with your family. We offer guidance and all-around support to you and your family because we know how difficult your situation is.

Gina Argento of New York owns and operates Broadway Stages, a premier film and television production studio with a commitment to renewable energy and environmental sustainability. With more than 100,000 square feet of solar and green rooftop infrastructure, Gina Argento discusses the impact of rooftop farming and its benefits. Gone are the days when cities were loud, chaotic jungles of steel, smog, and concrete. Now, with rooftop farming, even apartment dwellers can benefit from lush green spaces, homegrown fruits and vegetables, and the environmental benefits of CO2-absorbing plant life says Gina Argento of New York. Although it does take a little bit of work, today’s cityscapes are quickly adapting to incorporate rooftop farms. Most building owners and apartment dwellers have been happy to welcome the addition of a rooftop garden, like Broadway Stages. And, while the trend has mostly been limited to larger cities in the Western Hemisphere, it’s quickly spreading around the world. In this article, Gina Argento explores the finer details of rooftop farming, where it’s taking off, what’s being grown, and how it’s impacting urban landscapes. What is Rooftop Farming and What Does it Involve? Gina Argento of New York explains that rooftop farming is the practice of growing fruits, vegetables, and other plants on the rooftops of buildings. This type of agriculture can be found in both rural and urban areas, but it’s particularly well-suited for cities. This is because rooftops are often the only available green space in densely populated areas. Rooftop farms come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as small as a few square feet or as large as an acre. They can be simple affairs with just a few potted plants or highly sophisticated operations with irrigation systems, greenhouses, and beehives says Gina Argento. The type of farm will be determined by the space available, the climate, and the needs of the farmers. In some cases, farmers will lease space from a building owner. In others, they’ll purchase or rent a building outright. Historical and Current Rooftop Farming The practice of rooftop farming is nothing new. In fact, it’s been around for centuries. One of the earliest examples comes from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. These gardens, which were built around 600 BCE, were located on a rooftop in the ancient city of Babylon to please Queen Amytis of Media, who missed the green mountains of her homeland reports Gina Argento of New York. In recent years, though, there’s been a resurgence of interest in rooftop farming. This resurgence can be traced back to the 1970s when a group of ecologically minded individuals in New York City started a movement to “green the city.” One of the first projects of this group was the creation of a rooftop farm on a city-owned building in Lower Manhattan says Gina Argento of New York. The farm, which was called the Green Guerrillas, was a success. It not only produced fresh fruits and vegetables for the community, but it also helped to beautify the neighborhood. The success of the Green Guerrillas inspired other groups to start their own rooftop farms. Today, there are hundreds of rooftop farms in cities around the world says Gina Argento of New York. In the United States, there are farms in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, while Europe is home to farms in London, Paris, Berlin, and Barcelona. Meanwhile, in Asia, there are farms in Tokyo, Singapore, and Beijing. The Benefits of Rooftop Farming Rooftop farming offers a number of benefits to both cities and the people who live in them according to Gina Argento of New York. One of the most obvious benefits is the production of fresh fruits and vegetables. These farms can help to increase the supply of fresh, healthy food in cities, which is particularly important in “food deserts”, or areas where fresh food is difficult to find. Rooftop farms can also help to improve the quality of the air in cities explains Gina Argento of New York. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, which can help to reduce smog and car emissions. In addition, the plants can help to filter out other air pollutants commonly found in cities, such as physical particulate matter and ozone. Rooftop farms can also help to cool cities. The plants can provide shade and evaporative cooling, which can help to lower the temperature of a city by a few degrees. This can be a particularly important benefit in hot, humid climates says Gina Argento of New York. Finally, rooftop farms can help to create a sense of community. They can provide a gathering place for people to meet and socialize. They can also create green spaces in otherwise concrete jungles. Final Thoughts on Rooftop Farming Gina Argento of New York explains that modern rooftop farming is still in its infancy but it’s already having a positive impact on cities around the world. In the future, we can expect to see more farms pop up across city rooftops, as well as more innovative designs and methods of production. The impacts of this trend will be felt not only in the form of fresh food and cleaner air, but also in the form of cooler temperatures, improved mental health, and a stronger sense of community.

Vietnam has discovered a new Covid-19 variant which spreads quickly by air and is a combination of the Indian and British strains, state media reported Saturday. The country is struggling to deal with fresh outbreaks across more than half of its territory including industrial zones and big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. “We have discovered a new hybrid variant from the Indian and the UK strains,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long was quoted telling a national meeting on the pandemic Saturday. “The characteristic of this strain is that it spreads quickly in the air. The concentration of virus in the throat fluid increases rapidly and spreads very strongly to the surrounding environment.” There were seven known coronavirus variants in Vietnam before Long’s announcement, according to the Ministry of Health. The communist country has previously received widespread applause for its aggressive pandemic response, with mass quarantines and strict contact tracing helping keep infection rates relatively low. The new round of infections has made the public and government fearful and authorities quickly moved to place strict limits on movement and business activity. Cafes, restaurants, hair salons and massage parlours as well as tourism and religious spots have been ordered to close in various areas of the country. Vietnam has since ordered a nationwide ban on all religious events, and major cities have banned large gatherings and closed public parks and non-essential businesses. The new variant could be responsible for a recent surge in cases of the coronavirus, which has spread to 30 of the country’s 63 municipalities and provinces, Mr Nguyen said. Vietnam was previously seen as a success story in battling the virus. On May 1, its caseload since the start of the pandemic was 2,942, with 35 deaths. But in the past few weeks, the country has confirmed more than 3,500 new cases and 12 more deaths. Vietnam, with 97 million people, has vaccinated about a million citizens. It is now speeding up its programme and hopes to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year, Mr Nguyen said.

Beat My Path’s Essential Blog Writing Tips So you’ve submitted your application to join the Beat My Path blogging community, and you want to know how to get started writing great articles that will not only get published on our public website, but will also get you noticed and seen by our huge monthly audience of readers? Will you be the next big thing? Will you be our next top-travel-blogger? Only time will tell, but if that’s your goal, there’s a few things you should know about creating the best possible blog so you stand out from the crowd! CREATE ARTICLES THAT PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY USE!!! We, and our readers, LOVE lists. They are easy to read, easy to understand and they’re full of great information! So what do we mean when we say lists? Something along these lines; “The Top 10 Things To Do In New York City” – write about your experience with the top attractions in New York City; tell the reader what each attraction is and what made it so great for you. Maybe you could try the “Most Beautiful Cities To See In Spain” or, “Top 10 Countries To Visit in Asia”. Readers love to read them, and we love to publish them. It should go without saying, but make sure you don’t just list a few countries and cities on the page – and that’s it. For each country, city, or attraction that you list in the blog, you will need to write a few interesting paragraphs explaining what it is and why it made your list. HERE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW: The Ultimate Historic Walking Tour Of Vienna MAKE THE TITLE INTERESTING AND RELEVANT TO WHAT READERS ARE LOOKING FOR One of the simplest ways to get people to read your article is to create a title which catches their eye and sparks their interest! It seems such an obvious thing to do, right? Well, you would think so, but it’s amazing how many people don’t consider this. What do they do instead? They call their blog “Day One Of The Holiday” or “Stuff We Did On Our Trip.” It should go without saying – THIS ISN’T GETTING ANYONE’S ATTENTION!!! So, what do readers want, and what sort of title should you give your blog post if you want it to get read? Well, our readers are looking for a variety of things when they come to our website, but most of all, they are looking for detailed information on the destinations they are researching, and tips from people who have experienced these places for themselves. They want to know the best things to do in a city or country – what to see and what not to see – they want to know how they should spend their time, they want to know what to expect from a certain destination or attraction, and they want to know how all of this might compare to other options they might be looking at… so, give them what they want – it’s such a simple thing to do, and it really has the potential to take your post to the next level, with minimal effort!!! What might be some examples? “The Top 10 Things To Do In…” or “The Ultimate Walking Tour Of…” or “My Favourite Holiday Spots In…” or “The Best Way To Spend A Week In…!” See how easy that is? An informative title to an article that is relevant to what the reader is searching for; it’s the key to unlocking your ultimate potential, and the cornerstone to the success of your blog over the long term. CREATE GREAT CONTENT WITH DETAILED INFORMATION The most important part of writing a great travel blog is to make sure the content and the information it provides is exceptional. You don’t necessarily have to be the best writer on the planet, but the information you provide must be detailed and well set out so it can be useful to, and easily understood by our readers. We recommend that a good quality blog article should be NO LESS THAN 2000-WORDS IN LENGTH. Make sure you explain what you liked, and why you liked it; describe the country, city or attraction in great detail, and speak from the heart – tell the reader what you felt when you had the experience and why you felt that way. You want to make the reader jump out of their skin, feel what you felt, and wish they stood where you stood. A GREAT ARTICLE NEEDS A GREAT STRUCTURED LAYOUT At Beat My Path we write for the love of writing – we are not always trained professionals, and it goes without saying, there are bound to be some grammatical mistakes in your posts! We understand this, and we would never hold this against you – we firmly believe that any writing is good writing, if you’re having fun! However, with that said, a little bit of basic structure can really go a long way to make an average blog look absolutely fantastic. Likewise, a lack of structure and a poor layout can make what could have been an amazing blog article, un-readable and not very useful! When writing your blog posts, try to set them out in structured paragraphs, and use big, bold titles, to illustrate your points and bring attention the articles’ subject matter. When a reader first comes across your post, they will usually skim the article before they read it in its entirety, to make sure it contains the information they are looking for. If your article is set out in nice, neat paragraphs, with large titles to indicate the information it contains, readers are much more likely to read your article in full, and much more likely to find the information useful. WE ALSO LOVE TRAVEL ADVICE When it comes to travel blogs, we also like to hear your advice on a subject. Maybe that’s regarding “Solo Female Travel In South America”, or “Scammers in Beijing”, or “How To Make Your Money Go Further in Australia”. When it comes to these types of blogs, they need to be specific to a region, country, city or attraction, but our readers find them VERY informative – so tell us what you know! WRITE ABOUT A SPECIFIC TOPIC When it comes to getting published, we give a very high weighting to specificity. Basically, if you’re writing about a country, then write about that country. If you’re writing about an attraction, then write about that attraction. Try to stay away from writing about multiple unrelated countries or attractions in the same blog. For example; if you are writing about “Mexico”, then write about Mexico as a whole, the cities you visited in Mexico, and your favourite attractions in those cities. We wouldn’t recommend including the next country you visited along the way. If you visit more than one country, we recommend you split them into separate articles. WRITE ABOUT INDIVIDUAL ATTRACTIONS Most people tend to write generally, about a country or a destination they have visited. However, no one seems to want to write about the little guy – an entire blog dedicated to one specific attraction. It might surprise you to know that these are often the articles that are read the most. Think about it, when you’re looking for information about a hotel, restaurant, bar or attraction; what are you going to read? Obviously, you want an article that details every aspect of the attraction you’re interested in! Go a step further – do you want to read a 2 sentence review, or do you want a full-blown article by someone who can not only capture the feeling, but can positively describe the experience in every single detail – someone who makes you want to experience it for yourself! For example; if you visit Paris and you loved the Eiffel Tower – write a travel blog about Paris, but then you should consider writing another blog specifically about the Eiffel Tower, or the quaint little cafe you had breakfast at, or the luxury hotel you stayed in. It’s these sorts of articles that not only get published, but really get the readers juices flowing! TAKE AMAZING PHOTOS When it comes to the images you include in your blog, more doesn’t always mean better. The most amazingly written travel blog can be ruined by an overbearing amount of really bad photos – so if in doubt, only use the best looking images and leave the others out. That said, they don’t have to be perfect! People want to see what they’re reading about and it doesn’t matter if you’re not the world’s best photographer. Bottom line – whatever you decide, don’t let us scare you away from including every image you want to include, because at the end of the day, it’s your blog and yours alone – add in whatever you want! Just keep in mind that when it comes to being published on our main website and standing out our readers, images matter. Try to make sure your images are of the highest quality available. If you’re taking photos from your phone, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND a free image editing app called “Snapseed”, which is available for download in all major smartphone app stores. This easy-to-use app allows you to instantly turn any bland image into a masterpiece bursting with colour and vibrance! POST INFORMATION ON NEW DESTINATIONS & ATTRACTIONS Beat My Path is always growing and we can’t grow without new and informative information! One of the easiest ways to get published on our website is to write a blog about a destination or an attraction that we don’t have listed on our website. If it’s not on our website, and it’s popular and relevant, we want it on our website, and if you’re the first person to write about it, there is a good chance we’re going to publish it!

This year's Great Teacher, Patricia Kitcher, on the enduring importance of This year's Great Teacher, Patricia Kitcher, on the enduring importance of Next year will mark the centiennial of the founding of Contemporary Civilization and the Core Curriculum, and Patricia Kitcher, the Roberta and William Campbell Professor of the Humanities and the Carnoy Family Program Chair for Contemporary Civilization, will be a key celebrant. Kitcher has been a leader in CC for five years, and the course’s principles are more vital now than ever. A native of New Haven, Conn., Kitcher became interested in philosophy as a teenager after taking a course on Plato at Yale. She graduated from Wellesley in 1970 and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1974. A renowned Kant scholar, Kitcher specializes in Kant’s theories of mind and knowledge and the philosophy of psychology; recently she has turned her attention to Kant’s ethical theories. Kitcher joined the Columbia faculty in 1998; earlier this year she was awarded a Society of Columbia Graduates 2017 Great Teacher Award. Roosevelt Montás ’96, GSAS’04, director of the Center for the Core Curriculum and associate dean of academic planning and administration, says of Kitcher: “Principled, rigorous and kind, her influence has made Contemporary Civilization an even stronger course.” Columbia College Today spoke with Kitcher about Kant, the Core and being a student during troubled times, then and now. CCT: What was it like being at Wellesley in the late 1960s? Patricia Kitcher: Well, I can tell you the president of my dorm was a young woman named Hillary Rodham. Really?! Were you friends? We were not close friends, but I did know her. She was just like she is now — her conversation ranged from Republicans to Democrats. An impressive person. It was an interesting time because of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement; we lived through the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It was a very fraught time. How did that affect your studies? Were you aware that this was such a significant time in history? Oh yes, it was part of every conversation. We fought wars differently then —we had the draft, there was much more resistance to the war. In 1969 Hillary was the first student to give a commencement speech [at Wellesley]; she condemned the guest speaker [Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), the first African-American elected to the Senate] for supporting the war. It was on everybody’s mind. It was just everywhere. The country was much more united then because the burdens were being shared, in a way they’re not being shared now. Professors at Yale were giving out A’s so men wouldn’t fail out and receive draft notices. We’ve been talking about that as the 50th anniversary of the 1968 protests comes up, how the canceling of classes may have saved some men from the draft. And then there was Kent State, with students being shot. We just didn’t know where it would end. I didn’t take my final exams in 1970 because the students were on strike. The valedictorian of my class didn’t get to give her speech because she was in jail [for protesting]. How was it when you left an all-female college and went out into the world? The feminist movement was just getting started at that time. I went on to grad school and it was a nightmare, I hated every minute. Th ere were hardly any women there. It didn’t feel safe. You didn’t dare overstay at a party. There were professors you couldn’t work with or be alone with. It is sad. Being in graduate school can be unpleasant, anyway, but this was really unpleasant. The four women ahead of me all failed out — they failed exams, some opted not to continue. I’ve spent my entire career trying to make it better for graduate women than it was for me. Contemporary Civilization has always been about contemporary problems, and when you’re living in interesting times — well, we haven’t had any great trouble making the CC texts seem relevant. When I was teaching at UC San Diego I chaired the committee that changed the procedures for cases of sexual harassment. There had been eight steps in the process! We got it down to three, which is as few as you can have, because there must be an analogue of an indictment, a trial and an appeal [by the defendant]. Being expelled or fired from a university are costly penalties, so the procedures need to be fair. Yet there must be a system in place to protect the women — and sometimes men — who are targeted by sexual aggressors. It is demeaning, harmful behavior that should not be tolerated in any community. Do you feel like you’re succeeding at creating a better environment for female students? It’s certainly better. But academia is still not very woman-friendly. Philosophy has always been 80 percent male. Our department is good compared to others, but it’s still hard for graduate women. Academia is still very family-unfriendly. We’ve come a long way but there’s still a lot of work to be done. When you received the award, you spoke about teaching “courses that impart intellectual skills that are essential for getting by in the world we now face.” What can you say about the importance of Contemporary Civilization in today’s world? I’ve thought about my job in terms of trying to see what would be most relevant in the contemporary scene to the texts that we teach. CC has always been about contemporary problems, and when you’re living in interesting times — well, we haven’t had any great trouble making the CC texts seem relevant. In the section we have about revolutions we sometimes put in the Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence — this year we had it in, just to make sure we’d all read it. We have thematic arcs that you can go through the whole course with. What theme do you have planned for the coming academic year? The one I would like to add is about the refugee crisis. The beginning of the Trump presidency has forced people to think about principles that do or should govern the treatment of refugees. The real issue is the enormous scope of the problem and the inadequacy of all the responses to it. If students want to be challenged, as ours do, then they can try to see whether they can find any resources for thinking about the refugee problem that are up to the task, and if not, whether they have any ways of developing more adequate approaches to this humanitarian disaster. How have the thematic focuses you suggest for CC changed through the years? What were some past themes? The end of the Obama years saw the beginning of a serious discussion about over-punishing. This is one of the major moral issues of our time — why do we punish people so much? The French Constitution strives for minimal punishments. Our Bill of Rights added against “cruel and unusual punishment” at a later stage, and “cruel and unusual” is way out there. Why do you have a system that is so punitive? We added readings like The New Jim Crow [“Mass Incarcerations in the Age of Colorblindness,” by civil rights litigator and legal scholar Michelle Alexander] and writings about other interesting work that’s being done. We have the Center for Justice at Columbia, and justice in punishment will continue to be a theme in CC. The problem hasn’t gone away and it seems to have some bipartisan appeal, which is good in some ways with the present climate of rancor. It is also a “good problem” for CC, if I can put it that way, because it is useful to go back and consider what serious thinkers have offered as rationales for punishment and to see how well they stand up — or whether they provide any defense at all for current practices. On the topic of serious thinkers, there seems to be a disavowal of knowledge happening right now. Couple that with all the arguments about “fake news” ... It pays to revisit the arguments about freedom of the press by John Stuart Mill — freedom of the press is more important for the ills it prevents than the good that it does. And that seems all the more true today, with the need for fact checkers. People have been worried about the relationship between fact and theory for hundreds of years. This administration’s accusations of bias are just such a crass version of anything that would count as an intellectual discussion of the actual issue. And so intellectual discussions seem especially important to have right now. What do you think is the value of the Core Curriculum for current College students? In terms of Contemporary Civilization, it’s about learning to think through complex issues, learning to see two sides of the same issue play out and learning what the foundations are. The assigned texts represent different perspectives on political and social problems and the students need to work their way into understanding those different perspectives. To succeed at the course, they can’t just parrot what Nietzsche or Du Bois wrote; they must gain some appreciation of why and how they develop the views they do. What are their reasons? What are they assuming or refusing to assume? Although students could still just look at various problems from their own points of view, they’ve at least had to try to understand what considerations might support other views. Do you think Contemporary Civilization instills a sense of social responsibility in students? Our goals are more modest — though not very modest. We try to get students to see problems where perhaps they didn’t see them before and to get them to think seriously about how such problems might be approached. To give an example, I often end my section of the course with Amartya Sen’s essay on concepts of poverty. Although it might seem at first that definitions of poverty aren’t very interesting, students quickly appreciate that they are very important in terms of providing resources to those in need. They also realize quickly that there are lots of reasonable approaches one might take in crafting a definition. Giving students the tools to think seems to be a worthy thing to do. How to defend your arguments, how to think, is one of the most valuable things in trying to defend a position or write a paper. “What do I think and why do I think that?” That’s actually much harder than you would believe. What do you think about a movement toward vocational skills, or a major that leads more directly to a job, so that college turns into a path to a career rather than an exploration? You just need to look at the studies that have been done for decades: People who have a broader education can move better in the world. Rejecting the humanities doesn’t make sense from a practical point of view. Students feel like they learn to see the world in a different way so it doesn’t look so puzzling to them. I just think the world looks like a friendlier place if you have the intellectual tools. Everyone comes in and takes the Core and immediately begins critical thinking. But it’s not just critical thinking — it’s how you can approach things in different ways. I don’t separate what you might call the skills part from the substance part — it helps to approach a problem as Aristotle would, or to think about a problem as Mill would, because now you have a way to be in the world thinking about things. Reading a lot of insightful people, you can understand a lot of what’s going on. Are you and your husband [Philip Kitcher, the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy] debating philosophy all the time? [Laughs.] Our children had a firm rule — no work at any meal! We don’t always talk about work, but with a scholarly career it’s good to be with another scholar; they know what you’re going through and why. When you already have tenure and it’s a Sunday but you can’t stop. You’ve written three books — are you working on another? Yes, one of the theses I’m trying to defend is connecting Kant’s theory of ethics to his theory of cognition — how we understand another person as a thinker is through the understanding of our own mental activity. In my view, that’s what he’s doing with the ethics as well. The basic idea is that when you encounter another human being, you automatically take them to be the same sort of moral creature that you are. You see the person, the human form, and you see a moral being: someone who can do the right thing for the right reason, a being who is for that reason worthy of respect. That’s what you have to get talked out of, either by yourself or others — something that you know immediately — in order to dismiss others as unworthy and to consider only your own self-interest. As a coda, since we met in July there’s been another national conversation about freedom of speech, related to the events in Charlottesville. Will this be a discussion point with your students? To return to Mill, the great defender of freedom of expression, free speech loses its protection when done in a way to incite violence. Insofar as the organizers meant not just to express an odious opinion, but also to provoke violent reactions, they forfeited their right to speak. One could argue that history since Mill shows that anti-Semitism and racism are by their very content invitations to violence against members of particular groups. I’m not sure that Mill would disagree, but I expect that CC sections might try to think through this problem during the year and also think through the responsibilities of political leaders and ordinary citizens to respond to hate speech, even in cases where it might be protected by considerations of liberty.

When it comes to explaining excess weight, some people believe that obesity and other weight issues “run in the family.” In any family, there can be generations – from grandparents to children – of overweight family members. What is a problem for the grandparent and parent is frequently a problem for the child; however, simply referring to “genetics” is not an accurate explanation. When it comes to tackling family obesity, the first question most people have is does my family have a physical disease that is making us fat? The answer is yes and no. Diseases that produce obesity do exist: hypothyroidism and Prader-Willi syndromes, for example. However, in pediatrics, these account for fewer than 5 percent of children who suffer from obesity. The rest have exogenous obesity – they simply consume too many calories. Consumption of too many calories, especially from simple carbohydrates such as white breads and desserts, causes a vicious cycle within the bloodstream, creating hunger and releasing excess insulin into the blood, which may lead to diabetes. To help the entire family relearn how to eat and beat obesity, I urge grandparents to take a key role in teaching their children and grandchildren the key principles of manageable weight loss and leading by example, using these easy-to-initiate tips: 1. Do not starve to lose weight. Never skip breakfast; a small carbohydrate snack such as fruit is perfect to start the day and get the body burning calories. 2. Do not drink calories. Stick to water and skim milk; drink diet drinks sparingly. Juice should not be an option. Juice is a fruit from which everything good has been removed. Just eat the piece of fruit and drink water. 3. Do not eat while doing something else, such as reading, watching TV or playing games. 4. Eat as a family. Knowing each others’ intake will keep everyone accountable. 5. Know all about food. It is the simplest factor to control intake. Grandparents and parents should strive to know the calorie and fat content of every food that they and their children eat. 6. Move together. Take a brisk walk after dinner, play basketball, go ice skating. Exercise is fun and should be treated as such. These weight-loss guidelines may be simple, but many efforts are often wasted when they are not kept consistent through the entire family. Your grandchildren’s pediatrician can prescribe the best plan for the family and put everyone on the right track to healthy eating habits and successful weight control.

Digitization is proceeding continuously. It is therefore essential to prepare children and young people for the ever-changing world of tomorrow in order to offer them the very best future prospects. Unfortunately, this important topic is still far too little discussed in the school/educational system. There is a lack of concrete offers which take into account the progressive digitization of our society. Computer science should already play a role at primary school age and should also receive more attention at secondary schools. Our goal is to establish coding as an integral part of the curriculum. With our engagement at schools and the cooperation with headmasters and teachers, we want to set an example, help and motivate. Girls and boys alike should be inspired by this exciting topic even before typical role models are formed. We want to reduce teachers' fear and show them ways how everyone really understands computer science and can also teach it. We would like to expand the impact of our engagement through further sustainable offers. To this purpose we are looking for partners and supporters who share our objectives and principles. Together we can give even more kids and teens the chance to experience digitization and programming in a playful way already at school. Do you as a school representative or teacher also see the need to impart knowledge about coding and digitization to your students? Or do you as a company have an interest in promoting these topics in your region? We look forward to the exchange with you – even in times of Corona! Kids and young people reached Teachers trained further Hours of coding held Our video of the project week “Coding for Future” at the Thomas-von-Quentel School gives you a good insight into our activities. Headmistress Andrea Lauer also expresses her personal point of view and underlines the importance of such educational offers.

Woodworking is such a great skill to have and scroll saw is one of the most pleasurable woodworking projects you can do. Aside from being inexpensive, having a scroll saw inside your workshop could also prove quite useful. The saw allows you to cut different scroll saw patterns and shapes on the wood. While the work may seem complex, you’d be surprised to know just how simple the technique is. If you have a knack for crafting and designing, then woodworking with scroll saw is the right project for you. You can create several items using only your hands. From simple, meek and elegant designs to complex patterns, scroll saw enables the artist to express his creativity in the neatest way possible – through precise wood-cutting. In the second part of this post, we listed some of the most elaborate wooden scroll saw projects for you to choose from. But before we go to the list, let us first learn how to determine the best material for your project. This knowledge will save you time and effort along the way. Hardwoods, reddish brown are what characterize cherry trees. Its sapwood in minimal amounts has light reddish-yellowish color. Cherry wood has an even grain, which makes it easy and smooth to cut and perfect to detailed projects. While it gives less strength for heavy items, most woodworkers love cherry because it is rich and vibrant in hue. The black walnut heartwood differs from a color spectrum between purplish and brown. Its sapwood is nearly white and features an even or straight grain. Such trees often provide burls with unique, round, grain patterns. The walnut tree is found in North America and essentially, the only black hardwood tree in the region. Lastly, when you consider using walnut, think about the high contrasting colors between sapwood and heartwood. In North America, one can easily find maple as it is the most common hardwoods in the continent. It is often lighter in hue compared to walnut and cherry. Maple can be quite inexpensive compared to numerous other hardwoods, which makes it one of the common choices of wood for scroll saw projects. Frequently, maple sapwood has a white and clean appearance along with a straight grain. It is often found with a fiddly or curly pattern, making the finishing a bit tricky to do. Soft ones are easy to cut through, and will not dull your scroll saw blade. Yellow birch is most likely the most common birch variety in the west. The tree contains little sapwood while its heartwood has a milky, white hue along with a curly grain. When it comes to its work ability, hardness and sometimes color, birch tree is similar to maple. And, like maple, the wood’s curly grain absorbs stain irregularly. Numerous maple trees have a comparable light color and frequently confused for birch. Ash is a strong, light hardwood. Woodworkers know ash to be unforgiving on blades, with its hardness comparable to oak and birch. Ash wood has an exceptional grain pattern, appearing too busy for art pieces with numerous complex details. Ensure that you create grain patterns that show up when you choose ash. The heartwood of ash tends to contain darker, brown portions and lighter sapwood, which produces a higher contrast appearance just like that of maple wood. Hickory is inexpensive and plentiful at the same time and has a great strength-to-weight ratio. It is, by far, the strongest of hardwoods in this list, which makes the wood hard to cut. Also, the wood is infamous for wearing out scroll saw blades. Hickory has paler sapwood while its heartwood appears to be darker in hue. Hickory can look great and elegant under nearly any lighting situation. It also stains extremely well. You can cut Botanical Trivets from cheap bamboo cutting boards. They are also so fun to make! The tutorial takes in the scroll saw patterns, too, for free. Make your own wooden nativity scene with this creative scroll saw project. You can also create a wooden nativity scene using this scroll saw project. 5. A Noah's Ark Model A Noah's Ark Model by Braniac The Noah’s Ark is an adorable and compact piece of art. It is perfect for events and parties all through the holidays, but you can make use of it all year-round! To save on money, you can get dabs across the numerous colors by buying cheap acrylic paint pots. Ensure that you seal as well as prime your wood whenever acrylic is used. 6. Butcherblock Silverware-themed Trivet Butcherblock Silverware-themed Trivet by Reality Daydream You can make this butcher block utensil-themed that you could give to a loved one. This is a tricky but fun activity to make and makes for a perfect gift for anyone who loves food. It is quite easy to create and features a unique design. 7. Patterned Wood Crosses Patterned Wood Crosses by Arpop This piece of art features an elegant running scroll pattern surrounding the border. Put it in your room as a highlight, by staining the border with a darker shade, or you can use a different wood type. 8. Personalized Wooden Name Plaques Personalized Wooden Name Plaques by Reality Daydreams Wooden name plaques or plates are ideal for a nursery or your children’s room. It would also look amazing on the wall using the last name of the family. Customized wooden name plaques created using scroll saws are perfect presents. 9. Layered Cross With Smoothed Design Layered Cross With Smoothed Design by Arpop This simple yet consistent design makes it quite exceptional among others and likely easier for those who are just starting. Due to its minimalist visual, think about creating mini versions of it and wear those on your neck, or you could also attach them to presents. Moreover, contrasting dual brown shades contribute to the aesthetic of this piece of craft, so think about taking a wood stain pot. 10. Wooden Topography Map Art Wooden Topography Map Art by Reality Daydream A wooden topography map made out of your property would be great! This art is as personalized and customized as anything could ever be! It is the actual topography or structure of a property. You can create one of these too, out of your own property. 11. Elaborate Fretwork Crosses Elaborate Fretwork Crosses by Scroll?saw W?oodworking & Crafts This exquisitely detailed cross features a vintage touch. It recalls eras of the past, but is also quite applicable for this century. Tiny versions of these would make excellent holiday decorations, and permanent decors. 12. Circle Monogram Pallet Sign Circle Monogram Pallet Sign by Reality Daydream If you wish to have a cute porch or patio, create Circle Monogram Pallet Signs for outdoors (as well as indoors). Circle monograms are exciting to create and are easy when it comes to D-I-Y’s. This would be a superb gift for someone who has everything. 13. Peppy Labeled Cross Peppy Labeled Cross by Arp?op? You can make this rather less solemn and a lot cheerful-looking version of the Christian cross. Cut out relevant labels in a lively font all through these crosses. Also, think about the various shades of stains and woods you could make use of to create these exquisite pieces of art. You can place them against any complementing setting of sky blue. 14. Cut-out Butterfly Clock Cut-out Butterfly Clock by Reality Daydream You can make these butterfly cutout clock, where they appear like actual butterflies soaring out of the clock. This piece of art is artsier than your typical clock. However, you will adore its oddness. Also, it is way too cheap compared to those sold at shops. 15. Basket from Concentric Rings Basket from Concentric Rings by The Kim Six Fix This wooden basket features gorgeous weaving pattern where it showcases that chic tropical hint. Pt a few apples and different fruits in it and it would pass as a unique centerpiece for the summer. This project may look intricate, but the angles of the cuts make it pretty forgiving and fit for beginners. 16. Barn Board Bracket-shaped Plaque Barn Board Bracket-shaped Plaque by Reality Daydream You can create this barn board sign with a bracket shape with brand new scroll saw and boards. Sometimes, designed barn boards are made as gifts to weddings and other special occasions. They’re a bit cheaper than your typical gift. 17. Picnic Basket Patterns Picnic Basket Patterns by Scrollshaw Workshop You can create a classic picnic basket out of wood, and a scroll saw. I use wood because I find that the result is stronger and harder. If you happen to use these baskets for food storage, I highly suggest that you steal it with a finish that’s food safe – for instance, carnauba wax. Wooden State Plaques by Reality Daydream Make Wooden State Plaques with a scroll saw. Start with states such as Mississippi; it’s a little bit simple compared to others. But if you’re skilled enough, try Illinois; it has an excellent amount of curves, which could be hard for you but a worth try. 19. A woven picnic basket A woven picnic basket made of oak by 2 Hands Maximum Effort WoodWorks This basket features a stimulating picnic weaving pattern that stands out, as a result of the variance wherein the weaves become prominent, as well as the way these weaves wind around the tiny basket holes. Make the basket protrude even more by utilizing contrasting wood stains to emphasize the basket’s bottom and top borders. 20. Mother’s Day Plaque Mother’s Day Plaque by Reality Daydream Make an elegant, customized Mother's Day Plaque for your mom using words that best describe her or what she means to you. Plan this before the date comes. Mothers would love anything done just for them. Personalize the plaque using words that make your mom happy and emotional at the same time. Trust me; she would love this gift. 21. Wooden Christmas Tree Decorations Wooden Christmas Tree Decorations by Paul Sellers Have you ever thought about adorning your Christmas Tree with tinier versions of your tree? Create four miniature projects with silhouettes of different festive items created and carved out of the shapes of your Christmas Tree. Punch out holes to the top portion of the tree-shaped items, letting you hang them easily and effortlessly off your huge Christmas Tree. 22. Children’s Profile Plaque Children’s Profile Plaque by Realistic Daydream Create a wooden plaque using the profile of your child as wood cut out. It is quite easy. If you’re a parent and have little kids, then this is an exciting way to show and display their shapes and silhouettes. This would be so cute and your child would love this as he or she ages. 23. Christmas-Themed Pattern with Ribbons Christmas-Themed Pattern with Ribbons by Lora? S. Ir?ish These holidays, Christmas-themed patterns are another elegant bunch of ornamental pieces of art to improve your home. These woodwork decors complement ribbon bows, which makes them the ideal fit for putting together all sorts of holiday presents. 24. Ornate Corbels Ornate Corbels by Reality Daydream Make your ornate corbels with a scroll saw. Corbels were a bit time-consuming to create but would be very, very costly to buy. If you have a breakfast bar, they will bring a lot of character to your space. Personalize yours to appear something you like. 25. Christmas Greetings Pattern Christmas Greetings Pattern by Arpop A Christmas bauble silhouette, with a Christmas greeting cut out, is an excellent piece of art to put on top of colored paper within a picture frame. Also, try to reverse these cutouts to give way to various ornaments on your Christmas tree. For this, select a few popular boards, which are solid but perfect wood for beginners who do scrolling. 26. Broken ‘House Divided’ Sports Sign Broken ‘House Divided’ Sports Sign by Reality Daydream “House Divided” wall art is an excellent addition to your home. Make one that looks like it’s broken. This project requires a steady hand for the complicated painting part aside from your scroll-sawing skills. The result would be an awesome piece you can show off to your folks. 27. Dove Patterns with Colored Ribbons Dove Patterns with Colored Ribbons by Tom Zieg Dove crafts can serve as fitting Christmas ornaments, yet are made more because they are a symbol of cancer support and awareness. Since doves are a symbol of peace, you could leave out the ribbons to give way to other ornaments that promote and support peace. 28. Wooden Paper Doll Wooden Paper Doll by Reality Daydream If you have girls (or boys), then these wooden paper dolls are a great gift for them. Children love playing with anything including wooden paper dolls. You can also make several of its clothing item to match the paper dolls. It is also excellent for car rides since Velcro secures everything. 29. Monogrammed Circular Designs Scroll-Friendly Monogram Patterns by Kaylee Schofield When made in a curvy font and put in the ovals’ borders, minimalist and simplistic monograms are an excellent addition to different crafts. Hang them on your kids’ rooms where it spells out their names, create ones into magnets for your refrigerator, or affix them on the book covers of your current read. 30. Wooden Monogram Wreath Wooden Monogram Wreath by Reality Daydream You can make wreaths of different themes or seasons (fall, winter, summer, etc.); you can also make one with snowflakes or spider webs. However, the wonderful thing about this is that you can make it easier or as in-depth as you like. 31. Fun Puzzle-Pattern Names Fun Puzzle-Pattern Names by Just Build Stuff Puzzle-patterned names can be quite difficult to make because they are highly personalized, wherein you should find perfect printouts and guide. But the project provides detailed instructions in making the diy wood crafts. The scroll saw craft features an exciting puzzle design that would dazzle your folks. DIY Keychains made from Wooden Hearts by Ashley Key chains with names can be a staple of your children’s bags; it is also a simple way to customize their backpacks and may aid with ID-ing them if the item is lost. There are several key chain designs for your children using just a scroll saw wood, a key chain link, and a key chain ring. 33. Floral and Peppy Floral and Peppy by Jaime Costiglio The jolly, scroll saw name plaque 3D cutouts along with lively and vibrant paint makes the craft come to life. Add several cartoon-designed cutouts of leaves and flowers to perfect the look of any children’s bedroom or playroom. For that striking and attention-grabbing effect, try using thick materials. 34. MiniPlane with Clock MiniPlane with Clock by Arpop Border a mini clock with an airplane cutout to make it an exceptional fit to anyone who loves airplanes. It aims for a great personalized present or just a deft addition to your wall or any other area in your bedroom. Choose a stylish, beautiful mini clock insert that shows Roman numerals as well as a slender gold-colored border. 35. Mini Windmill with Clock Mini Windmill with Clock by Arpop Create vintage Dutch windmill woodwork that comes with a mini clock at the center of the craft. Use mahogany or liven it up by painting its blades with white and its body with a baby blue hue. III. Other Considerations for your Wooden Scroll Saw Project 1. Wood Thickness While scroll saw can cut up to two inches of wood, the perfect thickness is around 0.25 inch to 0.75 inches. You will be making intricate and tight curves and turn, which means that thicker wood can be harder to cut. If you are thinking about cutting wood more than an inch thick, consider buying a new band saw. While it cannot do exactly the intricacy level you’re aiming; it is made to cut thick wood easily. 2. Dull Blades One quick way to get irritated when using scroll saws is to use one with a dull blade. And whether it’s hard or soft wood, cutting wood using a dull blade will take in more effort with also dull result. Make certain that you pick the top-performing scroll saw blade for your wood and project. Do not attempt to leg it out using your old blade. You will wind up paying for it even more by those irritating moments and a “hideous” result. There various wood types and or woodworking saws types available for you to use in your woodworking project. Picking the best one is always a plausible thing. Use the information on the different types of wood when selecting the top-performing wood for your scroll saw project. The mix of grain structure, hardness, appearance is crucial because each factor relates to your project’s suitability. Do not hesitate to try out more to learn what works and what doesn’t for your scroll saw project. You will soon discover that the more you engage in this project, the better you will become.

Established in 1993, The Brain Charity is there to provide practical help, emotional support and social activities for anyone affected by a neurological condition. They are there to support individuals, as well as their family, friends and carers, as well as to fight for a society that is inclusive, compassionate and understanding for those living with a neurological condition. Their mission is to enable anyone affected by these conditions to live lives that are longer, happier, and healthier. What is a Neurological Condition? Neurological conditions refer to any condition affecting the brain, spinal cord or nervous system. Some can appear suddenly, such as a stroke or brain injury, while others, individuals are born with, such as epilepsy. Additionally some conditions, such as multiple sclerosis can develop over time. In the UK, there are 10 million people living with a neurological condition that significantly impacts their lives, and over 1 million people are disabled as a result. There are hundreds of neurological conditions, including: - Brain injury - Brain tumours - Motor neurone disease - Tourette syndrome Whether it's a common condition, or one that's rare, The Brain Charity is there for every single one. How Do The Brain Charity Help? A diagnosis of a neurological condition can be incredibly frightening, and as a result, many will face challenges such as social isolation, employment and poverty. The Brain Charity offers a number of services to anyone affected, from practical support to social activities. Practical Help - The Brain Charity offers practical services to help individuals living with neurological conditions. This includes employment support, information on welfare benefits, and legal advice. Emotional Support - The charity also provides emotional support for individuals affected by neurological conditions, as well as family members and carers. This includes counselling, support groups and a befriending service. Social Activities - The charity deliver a number of their services and social activities from their headquarters in Liverpool, including craft clubs, choir and exercise sessions. Their HQ is also home to their Brain Food Café, a community café providing a safe and welcoming place to enjoy a drink and a bite to eat, as well as providing work experience opportunities. Unfortunately, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of these events, classes and workshops are currently on hold. Outreach - The Brain Charity have staff based within The Walton Centre NHS Trust and Aintree University Hospital who provide an outreach service to patients who have received a diagnosis or been involved in a traumatic event. This ensures that patients are made aware of the services the charity provides and can access the emotional and practical support they need. The Impact of Covid-19 At the end of 2020, The Brain Charity had seen a rise of over 50% in the demand for their services, compared to the previous year. Following the long-term mental health effects, unemployment spikes and the rise in Long Covid, it's expected that this will rise even further. With many fundraising events cancelled due to Coronavirus, 2020 has been the most challenging year in the charity's history, however their team of dedicated staff and volunteers worked non-stop to support the clients most in need. They provided practical support such as making supermarket trips and picking up prescriptions, while also working to safeguard their clients' mental health. This included extending the provision of their free counselling appointments, and launching a telephone befriending service for those who were left isolated as a result of the pandemic. Additionally, the charity's mainstream services have been running remotely.

This is how I define God: a felt sense of the interconnectedness of everything to everything else, and the subtle harmony that runs through it all. And the “felt” part is what I want to talk about here. Things are interconnected whether you feel it or not. And that field of interconnectivity is there whether you sense it or not, whether you want it to be or not, just like gravity is there whether you pay attention to it or not. So why does it matter to cultivate that inner sense of connection with that web of harmony and flow? What difference does it make? It matters because there is subtle information that makes life much smoother, that is only accessible through your internal connection to that Interconnectedness. It’s like playing Guitar Hero – it’s a lot easier to hit the notes if you can feel the rhythm and melody of the song. I started playing Guitar Hero a year ago, but I stopped after getting through the easy songs. I just couldn’t progress very much after that and I got frustrated. I started up again recently, and after playing for a few days, I had a breakthrough. Instead of just watching the notes pass the line that tells you to play them, I started to actually listen to the song. I started tapping the beat with my toe, and feeling the rhythm and melody in my body. My notes-hit percentage went up dramatically. My hands weren’t any more dexterous. My brain didn’t have any new pathways. I was just listening. And I was letting what I heard influence my playing. The subtle information about timing and the “probable next note” that was contained in the music made my playing much better. (This is probably obvious to actual musicians, but it was a revelation to me). God is the same way. In essence you want to listen to the “music” of what is around you, and what is within you, and you can begin to feel what is next – what is harmonious – what “works” – what is needed. You can learn to work with the Universe, and yourself, rather than fight and struggle. In American culture, we often seek to dominate the world around us. We want to make more money, we want to set up our house just so, we want to have X things done by the time we are 30, we want to wake up at a certain time every day and accomplish a certain amount by Friday. I don’t think God/the Universe really works like that. We have internal rhythms, and the world also has rhythms of its own. The people around us have rhythms, the seasons are one huge rhythm…it’s endless and fractal. Navigating all these rhythms harmoniously takes a lot of listening. And it takes a willingness to let go of the way we want the river to go, and be willing to go with the river. It means cooperating with the Universe. Which is where faith comes in. Faith, in essence, is trusting that the river is good. Or, put another way, that wherever the river takes you is in your best interest (even if it doesn’t appear to be at the time). It requires letting go of your ideas of what you think is best for you, and letting that sense of harmony be in charge. This is why so many religions emphasize surrender. Surrendering is a choice to relax rather than control, and see what happens. It’s a willingness to submit to a Universe you are not in charge of. Surrendering to something you can’t sense, however, is not something that is going to feel great or probably even be doable. This is why I think cultivating this sense of listening is so important. I sometimes hear people talk about taking a “leap of faith” that really just sounds like wishful thinking to me. I think sometimes people (maybe who have read too many “Think and Grow Rich” books) will “leap” but it will be out of harmony, and they’ll just fall. “Leap and the net will appear” is not always true. I think there are times when the “song of the Universe” is just right, and leaping is what is in harmony, and people do it, and it works. But if you leaping blind and deaf – that’s not a great idea. But if you can hear the melody, you’ll know when leaping is what is needed, and you’ll be able to sense the net. You won’t need to take it on blind faith – you’ll be able to take it on felt faith. Which, to my mind, is much smarter and far less stressful. And you’ll also be able to hear when it’s not time yet. And that’s some very valuable information. It’s not always time to leap. Sometimes it’s time to gather our resources. Sometimes it’s time to cultivate a skill. Sometimes it’s time to be realistic, or just focus on what is in front of you. Why is it so hard to hear? There are a lot of reasons we don’t listen to that internal rhythm, or are unaware of the song of Cosmic harmony. Many of them are cultural – some of them are family-of-origin stuff. Our culture doesn’t train us to be sensitive to and listen to our own bodies and to the subtle flows of the world around us. Even deeply “religious” people often have a cardboard cut-out understanding of God, rather than a personal felt sense of inner and outer harmony. Sunday schools often teach rules and stories, not listening and internal awareness. Being able to recite John 3:16 really has nothing to do with faith or God, IMHO. Added to this general lack of sensitivity, or lack of an “ear” for hearing God, we are also often deeply wounded by a fear of being inadequate or flawed. To make up for this, we are taught (often by people who are also not able to hear God) to pursue outside ideals, or compare ourselves with others. So we spend our lives watching, not listening. We watch how others act, how others look, what others have accomplished, what others might be thinking about us. All of this gets in the way of listening. To put it in Taoist terms, our culture emphasizes Yang – doing, accomplishment, external focus – and doesn’t often honor or recognize the necessity of Yin – being, stillness, internal focus. Both are expressions of the Tao, but our culture doesn’t teach balance and wholeness, but rather single-minded pursuit of one, rather than being in harmony with the ebb and flow of both. How do you listen? Each person has their own way of listening. A lot of people meditate. I don’t, really, not formally anyway. But I do have a habit of occasionally being still and letting my awareness sort of “spread out”. It’s about not listening to anything in particular, but rather sensing everything within and around you with your body, with no particular aim, and letting yourself feel like you are a part of it. Freeform movement practices like ecstatic dance or authentic movement have been helpful in retraining myself to listen. Artmaking, if you pursue it intuitively, also feels like a similar skill. There’s a way I have of asking myself something like “where is my aliveness at”? And then giving myself a lot of permission to pursue whatever that is. For instance, I don’t blog consistently. I’ll go through phases where I just don’t have anything to say. And I let myself have that silence. Another important competent for me is to not think of life as such a finite and super-important thing. I often think about how spiritual systems that involve reincarnation will say we live a great many lifetimes. If that’s true (and I have that felt sense that it is), then I can relax about this one. I will be what I will be in this lifetime, and there will be more. I don’t need to finish everything or learn everything or do everything right now. I just need to do what’s next, and then watch things unfold as I go. The other place this shows up is in goal-setting. I try to make goals with enough space around them that the Universe can wash over me and move me in an even better direction than I could have thought of on my own. That’s another kind of faith – that the Universe has cool things in store for me if I just let it do its thing (and do what is in front of me to do). A final word about healing from spiritual abuse Lastly, which might be the first step for some, rethinking inherited beliefs about the nature of God is often essential. If you grew up in a church, perhaps you can’t even use the word God and get anywhere near what I’m talking about. Religious abuse runs deep in this country, and recovering from that can take time, patience, and a lot of compassion for yourself. You may need to reject things you were taught at an early age by people you love.

As we’ve seen from our study so far, the first nine chapters of Proverbs are Solomon’s advice as a father to his son. These chapters are a cohesive unit that impress upon us the urgency of wisdom’s call. The rest of Proverbs (at least for the most part) is a series of short wisdom sayings that illustrates the opposing ways of wisdom and folly. For the rest of our study, the daily reading will include an entire chapter of Proverbs, even though we will focus on a single concept. As you read, consider how each pair illuminates the concept of choosing wisdom over folly. Today’s proverb may sound familiar if you’ve read the New Testament, where Peter says something similar in his first letter: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). We must keep in mind that love is not primarily an emotion, though it certainly involves our emotions. Rather, love is an action, a God-ordained way of acting toward others. In Proverbs 10:12, love is pitted against hatred. The latter “stirs up conflict” while the former “covers over all wrongs.” Love, therefore, involves forgiveness; it is the opposite of picking a fight or continuing one. Love demands we extend grace when we could rightly continue to throw metaphorical punches. However, we must also remember that love disciplines, so when this proverb says that “love covers over all wrongs” (v. 12), it is not saying that love covers up all wrongs. Love extends grace and forgiveness, yes. Love refuses to throw a punch, yes. But love does not hide sin, for hiding someone’s (and our own) sin allows the sin to continue to lead them (and us) down the path of folly and away from the Father’s embrace. >> Forgiveness is a powerful act of love. And forgiveness is modeled for us and motivated by God Himself. Just as God forgave us, we are to forgive one another (Eph. 4:32). Consider who you can forgive today. Who do we need to forgive? Who do we need to confront and work things out with, and what must we simply let go of without resolution? Lord, as we extend forgiveness, we ask You to restore our broken relationships.

Don’t wing it. Follow these practices for safe poultry handling! Why should you practice safe poultry handling? Without practicing safe poultry handling you could cause food borne illnesses. Children are more likely to get sick from germs that cause food borne illness. They have the least developed immune systems and are not able to fight infection like adults. Salmonella and Campylobacter are two common germs that cause food borne illness. Food borne illness usually causes a stomach ache and in some cases can even lead to kidney failure or other chronic long-term health problems. It is important to always pay close attention to proper food handling and hand washing when dealing with poultry. TIP: you should not rinse poultry before you cook it. It just increases the chance of spreading raw juices around the kitchen. The only way to get rid of the bacteria is to cook the chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Home Storage of Poultry Refrigerate poultry at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. For fresh poultry refrigerate for a maximum of 2 days. For cooked poultry refrigerate for a maximum of 4 days. Poultry must reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill all bacteria that can cause food borne illnesses. To make sure it reaches that temperature follows these tips: - use a food thermometer to ensure that foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature - check the temperature just before the food is expected to be “done” - place the thermometer in the thickest part of the food, without touching bone, fat, or gristle - clean the thermometer with hot, soapy water each time after using it In the store: - Disinfect your shopping cart handle. Use disinfectant wipes on surfaces, especially the handlebar and child seat. - Place poultry in a plastic bag. Use plastic bags provided at the meat counter to help avoid cross-contamination. - Place in the freezer or fridge. Keep poultry in a plastic bag and place on a low shelf to prevent leakage from contaminating other foods. - Wash hands before and after handling. Use warm water and soap to clean hands and surfaces that have potentially come in contact with poultry or its juices. Try these other tips: Try these recipes that use chicken:

From enerquip heat exchangers to harpin heat exchangers, heat exchangers play a considerably important role here in the industries of the United States as well as beyond them too. The heat exchanger industry brings a great deal of money here to the United States, from the enerquip heat exchanger to harpin heat exchangers to all other types of heat exchangers that are out there. Because of this, the heat exchanger industry bolsters the economy by quite a bit, making it invaluable in many different ways. This can be seen in the sheer amount of money that is generation from the enerquip heat exchanger industry, as well through heat exchangers all throughout the United States. The total, back in the year of 2013 alone, was an impressive seven billion dollars. And that number has only continued to grow in the years that have passed us by since. By the time that we reach the year of 2021, now less than three full years away from our current date, here at the tail end of the year of 2018, the market for the heat exchanger industry is expected to exceed a truly astounding nineteen billion dollars. It is also important to note that part of the success of the heat exchanger industry, from the many types of heat exchanger brands available (including enerquip, of course), is the fact that there are different varieties of heat exchangers that are in use and on the market today. In fact, there are up to three different kinds enerquip heat exchangers (and other brands of heat exchangers, of course) that are commonly used. The first type of heat exchanger is the parallel flow or counter flow heat exchanger. In this type of a heat exchanger, the tubing can be found to be flowing in the same direction when it comes to side fluid and shell fluid. This is due to the fact that they enter the heat exchanger from the same end. It is important to note, however, that the two liquids, at the time of entry, are two vastly different temperatures. Aside from the parallel flow or counter flow heat exchanger, the heat exchanger with a cross flow configuration is also popular and widely used here and all throughout the United States. This type of heat exchanger works by fluid flowing through two tubes that are on perpendicular angles to one another. Of course, the cross flow configuration for a heat exchanger is likely to have a different purpose than the parallel flow or counter flow heat exchanger that is also commonly used. Finally, the last type of enerquip heat exchanger that is commonly used in industries throughout the country is the shell and tube configuration of the heat exchanger. This configuration gives this type of heat exchanger unique purposes. It is also ideal for thermal energy storage as well as thermal management. But how does a heat exchanger work in the first place? Does it matter what the brand is, be it enerquip or another popular brand of heat exchanger found here and all throughout this country of the United States? When it comes down to it, the typical heat exchanger, no matter what its type, functions in basically the same way all across the board, though there will, of course, be slight variations – as could be readily expected. For instance, the typical heat exchanger functions with the purpose of transferring heat from one fluid in the machine to the other fluid in the machine. If two fluids aren’t present, it can also be used to transfer heat between a surface fluid and a solid. Finally, the typical heat exchanger such as the enerquip ehat exchanger can also be used to effectively transfer heat between a fluid, as is the case in all scenarios, and solid particulates that are present inside said heat exchanger. If you want your heat exchanger to keep working for a decent amount of time, it is also necessary to provide it with the maintenance and the servicing that it is in need of – and to do so on a very regular basis, as well. A heat exchanger that has been well maintained is likely to last.

The phrase enterprise refers to any entity that’s engaged in professional, business, or financial actions for profit. Business enterprises could also be either private for-income or public non-profitable organizations. They are engaged in shopping for and selling the commodities and services and have developed a distinct profit motive that makes them distinctive. In business phrases, business enterprise consists of all individuals and enterprises who engage in shopping for and selling of commodities and companies through an established system of procurement. Every business has its personal set of targets and targets, generally known as its purpose. These goals and objectives guide all business actions, and businessmen attempt to realize each aim and objective. The thing and purpose are usually not mounted and unchanging; reasonably they alter with time. However, the essence of each business exercise remains the identical: revenue. There are many ways by which business enterprises make revenue; however the most typical method is by selling their items and services. The creation of a profit making venture is simple. A person does not need any special expertise or schooling to determine his business. He just wants to buy items and services on credit score and sell them later. He does not need to supply or manufacture anything; instead, he only needs to sell and rent his belongings and create legal buildings for the transfer of these assets to generate revenue. However, a small set of entrepreneurs normally start their businesses of their houses. As a rule, these entrepreneurs don’t interact in any enterprise dealings other than promoting their products and services on to clients. Most residence businesses are either self employed or small businesses. Self employed companies are those operated and maintained by the entrepreneur for his benefit alone. Small businesses are those operated and managed by persons employing fewer employees. The most typical medium of business operation among these two categories is the home hold name. However, there are other small phrases used to confer with small companies similar to caterers, dry cleaners, landscapers, bakeries, attorneys, physicians and dentists. The time period enterprise owner is one other generally used term. When an individual, group or group varieties a enterprise to earn profit, it is often referred to as an enterprise. There are lots of sorts of enterprises, together with partnerships, franchises, limited liability partnerships and companies. Partnerships are those relationships between people that result from an agreement to share risk, capital or other sources between the partners so as to profit from the partnership. Franchises are just like franchises except that instead of being owned by one person straight, a franchisee offers permission for others to use his model in alternate for profit. An essential time period that ought to be part of any small marketing strategy is the word corporation. A corporation is a legal entity that exists for the advantage of its stockholders. Unlike partnerships and small companies, corporations have particular limitations in relation to the number of shareholders and voting rights. Corporations must observe specific legal guidelines and acquire licenses at the federal and state levels to be able to do enterprise. Another important time period is the market area of interest. This time period refers back to the product or companies that a company, partnership or sole proprietorship presents. For example, stores sell grocery gadgets, while corporations produce vitality merchandise. Market niches may discuss with the demographics or kind of individuals probably to purchase specific items. As an example, baby-care stores usually target mothers who’re looking for quality baby clothes. A ultimate term is business financing. Financing refers to obtaining credit for a small enterprise. This could come in the form of loans from banks and different monetary institutions or it may be provided by buyers or corporations. This financing possibility is necessary for brand new businesses, but even for existing companies that want additional funds to develop. A good marketing strategy should clearly identify how these extra funds can be obtained.

Marketers have been scoring leads and customers for decades to progress consumers through their purchase funnels. Whether that involves ranking leads for sales teams, defining segments, or personalizing online shopping, scoring requires criteria, identifiers, and data. Fortunately, with the digital boom, data of all types has never been more abundant—or more varied. Plus, computer processing power has grown sufficiently to put all this data to use and make artificial intelligence (AI) a household word—and experience. The real change is that today’s consumers expect marketers to know what they care about. Achieving advertising efficiency that rocks ROI is like finding the perfect recipe. The secret ingredient isn’t sugar or other fillers, it’s advertising efficiency. And that results by combining behavioral and interest consumer data with consented data, along with third-party data like budget, authority, needs, and timeline (BANT) data. Behavioral Scoring—Is It Really Worth It? The Answer Is Yes. As early as 2012, Marketo benchmarked revenue and sales performance of firms that scored leads based on fit as well as Interest. The results were impressive. Revenue growth for firms using no scoring or just fit scoring was not just comparable, but the same. Sales time spent selling was slightly improved with fit scoring. Those firms that scored leads using fit and interest scoring grew revenue 12% and selling time 17%. Since then, the picture is only more compelling, as data access has grown and technology gains allow marketers to put that information to work in increasingly sophisticated ways. There are quite a few ways to score leads, but most of them fall into two types of scoring: explicit or implicit. For example, fit scores (used to evaluate how much an incoming prospect resembles a likely buyer) are an explicit type of scoring. They rank broad attributes, like age, gender, location, job title, industry, etc., and compare them to the brand’s ideal buyer profile. The question most explicit scoring methods ask is ‘are they right for us?’ Interest scores get personal, and implicit, because they include details that can be inferred based on an individual’s online behavior. They rank how the prospect engages with your campaigns and content. Are they sharing it? Do they respond and retweet, download papers, or click through your Facebook or banner ads? Are they interacting on their phone or another device? What time of day? The question being asked here is, ‘are you right for them?’ Strengthen Your Scoring by Adding Intent to Gain Timing Insights Adding budget, accountability, need, and timing (BANT) criteria can further refine your scoring. That’s important because as much as a target may value your product or brand, it may not be what they’re focused on right now. Or they may have other needs that are more pressing. Behaviors that might be highly correlated with prospects moving into a buying cycle, for example, could include clicking a banner ad for a how-to demo, sharing a detailed price page, or downloading an installation guide. For each business or campaign, marketers will want to identify the specific behaviors that indicate the desired intent level. Combining that intent score with fit and interest scores can yield useful information that triggers a corresponding activation. For example, a high fit and interest score with a low buying intent score could indicate that more offering or education options are called for. The opposite configuration would indicate that the target is ready to act. Those triggers could be a direct sales call, a 10% off time-limited or a bulk discount option. Three Use Cases Targeting & Activation A personal care company uses an event feed with raw or curated data schema elements, delivered daily, to get additional behavioral data about consumers revisiting their website to then trigger personalized experiences. What did they do with the insights? The brand discovers a large sub-group of consumers who have a high interest in sustainable soaps but haven’t yet made a purchase. The brand targets this sub-group with a two-part, personalized experience: - An exclusive 10%-discount on their first purchase - Content about how a percentage of the proceeds the brand receives for sustainable products goes to non-profits focusing on waste reduction. A food company uses an event feed with raw or curated data schema elements, delivered daily, and a CPG interest scores to target consumers showing interest in vegan, keto, and gluten-free products in the U.S. What did they do with the insights? In this case, the data justified increased investment in new vegan, keto, and gluten-free products to meet growing demand. A brand uses curated data with synched feeds to understand how consumers shop for a category of products across different retailers to then optimize the purchase journey. What did they do with the insights? The data made it simple to identify less effective: - ad imagery, which could be quickly enhanced, tested and optimized - online user experiences such as site organization and online support programs A household supplies brand uses historical and ongoing data to advance their predictive analytics and improve their supply chain processes. What did they do with the insights? Consumer patterns became visible, for example: - Previously undetected purchasing patterns—including weather, season, product line and location—allowed the brand to allocate inventory more effectively and meet consumer preferences. Today’s marketers have more options than ever to understand what data can reveal, thanks to its terrific proliferation and technological advances. Combining broad demographic data with category and intent and behavioral consumer data can yield much more than ‘scoring’. It can tell a story, complete with heroes, journeys and happily-ever-afters: personalized campaign experiences, effective journeys, and happy encounters. A sure recipe for ROI. Combining explicit and implicit data yields more reliable scoring. Curation and analysis matter. Combining behavioral, fit and interest data has been shown to deliver increased revenue and time spent selling.

The Normal American Diet (Unfortunate) is missing in numerous very important dietary parts. Currently being largely composed of prepackaged, convenience foods with handful of in a natural way grown food solutions this food plan has contributed to an epidemic of not only obesity but also severe nutritional deficiency. โรงงานรับผลิตอาหารเสริม Even though lots of commercially out there vitamin and mineral health supplements exist, they are made in an synthetic way that reduces bioavailability and encourages chemical contamination. As People are not most likely to return to ingesting dwelling developed meals straight from their backyard, the option to the dietary deficiency of The usa can be found in Whole Food stuff Dietary supplements which are vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient rich merchandise created from precise foodstuff concentrates. The Difficulty with the Conventional American Eating plan In the initial section of the 1900’s most Americans ate a wholesome, total food items diet plan mainly because they experienced no option. All foods was developed both by the household or attained from instantly neighborhood resources. The usa in the 1900’s was a largely agrarian modern society with most people residing in rural spots and equipped to expand their have meals. In the course of the very last century, a substantial migration to city areas has happened. This has intended that even if one has the desire, most people today no for a longer time have the means to produce self grown food stuff. Possibly due to the fact there is no land or due to the fact quite a few do not know how, incredibly handful of folks have a yard and even fewer produce protein in the type of dairy solutions and animal husbandry. In spite of this developing migration, through Entire world War II, households ended up inspired to have a “victory yard”. This was not to make certain that Americans had a great diet plan but actually to make certain that American households could feed on their own at all, though making it possible for most of industrial food items production to be despatched to the troops overseas. That was the previous interval in history that America bought most of their nutrition from locally grown food. Commencing about the 1950’s, Us citizens did start out to figure out the benefit of natural vitamins and minerals within just their diet program. This was found mainly because far more and additional pre-geared up, extremely processed food items products and solutions grew to become available and nutritional deficiencies commenced to arise. Following the close of Earth War II, numerous families became two-profits family members. In addition, lots of extra single mothers and fathers are now elevating children by by themselves. This usually means that in most residences, all of the older people existing in any 1 family are probable employed outdoors of the household complete-time leaving very little time for foodstuff preparing alone considerably fewer any time for foods creation. America has develop into a usefulness food nation consuming considerably of the eating plan from unnatural foodstuff sources. Prepackaged and effortless to prepare food products and solutions are just that, meals “goods”. Although they might contain carbohydrates, proteins, fat and some “crucial” nutrition, they are not genuine food items. The whole foods source chain is rife with contamination and chemical processing and a lot of Us citizens are unaware of how tiny nutritional price the food items that they consume every single working day has. So considerably publicity and training has centered on the so termed foods pyramid. The governmental and academic agencies that have devised the fantastic American diet regime have by no means truly tackled the absence of vitamins, other than the Suggested Everyday Allowance (RDA) of basic natural vitamins and minerals these types of as Vitamin A, Vitamin D and Calcium. Even though these RDA degrees of vitamin and mineral intake may well be an absolute base line important to stay away from obvious diseases of deficiency this sort of as scurvy or rickets, they are rarely adequate and do not reflect but a little part of the nutrition contained in full food, important for advertising of overall health and avoidance of illness. A Disaster in The us: Obesity and Other Illnesses in the Deal with of Malnutrition The primary target of the American diet program in modern years has develop into lessening excess fat and escalating carbs in the eating plan. This stream of imagined was meant to reduce the rising epidemic of weight problems but above the previous 20 many years, obesity has risen into figures that show up to be a disaster for People. In simple fact, about the earlier twenty years the number of grownup Us residents who are obese has risen by sixty% to an unprecedented stage of just about 35% of American grownups getting thought of overweight. A a lot even worse predicament is that a equivalent amount of approximately 32% of American children qualify as chubby or obese. For the to start with time in American history, the daily life expectancy of these little ones may well be lessen than that of their mothers and fathers or grandparents. This has led to an epidemic of coronary heart ailment, diabetic issues and other bodyweight similar complications transpiring in report numbers not only in older people but seen in youngsters as youthful as 18 months of age. Added diseases that may perhaps be similar to a deficiency of acceptable nutrients other than basic vitamins in American diet programs may possibly consist of a extensive assortment of disorders ranging from immune diseases implicated in situations this sort of as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus and Cancer to psychiatric and neurological circumstances these types of as ADHD, Autism and Despair. Most persons believe that that being overweight takes place only mainly because people take in too significantly. Though that is correct in portion, being overweight also success from continually consuming the wrong styles of food. In the 1900s when Us citizens had been consuming a mostly organic, entire foods diet specifically from farm to table, obesity was an particularly rare prevalence. As our diet program has changed from an agrarian society’s nutrient rich foodstuff source to the urbanized really processed, synthetic foodstuff, our overall meals usage has risen. This is in component simply because, even though the physique will get more energy from additional meals, it is nevertheless starved of nutrition creating one particular to take in even extra. In addition, in our sedentary way of life our bodies in fact need to have less food stuff than when we lived and worked each individual working day on the farm, still we still take in a lot more mainly because of absence of correct vitamins, abundance of effortlessly attained processed foods and other psychological disorders this kind of as worry ingesting. In the finish, The us has become a country of men and women who are obese but nevertheless malnourished and disorder ridden. An Try to Correct the Difficulty The ideal eating plan really would be that of returning to whole food “farm to table” feeding on wherever family members possibly mature their have foodstuff and put together it inside minutes of harvesting or at a minimum receive locally grown food stuff from the sector and prepare it inside of a working day or so of harvesting. In today’s society this is no for a longer period attainable. Even when new greens and fruits are consumed as a big part of the diet, our nation’s food items offer is contaminated by the use of pesticides, herbicides and hormones and considerably of the nutrient value is dropped by transportation of the foodstuff crop from thousands of miles absent. Food is harvested before it is definitely ripe, irradiated, saved chilly and transported across states, nations and even oceans in advance of it comes in our grocery suppliers as tasteless, substandard, nutrient bad produce. A lot of men and women are trying to eat only natural and organic, regionally developed produce for this explanation. Even though this may perhaps be an improvement above the nutritional worth of the regular American food plan, it is practically often substantially more highly-priced and for that reason unaffordable for lots of and unavailable for other people as most markets do not aim on getting this kind of solutions. So this exertion, when valiant is still not plenty of. The very good news about the American nutritional predicament is that it is really straightforward to repair. Supplied ideal nourishment, the human physique has an amazing means to mend itself. Several conditions and circumstances caused by overconsumption and malnourishment can be easily corrected by supplementation with complete food items dietary items. As Individuals cannot rely on the food stuff offer to provide sufficient nourishment and also cannot depend on the supply, quality and purity of most commercially offered nutritional health supplements, the only reply appears to lie in complete meals supplementation. What is a Complete Foods Supplement? Entire foodstuff health supplements are defined as nutritional supplements derived totally from meals. This is a much extra purely natural and useful method of obtaining diet from food and natural nutritional supplements alike. However, most commercially offered nutritional supplements like natural vitamins, minerals and natural goods are produced totally of one ingredient extracts or even worse, artificially synthesized in a lab using chemical processes. Even though synthesized nutritional supplements could in simple fact supply simple nutritional vitamins and minerals acknowledged to be vital, artificially organized items are missing quite a few of the alkaloids, anti-oxidants and phytochemicals that are considered to perform a major position in comprehensive nutrition and condition prevention. The very same is real for natural nutritional supplements and treatments as most commercially offered organic solutions do deliver an extract or synthesized sort of the generally lively chemical within just the herb, they are nonetheless missing a lot of of the synergistic ingredients believed to supply additional gains of natural and nutraceutical therapy. Simply just Taking Vitamins isn’t really Adequate Vitamins and Minerals are certainly vital for daily life but the RDA is usually both insufficient in its estimate and unattainable by way of the regular American diet plan. Although several commercially readily available dietary dietary supplements are accessible at each individual corner, as a result of necessity, the Meals and Drug Administration (Food and drug administration) does small to control the producing of foodstuff nutritional supplements these as natural vitamins, minerals and organic products. The Food and drug administration can not evidently control even its’ most important duties of regulation of the pharmaceutical business and assurance of the basic safety of the American meals supply. In the very last various several years, numerous counterfeit pharmaceutical items have been found out this kind of as flu medicine remaining bought on the web, manufactured outside the house of the United States was identified to be gelatin capsules stuffed with sheetrock particles. In addition Us citizens have found circumstance after situation of E. Coli and Salmonella contamination of each American and foreign farm crops this sort of as lettuce, tomatoes, onions and peppers enter our grocery outlets. Some of these merchandise were even the so named “natural and organic” products, purported to be safer than traditional crops. Why a Full Food items Nutritional supplement As there is insufficient supervision of the pharmaceutical and foods production industries, there is even less of the dietary nutritional supplement marketplace. The average vitamin or nutritional health supplement is manufactured applying chemical synthesis and warmth processing which destroys the nutritional worth of the item within just. In addition, lots of commercially accessible items are manufactured with fillers, additives, preservatives and other dubious chemical substances. Whole meals health supplements are not. Inside of the very last many many years, considerable shortcomings have arrive to gentle in conditions of international built food and well being goods. Quite a few products and solutions have confirmed to be contaminated with not only the recognized chemical compounds that are present in the American meals source but also with substantially much more harmful not known chemicals that really should under no circumstances enter the manufacturing approach. The only way to guarantee that this does not take place is to purchase large good quality merchandise from a business with a very well proven standing for protecting higher benchmarks of manufacturing and purity. As complete meals nutritional supplements are normal items, it would be optimal if the manufacturer utilized tactics of sustainability and environmentally friendly plan. The perfect foods nutritional supplement company acknowledges that vitamins do not exist in isolation. The nutritional worth of entire foods is due to the interweaving of the full spectrum of nutrients with vitamins and minerals performing in a synergistic fashion with hundreds of other plant alkaloids, phytochemicals and enzymes. The cofactors and bioflavonoids these types of as terpenes and isoflavones existing in full foods and complete food items supplements are integral in the approach to restore biochemical harmony to the entire body. This is fairly easy to discover when inspecting the label of a dietary nutritional supplement, vitamin or herbal product. Even though the Food and drug administration does not do an suitable task of monitoring the food provide or pharmaceutical marketplace, they have set up specifications of labeling which incorporate proper identification of all elements contained in a complement. Close evaluation of most common nutritional supplements when in contrast to complete food items supplements will present that most products incorporate artificial vitamins, substances and filler products although total food stuff health supplements include all-natural nutritional vitamins and minerals received from concentrated food items resources this sort of as fruits and greens. Dietary supplements manufactured from full foodstuff sources will include not only the organic variety of vitamins and minerals but also all of the critical phytochemicals and phytonutrients crucial to restoration of dietary wellness and prevention of disorder derived from total food concentrates. Deciding upon a High-quality Nutritional supplement Total food dietary supplements are nutritional items which have been produced directly from food. Foodstuff developed in pure situations is concentrated working with diligently developed and conducted chilly processing procedures. These strategies let the concentration of the full spectrum of dietary worth without having taking away the phytochemicals, alkaloids and other valuable purely natural substances that guarantee enough nutritional assist and aid to prevent disease. When deciding on a complete foodstuff dietary supplement one particular really should ensure that the products is from a producing enterprise acknowledged to have a extended standing standing for high quality and expertise in whole foodstuff processing. The products and solutions should really be constituted completely of full food items items which have been refined making use of chilly processing without the need of the nutrient decreasing consequences of extraordinary warmth, pasteurization and irradiation. They should also be free of charge of artificial filler merchandise and preservative substances. The company must have a method of tests for purity and ensure of good quality and ideally need to offer a funds back ensure if just one is not contented with the product or service. For the American customer, optimally an American product will be procured an in an work to assist the atmosphere, a enterprise with “environmentally friendly” guidelines must be picked to advertise sustainability of the food provide. Specific Nutrient Desires Vitamin A and the carotenoids are extremely present in several vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables together with fish and animal livers and are vital for: o good performing of the eye and pores and skin like the gastrointestinal tract o functions as an antioxidant, protecting towards most cancers and disorders of ageing o crucial in help of the immune technique for security in opposition to viruses and infections of the organ linings of bladder, kidneys, lungs and mucous membranes o essential for protein utilization Vitamin A deficiency will cause dry hair, skin, eye disorders, fatigue, reproductive challenges, regular colds and infections, and skin disorders. Conventional vitamin health supplements will usually contain synthetic Vitamin A Palmitate and/or beta carotene isolate. Complete Foods Supplements will incorporate Vitamin A1, Vitamin A2, retinal, retinoic acid and a amount of additional the five hundred carotenes all of which are precursors to Vitamin A together with essential fatty acid, organic sugars, minerals and other phytonutrients identified only in total foodstuff.

For many families, estate planning is only something that they tackle as they or their loved ones are nearing the end of their lives. While that’s entirely natural, it results in many people not learning about simple steps they can take to protect their interests in advance – many of which do not require an attorney. Easy Steps to Simplify Estate Planning These are the primary objectives to remember when making your plan 1. Keep as many assets out of probate court as possible, in order to cut down on time and expenses. 2. Make the process easy as possible for family members. 3. Minimize any potential tax ramifications and maximize access to government aid, particularly for long-term nursing care through Medicare. 4. Accomplish all these issues before there is any question of competency or senility that could be raised to complicate an administration. For many of these issues, a quick twenty minute appointment with an attorney can generate most of the documents you need to plan for end of life issues. Item #3 is an issue better suited to another article entirely, but briefly, many people don’t realize that if their estate plan isn’t set up over five years before they might need to use it, they could needlessly lose practically their entire estate to the Medicare program in order to pay for long-term care. That’s where an irrevocable trust may come in handy, even for relatively modest estates. Staying on top of these issues takes very little time or effort, but can save thousands upon thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, down the line. There are also numerous details that can be handled without attorney assistance at all, which is what we’ll focus on today, with two simple but critical suggestions. Estate Plan Step 1: Transfer on Death Designations Virtually every major asset – your home, your checking account, your retirement accounts, insurance policies, your car – can be automatically transferred on death if you set up the right documentation. These automatic transfers, sometimes called Payable on Death, skip probate entirely, saving a substantial amount of time and money. Checking accounts, retirement accounts, and insurance policies are usually very simple to set up, and require simply designating joint owners or beneficiaries. This is very commonly done. A simple form through the BMV can transfer ownership of your car without probate Very few people however are aware that they can also set this up for vehicles that they own, including watercraft and outboard motor vehicles. Before you plan your next trip to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, you can track down a “form BMC 3811” with the BMV, have the form notarized, and then return it to your local BMV. To complete the transfer with the BMV, any heirs will need to bring the original Ohio title for the vehicle, a certified copy of the death certificate, an application for Certificate of Title (form BMV 3774), an identification card, and payment for title fees. This is one of the most common items that people miss, and not infrequently requires either instructions or action from an attorney on how to address this issue. Another major item that is often missed is real estate. For married couples or sometimes for people buying property jointly, the most common type of deed used by most attorneys is a survivorship deed. This transfers the property automatically to their spouse, upon death. However, after the spouse’s death, or if you don’t have a survivorship deed, additional action may be necessary. Although there are a variety of strategies on how to handle this, one of the most common is a Transfer on Death Affidavit. Because these are put on record in the recorder’s office, they typically require an attorney’s assistance to do properly. When properly executed, they allow you to continue to own the property until your death, and to revoke the affidavit if you so choose. Upon death, they fast-track the process of conveying the property to your designated heir or assign. Ideally, with good planning, virtually all of an estate’s assets aside from personal property items can be dealt with in advance, greatly reducing the cost of work needed to be done to close an estate. Keeping organized records dramatically simplifies estate management for heirs Estate Plan Step 2: Keep Good Records, and Keep Them in the Right Place One of the most arduous and time-consuming aspects of administering an estate can be having to research what a person owned at the time of their death, and gaining access to all their accounts and records. However, if those documents are securely stored, and well-organized in a single place that your loved ones are aware of or can easily find, that can save an incredible amount of effort. The container you select should also be securely locked, and fire-proof. Ideally, these materials should be kept in clearly labeled folders or binders, for ease of use and updating as necessary. Your executor should be given access to a key or at a minimum, knowledge of where the key is stored. When dealing with the emotions and other difficulties that can come with losing a loved one, sometimes unexpectedly, the last thing that most families wish to take on is a weeks-long scavenger hunt for financial information. You should make a list of all the information that should be stored, that your executor may need to have access to. That list should be included in the lockbox as well. Some of the documents that may be relevant to include are: · Password preservation worksheet – Consider whether a password preservation worksheet and/or security answer worksheet is right for your situation. Your password-protected information may be very sensitive and financially valuable, so you should think carefully about which, if any, passwords you are comfortable recording in writing, even in a secured location. Should you choose to do so, we recommend that you never store or transmit this password information in any electronic format, due to the risk of identity theft. If you do choose to record this information, it may greatly assist your executor in quickly and easily gaining access to your electronic accounts. – A copy of the deed to your home and/or transfer on death affidavit – Estate Planning Documents – Your will, trust documents, powers of attorney for medical care and/or property, living will, and any other estate planning documents – A copy of your Form 3811 for any vehicles you wish to transfer automatically. – Funeral Arrangements/Final Wishes – Details regarding any advanced funeral arrangements you have made, or a description of your wishes regarding burial, cremation, etc. – Financial Records – A list of financial accounts such as checking and savings, investment and retirement accounts of any kind, insurance policies, regularly reoccurring bills such as utilities, mortgages, car payments, insurance of any kind, credit cards, and any other debts that may need to be cancelled or addressed. Make sure to include the institution where the account is held and information about how the account is titled. Copies of statements are a great way to give all the information in one place. – Who your heirs should notify and how – A list of persons that may wish to be notified, with contact information, for funeral or memorial services. – Items of Significance – Some people may also wish to include letters, videos, pictures, or other items of sentiment for their loved ones to receive after they have gone.

Metal Clay Beginners Page So you’re a metal clay beginner interested in working with it but don’t know where to start. Well on this page you’ll find some basic information to get you going with links to useful documents and resources to help you. What is Metal Clay? First, what is metal clay? It’s very simple – metal clay is a clay like material made up of fine metal particles, an organic binder and water. You can find out more on our What is Metal Clay Page. Silver metal clay is a greyish white color and comes in packets of various sizes, the largest being around 50 grams. There are two companies who have manufactured silver metal clay since the beginning; Mitsubishi who make Precious Metal Clay or PMC and Aida Chemicals who make Art Clay Silver or ACS. There are now more companies manufacturing silver metal clay but the original two are the most popular. This is a safe material for metal clay beginners to work with as long as you follow some basic rules. Forms of Metal Clay The metal clay comes in a variety of formats. The main format is lump clay. It also comes in pots in a watered down form called metal clay paste or slip. This is useful for sticking pieces of lump clay together. It can also be used to paint onto shapes – like pasta shapes, cereal, lumps of bread or twigs, leaves or flowers. Applying multiple coats of metal clay paste and allowing it to dry thoroughly between coats can result in a very light and beautiful fine silver item. You can buy the metal clay in a syringe. This is specially formulated to be squeezed out of the syringe in thin lines and make lovely patterns on the surface of the metal clay although metal clay beginners may find it a bit challenging. Paper or sheet type clay Finally there is a version called metal clay paper or sheet clay. This is a flat sheet of metal clay that can be cut with scissors or punches. In lump form, because this is a clay, you can work with it like clay – roll it out, push textures into it, cut it into shapes, squash it into molds, form it into shapes like animals or flowers – the possibilities are endless. This is the form that most metal clay beginners start with. Once the metal clay is dry, you can file it with emery boards or fine sandpaper, drill it with a simple hand drill and generally refine and clean your design. You then fire it using a domestic gas ring, butane torch or in a kiln. The binder burns off and the fine silver particles fuse together to create a solid fine silver item. This item will be 99.9% solid silver. In July 2008, bronze metal clay was released. This is much cheaper than silver metal clay and comes in larger packets – up to 300 grams. It has different requirements to silver metal clay, for instance it cannot be fired by torch or gas ring, it has to be fired in a kiln. Copper metal clay was launched soon after and also has to be kiln fired. Then in 2009, torch fireable copper clay was launched from two sources, Aida Chemicals and Hadar Jacobson. Metal clay can be a bit sticky to work with so before you open the packet, make sure your hands and all your tools including your work surface have something on them to prevent sticking. The easiest thing for a metal clay beginner to use is cooking oil. Olive oil is commonly used but any sort of cooking oil would work fine. Very lightly grease your work surface, hands and roller before you handle the metal clay. If you use too much oil you’ll end up with a slippery mess so use the oil sparingly. And open your packet before you get all greasy! Keep your metal clay wrapped in film – you can use cling film or Saran Wrap for this – but remove it from the packet before lubricating your hands. If you read up about metal clay you’ll see some people refer to Badger Balm as a greasing agent. This is an organic hand balm with an oil base and works well. There’s no reason why any hand cream or oil shouldn’t be used as long as it is not petroleum based – like Vaseline – or has lanolin in. Some metal clay artists have had trouble using products containing lanolin while others use it with no ill-effects. To avoid problems, stick to olive or vegetable oil. Metal clay roller Most people start by rolling out the metal clay and making small flat items. To roll out the metal clay, you need a smooth, rigid, non-porous cylinder about 6 inches long. Look around your home, you may have something suitable to start you off. A smooth pen would do. Or what about a straight sided glass? Or maybe you have a glass bottle of oil, vinegar or some other kitchen item that is a smooth cylinder shape. Bubble bath or bath oil? Or perhaps you have a glass or acrylic rolling pin. Look around your home and see what might fit the bill. Many metal clay artists use acrylic tubes to roll out their metal clay. In DIY or hardware stores you can buy long lengths of acrylic pipe of varying diameters. They are not very expensive and you can saw a length into six or nine inch sections using a hacksaw. This gives you lots of rollers, you’ll never run out. Or you could sell them to your friends for a small amount to cover your costs. Or maybe you already have an off-cut of acrylic pipe in your garage. To make sure that the rolled out clay has an even thickness, metal clay artists use guides on each side of the metal clay as they roll. The simplest guide used commonly is playing cards. A stack of playing cards each side of the metal clay allows you to roll consistent thickness of clay. In tutorials you often see instructions to roll a piece 3, 4 or 5 cards thick; they mean playing cards. DIY rolling guides If you don’t have playing cards, you could create your own rolling guides using cardboard. Cereal packets are very useful for this. Simply cut lengths of card from your cereal packet and use these to stack either side of your clay. The cereal packet may be a little thicker than a playing card but you can experiment with this to see what works. Textures for metal clay When you have rolled out your metal clay you’ll want to experiment with texturing it. This is where the fun begins. You can use pretty much anything to texture your clay. Make sure the item has some oil on it to prevent sticking. With some textures it’s easier to oil your finger and gently apply the oil to the surface of the rolled out metal clay, then press the texture into it than to oil the texture. Wander around your garden or a local park. Nature has many things that make wonderful textures – leaves, bark, twigs, grasses, seed pods, acorns, pine cones. The beach is a great place to pick up shells and bits of drift wood which give great textures to use with metal clay. Around the home Look around your home and see what you can find. Bottle tops and toothpaste caps often have patterns on them which can be pressed into metal clay or rolled on. Your children may have very interesting textures on some of their toys. Once you start noticing textures around your home and garden, you’ll find yourself seeing the potential for texture everywhere. Do you have a button box? Buttons are a great source of texture for metal clay jewelry. You can use them all over a piece or use a special pattern as a focal point for a piece. Fabrics also make good textures. Lace, leather, muslin, linen all work well. Fabric with an open weave can make great textures but may be a little more difficult to work with. Sometimes the metal clay can get stuck in the weave. Oil the clay and press the texture gently onto the clay so it doesn’t squeeze through the holes too much. Charity shops are a good source of cheap buttons and fabrics. Textured wallpaper is very popular and a trip round a hardware or DIY store can be a great inspiration. Most shops selling wallpaper are happy for you to tear off a small sample to take away free, so you can come home with lots of great textures. As these are paper, they may not last as long as some other textures but that’s OK, you can go back and get some more for free. Lightly oil the metal clay before using these textures. Make your own textures You can make your own textures very cheaply. Pencil erasers are a great tool for texture. They are easy to cut and carve using very basic tools. With a craft knife, cut shapes into the eraser, or use carving tools to carve out lines and designs. The small erasers that fit on the tops of pencils can make great little stamps for a simple design in metal clay. Wine bottle corks can also be carved to make interesting texture tools. Polymer clay texture plates Polymer clay is a great material to create your own texture plates. Flat, baked sheets of polymer clay are very easy to carve or you can push textures like shells into unbaked polymer clay, bake it and use this with your metal clay. Cutting a shape in metal clay It’s best to cut out your design after you’ve textured the rolled out metal clay. You can use all kinds of things to cut out designs. Wooden toothpicks are very cheap to buy and they are an invaluable tool for the metal clay artist. The simplest way to cut a shape is freehand using a toothpick. Maybe your texture will suggest a good shape or you can just cut an organic swirly pattern. Small cookie cutters are great if you have them around the house and are very useful if you want to make several things the same shape and size, like earrings. The stencil cutters with a whole sheet of different sized circles or squares for instance, are also useful. To use these, choose the size of shape you want to use. Using your playing cards or cardboard to support the stencil lay it gently over your metal clay and using a toothpick or cocktail stick, cut the shape using the stencil as a guide. Bottle tops can be used as metal clay cutters or you can cut around small objects with interesting shapes using a toothpick. You can also make your own stencils by drawing a shape on graph paper or tracing a shape from a book using greaseproof kitchen paper or tracing paper. Then using some cardboard – say from a cereal packet again – tape or glue your design to the cardboard and using a craft knife, cut the shape out of the cardboard. Clean up the edges and corners with your craft knife and you have a stencil to use with your metal clay. Cutting holes in metal clay The simplest pendant or earrings are suspended on a silver ring, called a jump ring. While the metal clay is soft, you can cut a hole in your piece for the jump ring. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is with a drinking straw. Make sure you keep drinking straws when you’re out with your family so you have a variety of sizes. Keep an eye open for small ones which are sometimes used as coffee stirrers in cafes. To use a drinking straw, lightly oil the end and punch a hole in the metal clay using a slightly twisting motion. Lift it straight up and use a cocktail stick to poke out the plug of clay from the end of the straw. Other uses for drinking straws Sometimes you may not want to hang your piece with a jump ring. Another way to hang a pendant is with a wrap over bail. The bail is the part of the pendent that has the chain or thong go through it to hang the piece. When you make a metal clay pendant with a wrap over bail, you cut it long enough to allow part of the pendant to be flapped over to the front or the back and stuck down forming a loop. To form the loop, use a drinking straw. Oil a straw and flap the metal clay over this to form the loop. Stick down the flap using a little slip – see next section – and make sure it’s well stuck down. Another way to make a bail is to cut a small rectangle of metal clay and stick this to the back of the pendant forming a loop. Once again, an oiled drinking straw helps to form the loop and can be left in place until the piece is dry. In both these types of bail, carefully remove the drinking straw by gently twisting it and pulling it out when the whole piece is thoroughly dry. Sticking metal clay pieces together If you want to stick one piece of metal clay to another you need to use water or clay ‘glue’, called slip or paste. You can make paste by breaking off small pieces of metal clay and squashing them down onto your work surface with a flat knife, like a palette knife or a flat piece of flexible plastic. Add a few drops of water and squash this into the metal clay, working it over the water until the water is absorbed. Add a little more water and repeat. Soon the metal clay will become runnier and you can then scoop it up on your plastic or knife and put it into a small container with a tight lid. Types of paste containers Good containers for this would be old 35mm film canisters. These are getting more difficult to find now people use digital cameras more but you may be able to get some free from your local film processing store. Make sure you ask all your friends to keep theirs if they use film. Another good source of small containers are the individual portions of jam or marmalade that some hotels use. These little glass jars have tight fitting lids. Whenever you travel, don’t leave the jar on the breakfast table, take it with you, wash it out and use it for your slip. You can use a normal sized jam-jar if you have one or a small plastic box from your kitchen. Top up your paste/slip Once you have a little fresh paste in your container, add to this to keep a good supply. Any small lumps of metal clay that collect on your work surface can be dropped into the slip jar and stirred in. When you file the edges of your dry metal clay pieces to smooth them, the filings can all go into the paste pot. Stir them in and check the consistency of the slip, add more water if necessary and it’ll always be there to use. To stick two pieces of clay together, paint paste onto the metal clay piece you want to stick on using a small paintbrush and gently press them together. If you find some paste squishes out the sides, use a clean, slightly damp paintbrush to lift this off. Drying your metal clay Metal clay needs to be thoroughly dried before finishing and firing. You can leave the clay out in the air to dry naturally or put it into an airing cupboard, a food dehydrator or next to the oven to speed up the drying. Blowing it with a hairdryer also works well. As long as it’s not too hot, it’ll be fine. Sometimes if you speed up the drying of the metal clay the surface can look dry but the inside or back are still damp. Carefully turning your piece over will help to speed up the drying and make it more uniform. Speeding the drying of metal clay by heating the piece can also cause flat pieces to warp a little. This can be resolved after the piece is fired (by gently hammering the piece flat) but if it’s very important for you to have a flat piece or you have stones in the piece that might be damaged by hammering, allow the metal clay to dry naturally and turn the pieces over regularly. Finishing your metal clay Once the metal clay piece is dry, you can refine the edges with sand paper, emery boards, nail files or salon boards. These are great cheap tools and are very effective on dry metal clay. Be very careful when handling dry metal clay. It is very fragile and will break if you are rough with it. Smooth the edges of the piece with an emery board. You can smooth the inside of a hole in the dry metal clay or the inside of a bail using a wooden toothpick. The wooden toothpick is a tiny natural file and works really well on dry metal clay. You can also drill holes in your pieces when they are dry. Use a small drill bit in your fingers to drill a hole, the dry clay is soft enough to do this. Alternatively, a sharp pointed craft knife makes a great drill. With your metal clay piece flat on the work surface, hold the knife or drill bit upright at right angles to the surface, with the point down where you want the hole. Don’t press, just turn the knife or drill round and round so the point drills into the clay until it goes right through. Go slowly and be patient. If you press down, you risk breaking the piece. As long as you can see dust coming from the hole, you are drilling. What you see is what you get! Remember, metal clay does not become smoother or melt during firing – unless you over heat it! Whatever you see on the clay in the dry stage is exactly what you’ll see on the fired silver. If there are any dents, chips or bits you think are not smooth, they will look like that when it’s fired. It’s worth spending time in the dry stage to get the piece looking good. Firing metal clay The simplest way of firing the metal clay in your home is to use a gas ring. You’ll need to buy a small piece of steel mesh to support the dry metal clay on the ring. Have a look at a tutorial on how to fire metal clay using this method. You can also use a butane torch. Some people use these in the kitchen so if you have one, you can use it to fire your metal clay. Some metal clay teachers offer firing services for a small fee. If you’re not keen on firing the piece yourself, it’s worth finding out if there’s someone in your area and getting them to fire your metal clay pieces in a kiln. Polishing metal clay Once your metal clay piece has been fired you’ll find the surface is a white color. This is the natural surface of the silver – all hills and valleys at microscopic level so it doesn’t reflect the light. There are various ways to bring out the shine. The easiest is to burnish the piece with something steel. A teaspoon or small, blunt knife would work well on the edges or any raised areas. Simply rub the teaspoon along the edge and you’ll see the silver begin to shine. If you have a piece with deep textures, it will be more difficult to get into these areas with a flat tool and you risk scratching the surface. A small stainless steel or soft brass brush is the best thing to use in this case. They are fairly cheap to buy.

Violence involves physical force that may hurt, damage, or kill someone. Given this point, no one should allow this to happen to anybody. Meanwhile, some laws are bound to protect people against violence. It can happen to anyone, including you. For this reason, it is best to understand the context of this law against violence. Knowing about certain laws is better than nothing. Besides, it is for your welfare. You have to know your rights, especially if you are the victim. In this case, this article will discuss the laws protecting women against violence. It is a sad reality to think that women are weak, making them and their children suffer violence. What Does the Law on Violence Against Women Involves? It is good news to have a law to protect you against violence. Law can help you achieve justice and freedom from this situation. Meanwhile, you will further understand what this law on violence against women involves. In effect, you can see how beneficial it is to have this law. Meanwhile, any type of violence is illegal. That only means no one has the right to hurt or cause damage to anyone. Given this point, if a woman undergoes such a situation, there is a law that can protect her from it. Aside from protection, this law allows her to continue with her life despite what happened. This law provides support to women and families who are victims of violence. Each community varies in the law about violence. In this case, it is best to work with an experienced domestic assault lawyer to help you understand the law better. Aside from that, this lawyer can assist you with the actions you must do for the situation. Furthermore, there are various kinds of violence a woman can experience. That includes, but is not limited to the following: - Domestic. It involves the intimate partner of the woman, which comes in different forms as well, such as physical, emotional, and many more. - Femicide. It involves killing women by intention for the reason that they are women. - Sexual. This violence is an act that occurs against the will of another person. - Online. The modern age has given birth to online violence, including cyberbullying, doxing, or non-consensual sexting. Other kinds of violence can happen, and it is best to know how to protect yourself against them. One way is learning about this law and knowing what to do if you are in that situation. Meanwhile, violence can affect a woman for a long time. Effects of Violence on Women Every woman may differ in how they will take the effects of violence on themselves. In this case, here are some of how violence can impact a woman’s condition: - Women who experienced violence are likely to have a higher risk of injuries. These injuries may cause someone’s death in the end. - They can also suffer from adverse sexual and reproductive health issues. That may include unintended pregnancy, STD, or HIV transmission. - Victims of violence can also experience long-term mental health consequences. In this case, women can suffer from depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. All of these may lead to suicidal attempts. - Victims tend to shut doors and isolate themselves from other people. Meanwhile, everyone can prevent this situation. There are ways for people to end violence. For this reason, it is time to take action and make a difference. Here are a few ways to end violence and be free from it: - Listen to and believe the survivors of violence. It took them a while to gain the courage to speak about their experience. For this reason, they deserve everyone’s listening ears and acceptance. - Let your voice be heard so that the next generation knows what to do if they experience this situation. It is best to shape their way of thinking about gender, respect, and human rights. - Aside from that, seek help from groups that know how to handle violence. - Moreover, people have to know the essence of consent. There should be no blurred lines about it. In this case, everything should happen from a person’s free will and not by force. - Other people can help victims of violence if they know how to identify signs of abuse. Learning them can let you help find the safety and support they need. - Hold each other accountable. Speak up if someone’s already crossing the line. This way, you can help create a safe environment for everyone. In general, everyone can help fight against violence. It is best to understand the issue and do something to end it. Otherwise, more and more people will experience it. Aside from that, they can suffer from its long-term consequences.

Producer of specialist silica sand products for the sports industry, Garside Sands is set to become a star following a viewer's question on the BBC 'One Show' about 'what makes the sand in Leighton Buzzard so special that it is exported overseas, to countries in the Middle East, which have an abundance of their own sand?' The BBC programme managed to answer the question, following a visit to Aggregate Industries business, Garside Sands' Heath & Reach site, where TV presenter Angellica Bell and the crew tracked the process of a grain of Leighton Buzzard sand from excavation to washing, grading, drying, bagging and finally shipping to see what was so special. The film will air this June on BBC1 as part of The One Show's series on towns with a 'Claim to Fame'. Graham Turk, Operations Manager for Garside Sands, said: "Leighton Buzzard sand is special because of its high silica sand content and grain shape. This was formed over 130 million years ago when the area was a sea where the motion of the waves created the rounded grain of the sand we quarry today. "These properties make the sand ideal for specific applications such as water filtration for drinking water to upgrade infrastructure, not just in the UK, but also in Middle Eastern countries and beyond. Leighton Buzzard sand is therefore a very specialist type of sand, of which there is limited availability in the UK and overseas." Liz Brown, Garside Sands' Marketing Manager said: "It was an interesting and educational day. My thanks go to our team who worked very hard and diligently to prepare the site for its five minutes of fame, and especially to the members of the team who are set to star in the film when it airs on June 6 on BBC1." The One Show crew visited the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway which was used to transport sand between the quarries and the main-line railway in the town. Now the only surviving line of its type in England, it is a popular tourist attraction, as well as a nationally accredited working museum operated by volunteers. One of the jewels of the working museum collection was brought out especially for the occasion - an armour-plated locomotive of a type built for the supply lines of the First World War trenches, and then used on the sand trains in Leighton Buzzard for over 30 years. On long-term loan from the National Railway Museum, it recreated history by hauling a train of loaded sand wagons through the open countryside, for the cameras. Presenter Angelica Bell helped to hold up traffic at the Vandyke Road level crossing, under strict supervision and later interviewed the Railway's Chairman, Mervyn Leah, while the train was on the move.

What can mediation teach us about civility? In the life of our nation, public discourse seems to be at an all-time low. People of different political persuasions have a very hard time listening to each other and demonizing “the other” is rampant. The ties that bind us together appear to be fraying. What are we to do? I think the approach we use in mediation has a lot to offer in response to this question. One of the key elements of the mediation process is respecting the experience of each of the parties, understanding that their experience of the same event in the life of the conflict has been shaped by their life history, their interpretation of what things mean based on their values and beliefs. Two people can see the same thing and interpretations of what took place, even memory of what took place, are diametrically the opposite. By respecting how each party has experienced the conflict and what impact it has on them, the mediators are able to understand and empathize with each person. The mediators really deeply listen to the parties and encourage the other side to do so as well. This not only helps the person being listened to feel acknowledge and heard but also can allow them to move forward from a position of being stuck in a fixed position or perspective. This deep listening could help heal the division we feel in our public sphere. Lastly, through the mediation process, the parties come to see that “we are in this together”. Their finding a workable solution is dependent on the others in the conflict buying in to a plan to make things better. By working towards collaborative, win-win outcomes, mediating parties find lasting solutions to intractable conflict. Doesn’t that approach sound like what we need in our broader world? Let’s work to bring mediation’s core values, respect, listening and collaboratively working together for solutions to our broader world. We all could use a bit more civility.

An Intro to Paleo Diet A healthy lifestyle is the focus of everyone living in the present times. A lot of people are happy and content to eat snacks and other fast food for the entire day. This has created a major health concern. Today many nutritionists believe that a Paleo diet is the best way to fight against this. Paleo diet is one of the prominent diet practices being followed. But before a person starts to follow something, it is important to understand what it is and what it offers. Paleo diet is to eat as the primitive men (Homo Sapiens) did. The prime focus of the Paleo Diet is the view that primitive Homo Sapiens were strong, muscular, healthy, happy and agile. A major cause of this is what they ate and hence, by following the same line, people can achieve a healthier lifestyle. This is a valid argument. But the most amazing point about this diet is that one does not have to become a complete vegetarian. Since primitive men ate meat, it is a part of this diet. Also there is no fasting involved. However, cookies, muffins and other such foods must be forgone or at least controlled to fully attain the benefits of a Paleo diet. What exactly is a paleo diet? Paleo diet is a term that many people are using these days. It is a very simple thing. It means to eat like the primitive Homo Sapiens. There are some foods to be removed from one’s diet. But this does not mean one has to become a total vegetarian. A paleo diet requires some diet changes, not a regime overhaul. There are no specific workouts or exercises involved in this diet and there is absolutely no meal skipping involved. To be very specific, one has to eat as much agrarian foods as he can. To be precise, it means to say goodbye to pastas, snacks, cookies, processed grains and low quality foods. The food we commonly eat today has many substances that create infirmities in the body. Foods have high levels of sugars making them quite unhealthy. Certain foods, especially processed foods, are gluten free. Excess consumption of such foods serves as a catalyst to a host of health problems such as reproductive problems, dermatitis, gastrointestinal tract problems and acid reflux. The primitive men never had these problems and a major reason for this is the food that they ate. Hence, by toeing the same we stand at least reduced possibilities of developing major health concerns.

I’ve been watching the wonderful gardening series Garrai Glas on TG4 since series one. Recorded in the Irish language, it’s subtitled for those of us who don’t speak this old language fluently and the cinematography is beautiful. What makes Garraí Glas particularly special however is that it’s all about growing your own food. Síle Nic Chonaonaigh travels around Ireland in her little green Datsun talking to all manner of people about how they grow their food and eat it using traditional and organic methods. I’ve been twitter friends with Síle for some time now and was delighted when she agreed to chat to me about her experiences. How did you become involved in Garrai Glas, were you a keen gardener beforehand? “Well it was a series of happy coincidences really. I work for Abú Media, the company that makes Garraí Glas, and my colleague Ali had the idea to make a programme that would show people how to grow their own food. I loved chatting to him about the idea and the people they hoped to visit, and was fascinated by the subject – but I knew nothing about it and had no gardening experience bar planting a few nasturtiums in summer! It was supposed to be a show about a gardener going to visit people and teach them how to grow, but they hadn’t found the right presenter. The producer, Bríd Seoighe, chatted to me about screen testing for the job. My background was acting, I’d worked in theatre and on TV for a few years, but I really had no desire to be on camera again. However I find it very hard to resist a challenge (i.e. I’m terrible at saying no!) and a snowy March morning found me out in a garden shaking with nerves at the idea of being on tv again.” The sun always seems to be shining during filming, is that just a fluke? “A total fluke! The shoot dates are all booked far in advance as there’s a crew of five people on the road for 40 days, so every detail has to be organised. We were incredibly lucky in years one and two – last year was more difficult as it seemed to be cloudy all the time.” We’ve met some fascinating people on your travels; do any stand out for you in particular? “Wow, that’s a hard question, there are so many! In year one we went to Inis Oirr and one of the guests there was Pádraic Póil. In the final segment of that programme he brought out his mother’s old butter churn and gallons of cream and we stood outside in the sunshine making butter, looking out over the Atlantic. It was magic. Marcus Thornton in Galway was an inspiration; he is an incredibly passionate man who makes the gardening journey seem easy. This year there’s a lady called Nancy Murray in Cúil Aodha. She’s just lovely and though in her eighties is out working every day. Her attitude was an absolute tonic.” What was the most unusual method of growing food you’ve come across? “To be honest most methods of growing that I’ve seen have been the old fashioned kind; good soil and seaweed or manure! John Dolan’s garden in this series is amazing because he more or less carved it out of a wetland. He dug the wet areas deeper and used any soil he took out to raise the surrounding space. He uses a permaculture model and has made his corner of the world very beautiful indeed. Trevor Sargent was an inspiration too; he has such a small space in his Balbriggan back garden but manages to nurture it and use every inch productively.” What was the tastiest recipe you’ve tried? “Well I’m so lucky to have visited experts like Gaby Wieland over the years – I’ve been introduced to incredible foods! A few stand out – the Gorse Flower Wine we made with Gaby last summer was absolutely divine and I’ve bought a bell jar to make my own batch at home. It was like drinking nectar. The apple and onion chutney we made with Enda Ó Conghaile on Inis Oirr was fabulous. The thing I loved about this, apart from the fabulous taste, was that I got to use up apples from the tree that would normally go to waste, and my own onions went into it as well.” The latest series has included you creating your own vegetable garden in the garden of your new home. Was this a bit nerve wracking? “It was! I have a full time job and anyone who gardens knows how long it takes to get it into a condition you’re proud of. I started from scratch with no topsoil, no shelter from the wind and a cameraman recording it all! It’s a true Connamara garden, lots of rocks and not a lot of soil. We began filming two weeks after I moved into the house, which was crazy really. It became embarrassing as the summer went on because, of course, I was away so often filming the show that I didn’t spend as much time as I’d have liked in the garden. All’s well that ends well though. I won’t win any prizes but it provides me with enough food to be able to share with others. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in three years of Garraí Glas its patience; the garden will grow and develop over the years and I’m happy with that. “ What have you learnt from your travels? “Well, I suppose the wrong way, if there is one, is to ignore the soil. The thing I’ve taken from every single gardener is to feed the soil, not the plant. What have I learned? I’ve learned how to sow a seed, how to use seaweed and manure to increase fertility, how to rotate crops, how to create shelter to protect plants, how to avoid pests and diseases, how to use the produce I grow. That all sounds very simple but those are skills I didn’t have at all three years ago. I can now feed myself from a patch of ground – and that is an incredible thing.” What have you enjoyed the most about being involved with a gardening series about growing your own food? “I’ve really enjoyed finding a bit of myself I’d lost. I loved the garden when I was a child but had moved to a city for university and hadn’t touched soil since. Now I find it hard to resist being outside and resent all the things that keep me from it! It’s also been really lovely to meet so many people and be inspired by them. Without exception people have welcomed us into their homes and made us feel like our crew of five people wasn’t intruding at all. And let’s be honest – what a gig! I’ve spent three summers in other peoples’ back gardens, asking them questions about anything that interests me – and that’s called work. I feel very lucky.”

Online communication in recruiting Digital communication – what was the exception for many organisations until three months ago is now standard. Forced to. This “new” digital communication can be the perfect starting point for the future. For the future in recruiting. After all, the shortage of skilled workers has not been solved by and after Corona. Ralf Bruns, General Manager of the VUV Aachen and equipped with a lot of insight into the world of small and medium-sized companies, puts it as follows: “Since less and less manpower will be available due to demographic change, competition among companies will become continuously stronger. This competition will lead to a permanent pressure to optimise, also with regard to the recruiting process.” To change the recruiting process so easily – this is especially difficult for small companies. Well-established processes, little experience with digitalisation and analogue communication channels. For these reasons it makes sense to look at a few steps before the actual action plan: - How has communication behavior changed as a result of digitalisation? - How has (online) recruiting changed as a result? - How must criteria be formulated that offer SMEs both guidance and flexibility for a recruiting strategy? From communication … Over the years, communication has changed both through technical and social dimensions. The faster the technical progress, the stronger the change in communication behaviour. Due to decreasing communication costs and increasing communication possibilities, communication and its influence on interpersonal relationship patterns are becoming noticeably more important. This can be seen in an increase in interactivity: Communicators play a double role in behaviour, namely parallel sending and receiving. At the same time an increasing anonymity can be observed, which is accompanied by a decreasing sense of responsibility for content, but also by an overall increasing frequency of interaction. Communication becomes more individual. Participants slip into different roles and thus try out or expand their own communication behaviour. Our world is hypermedia in the sense of a connection between communication channels and sources of knowledge. It is almost normal for us to feel that it is up-to-date and global, where information, news, products and knowledge are available independent of time and space. The increase in complexity through media and modern communication technologies is reflected in more complex communication processes and vice versa. At the same time, however, there is also the possibility that modern communication channels and their combination (channel blending) contribute to a reduction in the complexity of communication processes. Almost every business process is confronted with these two opposing phenomena in the course of digitalisation. The better we balance them (and that is individual art!), the more we make use of digitalisation! … about the employer brand … There is a direct connection between the employer brand – perceived by the applicant as the sum of the company values and the approach in the recruiting process – and the success of the (external) recruitment of employees. The employer brand is created through a differentiated employer value proposition, a clear brand image, target group-oriented communication of the employer brand and the recruiting success as a measure. It is all the more important the more reputation is considered a highly relevant competitive factor. This results in requirements for SMEs in terms of - visibility via the company website; in terms of recruiting, also via the career website (or a transparently designed integration into the website), - a communication offer that is tailored to the target group (in line with their needs), - active and applicant-centred communication, - awareness of the impact of communication via touchpoints that are beyond the reach and control of the company, - the orientation of the organisation towards changed social and media communication processes. … to the online recruiting The multidimensionality of communication must also be reflected in the recruiting process. The factor of a company’s visibility through a presence in different media is reinforced by that of credibility. Analog (one-dimensional) communication is no longer perceived as sufficient. Rather, a greater variety of communication options is associated with a higher credibility of the company. Consequently, the communication of the employer brand via various media is a prerequisite both for the visibility of a company and for trust in its employer brand. While the knowledge of the importance of new, cross-media communication in recruiting on the employer side is certainly available, the operative implementation in practice is clearly different, especially in SMEs. Although 72% of (German) SMEs have their own Internet presence, 95% of websites have potential for optimisation. This includes, for example, optimisation for tablet and mobile phones, integration of social media and up-to-date content. While corporations and large companies can underscore their visibility as attractive employers with appropriate campaigns, benefit from their product brand and set up the organisational structure with additional positions and budgets for this changed process, SMEs are limited here due to their size and (brand) awareness. Criteria for a recruiting strategy must therefore be formulated in such a way that they offer SMEs both guidance and flexibility. Even if in the medium term personnel and financial investments in personnel communication and employer branding have to be made as an interface function of a company, short-term recommendations for action should be low-threshold and operable. Maturity levels in recruiting The causes and effects of the shortage of skilled workers in Germany are critically discussed. Here, external (political) efforts and internal measures are currently often diametrically opposed. While on the one hand, the immigration of skilled workers beyond the borders of the EU is being promoted, critics of these one-sided and, from an entrepreneurial point of view, passive efforts (“What is the federal government doing about the shortage of skilled workers?”) see the possibilities of what can be done within the organisations as not yet sufficiently used and exhausted. Rather, the problem is the SMEs in their waiting attitude – not a lack of manpower. Against the background of the question of whether skilled workers will have to be recruited more internationally in the future, the aspect of reducing the complexity of communication processes by means of tools takes on new significance once again. Transparent online application processes with a clear Candidate Journey can also be more easily transferred to foreign applicant groups through images and visual language. Once the Employer Value Proposition is defined and known in the company, the translation of the application process and the career website is reduced to the “technical” process. The step from interpersonal to international communication is thus considerably simplified. SMEs should take this into account in their current efforts to be “mature” also with regard to cross-border recruitment.

18 May Innovative health care takes more than just IT automation After a brief reprieve during the 1990s, healthcare again faces the vexing problem of rising healthcare costs with accompanying increases in premiums and out-of-pocket costs for consumers – who are expecting better outcomes. For some time now clinical information technology has been seen as the solution. Increasing numbers of organizations invest millions of dollars in clinical systems such as computerized physician order entry (CPOE), electronic medical records, clinician portals, wireless networks and medication administration systems. Although some anecdotal reports have proved these new solutions to be promising, others have reported on delayed implementations, low clinician adoption and the delivery of poorer outcomes. While the failure to implement a CPOE system at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles a few years back has been widely publicized, additional failed or lagging clinical IT implementations are not uncommon. Many clinical IT vendors report privately about their struggles to get systems up and running. What is surprising is the recently reported evidence of clinical IT delivering increased medical errors, a result intuitively not expected, and for many, quite disappointing. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Koppel, et. al reported how a CPOE system installed at an academic medical institution facilitated medication errors. The authors attributed many of the 22 types of errors to a variety of factors, including poor system design coupled with incompatible care delivery processes. These results highlight the importance of processes in the delivery of expected outcomes. It is well known that the application of best practices and evidence-based medicine (EBM) can significantly improve clinical and financial outcomes. Many informatics experts have long thought that the implementation of clinical IT systems would bring these best practices more effectively to the physician, thereby reducing unnecessary variation in care, accelerating the adoption of new, proven diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and decreasing costs associated with ineffectual or inappropriate care. What we are finding is that the results delivered by this new technology are falling far short of their promise. The failure of these clinical IT tools to deliver safer, more efficient care is due to many factors, yet all of them have origin in the concept inherent in the phrase “path innovation.” Although the theories and expertise that form the basis of path innovation are not new, their interaction with and subsequent impact on clinical IT is. To implement and effectively leverage clinical IT systems, a new approach in the use of experts is required. Path innovation integrates different subject matter experts in unique ways to leverage their expertise throughout the design and implementation of clinical IT systems. Even for systems already built, path innovation can be used to better leverage existing functionality in these clinical IT systems. It can help enhance outcomes while reducing the probability of unacceptable results such as system related medical and medication errors. Three keys to path innovation Path innovation depends on three key factors: (1) process improvement or re-engineering, (2) clinical guidelines, clinical paths and evidence-based medicine, and (3) IT system design. Although subject-matter experts exist in all these areas, it is unclear how well these experts historically worked together in the design and implementation of clinical IT systems. • Process improvement experts understand how processes impact outcomes and what analytical steps are needed to evaluate processes. They are able to suggest changes in processes and predict the potential improvements such changes will deliver. They often appear on the scene late in implementations if at all. Working within the environment as presented to them, they try to change existing processes without the advantage of being able to change the inputs (e.g., clinical path) or tools (e.g., clinical IT system and its functionality) of the processes. • Experts in clinical content understand what various clinical paths deliver as outcomes. They are able to link various interventions with probabilistic results. Clinical content experts develop clinical content focused solely on clinical issues, rarely incorporating IT system design or clinical process considerations in their work. This is evident in the effort invested by many organizations to modify existing guidelines to fit their newly implemented clinical IT systems. Their reported struggles are indicative of the difficulty of this type of work. • Designers of IT systems understand the flow of digital information within computer systems and the user interfaces that receive and deliver data to users. They are able to conceptualize how a data point can be stored or reformatted with other data points. Almost universally, these experts work and apply their expertise independently of each other. IT system designers develop clinical IT systems using specifications developed by product managers who attempt to bridge IT with healthcare. These product managers are rarely experts in clinical medicine or clinical processes. Form a path innovation team Path innovation requires the formation of a team of subject matter experts that apply their skills during an entire clinical IT system project. During the system design phase, clinical and process design experts share their understanding of their discipline with the IT system developer. During the implementation phase, the IT system designer and the clinical content expert act as consultants to the process redesigner to develop new processes that are both radically different from existing processes and that could only be implemented utilizing functionality made available by the new clinical IT system. In addition, the clinical content expert can use this functionality to conceive of clinical paths impossible without this digital healthcare capability. Although path innovation builds upon existing approaches, it reflects a new way of thinking and approaching problems. Instead of looking at how an existing process could be modified, path innovation requires the birth of brand new processes, formerly impossible in the institution before the installation of the new clinical IT system. To accomplish this, organizations need to identify subject-matter experts who are also able to achieve a basic understanding of the disciplines of their expert colleagues. Then together, these experts work to create new processes that incorporate the needs of the institution with the promise of new IT systems and clinical content. An expert in clinical processes once said, “every system is perfectly designed to achieve exactly the results it gets.” Assuming this to be true, only through the creation of truly new systems (e.g., processes) using path innovation can we expect to impact results to achieve the safer and higher quality healthcare that we all desire.

A team of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers and neurosurgeons has received $13.48 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop implantable ultrasound and other devices that could revolutionize care for people suffering from spinal cord injuries. The results could benefit thousands of U.S. service members and civilians who sustain spinal cord injuries every year. The electronic device will be the size and flexibility of a small Band-Aid and will use high-resolution ultrasound technology, as well as miniaturized electrodes, to help doctors monitor and treat the changes in blood flow and prevent tissue death that occur immediately after a traumatic injury to the spinal cord. The research program, supported by DARPA’s Bridging the Gap program, will draw from the clinical expertise and ingenuity of its co-leaders, Nicholas Theodore, professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering, and Amir Manbachi, assistant professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering, to bring the devices from concept to human use within an ambitious five-year timeline. The team also includes external collaborators, such as the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Columbia University, and Sonic Concepts, Inc., as well as various departments within Johns Hopkins University, including the departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Biomedical Engineering, Radiology, Anesthesiology, and Critical Care. Experts at the Berman Institute for Bioethics at the Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health also are involved. Joshua Doloff, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Nitish Thakor, professor of biomedical engineering, are two Hopkins co-investigators supporting Manbachi’s engineering deliverables on this award. Assistant professors Jennifer Son and Javad Azadi are collaborating with biomedical engineers and neurosurgeons to push the boundaries of what is currently detectable with ultrasound. “There are few places taking a close look at how engineering approaches could improve the treatment of spinal cord injuries. I think there are tremendous opportunities here,” says Theodore, who worked for more than 10 years as a neurosurgeon in the U.S. Navy, treating soldiers and sailors with spinal cord injuries. “Johns Hopkins’ world-class biomedical engineers work closely with physicians and surgeons to solve problems that have traditionally been thought of as impossible.” Though the primary mission of the team is to develop devices that can be deployed to service members on military fronts, the researchers aim to make the technology available to benefit the approximately 17,000 civilians who experience spinal cord injuries in the U.S. every year. “The main factors that make a device useable in a war theatre are size and ease of application in low-resource settings—both of which can only improve our clinical approaches as well,” says Theodore. The project’s strategy is to target the disruption in blood flow that occurs alongside injury to the spinal cord. By utilizing ultrasound and electrical technology to image and stimulate the blood vessels and tissue at the site of spinal cord injury, as well as controlling spinal fluid dynamics, the delivery of oxygen and nutrients can be optimized. This approach could prevent additional damage to the spinal cord, which can lead to increased inflammation, pain, and worsening paralysis. “There are very few treatment options available to minimize the damage initially—for example, increasing the patient’s blood pressure; however, we still need to understand, in real-time, how the body reacts to these treatments,” says Manbachi. “When Dr. Theodore described this challenge to me for the first time four years ago, as an acoustic engineer, I immediately thought to use ultrasound as a tool to monitor and stimulate these damaged tissues.” To accomplish this, the electronic devices will use ultrasound “pulse echoes”—similar to the radar submarines use to navigate—as well as electrical stimulation, to monitor and treat the previously unobservable tiny blood vessels and surrounding tissue at and around the spinal cord injury site. “This will be a real engineering feat,” says Manbachi. “Typical ultrasound transducers are bulky and designed to gather images of larger structures. We want to take this technology and shrink it for use on structures the size of a pinky finger, while still capturing clear ultrasound images of the spinal cord microvasculature.” Doloff, who specializes in immunoengineering and regenerative medicine, will assist in developing the packaging of the implantable ultrasound device system, taking into account tissue and immune biocompatibility. His team will also aid in assessing wound healing and tissue response after implantation. Thakor, who specializes in neuroengineering and imaging and medical devices, will assist in setting up the animal model, and will work to stimulate the neural tissue and enhance blood flow to the injured areas. Images derived from the team’s devices will allow clinicians to observe how blood is flowing to the injury site. This can give them valuable information on how much oxygen, nutrients, and medication are reaching the area. The data will allow physicians to respond to their patient’s condition in real-time by administering medications or possibly electrical or ultrasound stimulation to improve blood flow, stop inflammation, offer pain relief, and neuroprotective therapies to stop damage to the injured tissue. The sound waves generated by these implantable devices can also be used to stimulate healing in the area. “Similar to how the sun’s rays can be focused by a magnifying glass, therapeutic sound waves from the device can, in theory, be focused to promote blood flow at the injury site to promote healing,” says Manbachi. The five-year timeline to bring a completely new technology to animal studies, FDA regulatory approvals, and human trials will push the limits of the typical pace of innovation that may otherwise take decades. “It is an extraordinary team effort to bring together the smartest engineers and neurosurgeons to solve this problem,” says Theodore. “There are very few places in the world that are able to pull together the resources we have for this project.” The team expects the initial technologies to be used experimentally and clinically to treat acute spinal cord injury. The researchers’ ultimate goal, however, is to develop more advanced versions applicable for patients suffering from chronic spinal cord injury. “This research will lead to further advancements in the field of implantable systems for therapeutic diagnosis and intervention,” said Doloff. “It is our hope that such platform technology might, in the future, be adapted to aid other medical applications as well.” Larry Nagahara, associate dean for research at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, says the project came out of initial discussions of patient need and institutional capabilities as early as 2018. “Johns Hopkins’ world-class research and technologies have provided immense opportunities to contribute to public health through collaborative research efforts with academic, industry, and government partners,” Nagahara says. “Building a strong relationship with DARPA is of utmost importance to WSE and to Johns Hopkins.”

Usually, most mature trees need to be pruned every 3-5 years, while a younger tree will need it every 2-3 years. A fruit tree should be pruned annually, while some evergreens can last for many years without needing a single cut. Our certified arborist will help you determine the best schedule for your trees. Tree pruning is more than just aesthetic. You should plan to prune the trees in your house every 3 to 5 years (1 to 2 years if the trees are still young) to avoid problems with the roof, plumbing, and electrical systems. Location, species and even climatic changes influence the frequency of trimming, so it is important to consider these factors. In most cases, the ideal is to prune a tree every three or five years. For others, it's every two years. That said, this big window doesn't even apply to all trees, some need more attention and some need less. I wish there was an easy answer, but the answer will vary based on many criteria. Each species of tree grows at different rates and has different implications for how often they will need to be pruned. Among the shade trees, there are trees that can be trimmed every two years. There are also some who can spend seven years or more between pruning. Most of the time, evergreens will need little or very infrequent pruning if planted in the right place. Each tree grows at a different rate, which means that the pruning time can vary a little. It is usually best to prune every 3 to 5 years. How often should you prune trees? Young trees should be inspected and pruned every 1-5 years. Mature trees can benefit from an annual inspection with a five to 10 year pruning and pruning cycle. Fruit trees may need to be pruned annually. The best way to answer how often trees are pruned is to find a tree service that employs certified arborists. Without tree pruning, you may notice that your trees don't grow properly, start to look unhealthy, or that their branches begin to pose a threat to you, your family, and your property. Bushor's Tree Surgeons has been providing exceptional tree services in Jacksonville, Florida and St. If about 30% of its foliage has been removed in a year, either by pruning or storm damage, you should not prune that tree any more. However, tree pruning is an art form in itself, so a complete guide to tree pruning could fill several volumes. Ron's Tree Service Certified Arborist can help you determine how often an individual tree should be pruned. Save tree care pruning when the tree is actively growing in early spring or completely dormant in the winter months. Pruning trees is essential to ensure their long-term growth and overall health, and in many cases, trees will splinter and help with heavy work. However, most mature trees work in a 3-5 year cycle, while younger trees are pruned more frequently (usually every 2 or 3 years). Maintaining trees is your responsibility and neglecting this duty can lead to serious consequences including injury and, in some cases, death. Thank you for pointing out that trees should be pruned at different rates depending on the type of tree and how old it is. She emphasizes that qualified tree care specialists are pruning trees every day throughout the year without many detrimental effects. Thinning the branches on the tops of trees can reduce the weight of its crown and decrease the weight of a tree.

“I had stepped into a very different world. Only much later did people tell me they didn’t expect me to stay,” she writes at the beginning of a book that draws on her 40 years’ work with the Wiradjuri people. A senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Sydney, Gaynor Macdonald has distilled her research into a long manuscript titled Promises and Lies: Wiradjuri Experiences of Australian Modernity and Citizenship. The book, which covers the Wiradjuri since colonisation, is “an historicised analysis of the present – an analysis of contemporary issues explored by looking at their past” rather than a history, she said in an interview with the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC). Macdonald continues in her introduction: “Much of the leadership behind Aboriginal advances in Sydney through the 1970s – important initiatives with national influence: the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Aboriginal Children’s Service and the Murawina Aboriginal Pre-school – involved Wiradjuri people who had grown up on Erambie.” But she saw firsthand how optimism gave way to disillusion in the following decade. In 1990 her friend Monk asked her to visit him to say goodbye before she went overseas. He had nothing to live for any more and had decided to drink himself to death. “The setbacks of the 1980s and 1990s were yet another wave in a history of alternating trauma and energy. This book seeks to shed light on an insidious historical pattern,” she writes. Macdonald’s career began with an undergraduate degree at Latrobe University and her first field work was in the Torres Strait Islands, where she “was struck by the way in which local white people talked about the islanders as if they had lost all their traditions. They were seen by locals as just poor blacks living on these remote islands. “In a short time I learnt so much about their lives, their genealogies, their marriages and all kinds of things. They were what an anthropologist might call traditional people, but then there were trappings like Christianity. “I thought, there’s two different worlds here – what the white fellas thought was going on and how the Islanders were actually living and thinking about themselves. I started asking myself the question, so what’s going on in NSW, my own state, where cultural differences were also denied?” Macdonald has mostly worked on Wiradjuri country since then, based at times in Cowra and travelling across the vast area that is home to about 12,000 Wiradjuri people. The book she has just completed is based on her own field work, settlers’ diaries and letters, the work of early anthropologists and more recent historians. Although she has published many articles about aspects of Wiradjuri experience, this work spans the entire 200-plus years of their colonisation. A separate work examines life before that tumultuous event. “These are big complex stories,” she said. “If you write parts of stories they become decontexualised and that’s not helpful for the general reader and it’s not helpful for Aboriginal readers either. “So I wanted to situate the Wiradjuri story within British colonialism, within the story of modernity, the culture of the British that they brought to Australia, and show how that has impacted on the lives of Wiradjuri people, but also how they responded. “I have been working with people in central NSW who, when I started my fieldwork, were believed not to be real Aborigines, who were believed not to exist, even by anthropologists. There was still the idea that Aboriginal people were exotic people who only lived in remote Australia.” Macdonald wants to show how the Wiradjuri people’s “creative resistance to being turned into white fellas” has sustained their sense of themselves as Aboriginal through colonisation, massacres, smallpox, working for pastoralists, living on reserves and in towns, management by the NSW Aboriginal Protection Board, land rights struggles, and so on. She asks: “Why did they – even with this history of engagement with white fellas for so long, and this ability to control their own lives and meaning – start to experience so much unbelievable stress from the 1980s, as was happening in the rest of Australia?” That led her to examine the impact of what have been seen as beneficial policies, such as self-determination, on people’s daily lives and to realise “this was crippling them in a way that no earlier policies had ever done”. Macdonald claims there has never been a study of the Aboriginal economy. Calling people hunters and gatherers, as many anthropologists have, assumes they don’t have an economic system and is “primitivising”, she said. Understanding the Wiradjuri economic system is necessary to appreciate their political and social values as well as their capacity to adapt over time. Some of her work is a critique of anthropology as romanticising and racist. “This is going to leave me open to a lot of criticism but that’s fine. I’m old enough in my career to be a bit braver than I was when I was younger,” she said. She invited Professor Sylvie Poirier, an eminent Canadian anthropologist at Laval University in Quebec who has also worked with the Kukatja people of the Australian Western Desert, to review her manuscript. She did not know Poirier well but admired her work and knew that she understood the lives of rural and urban Indigenous people. Poirier read the draft manuscript and wrote an “outstanding" detailed review, which the two discussed during her week in Sydney. Poirier presented her commentary in conversation with Macdonald at a 90-minute public event chaired by Professor Emeritus Diane Austin-Broos. Macdonald invited colleagues and Wiradjuri representatives to listen and join the conversation. Poirier also gave a Sydney Ideas lecture on “Engaged anthropology, collaborative research and the Atikamekw First Nation” and with Macdonald conducted a higher degree masterclass on “Engaged Research: working collaboratively with First Nations people”. The Ultimate Peer Review was “one of the most important experiences of my academic career”, Macdonald wrote in her report to SSSHARC. Throughout her respectful review, Poirier asked questions and pushed her to think more about aspects of her work, especially the Wiradjuri ontology or system of relationships. She suggested, for example, expanding the argument that “demand sharing” is central to their allocative economy to include other forms of reciprocity – sharing of ritual knowledge, and exchanges with ancestors and the land. Macdonald said the ontological dimension of Wiradjuri people’s lives was central to her work and this was valuable advice. “A lot of my work is about personhood, how people think about themselves as persons within a cultural context, and how something like a colonial situation puts a great deal of pressure on people’s ability to be the person they know they should be. “Sylvie was right that I could have brought it out more, and I have in a lot of the rewriting.” At the time of the Ultimate Peer Review, Macdonald was caring full-time for her husband, who had advanced dementia and died at home in November 2018. Finding there was nobody to teach her how to look after him, she set up a website called Dementia Reframed. She gives advice and workshops for carers as well as occasional seminars at the university. The two parts of her work fit together because of her interest in personhood. “For me dementia is always a relationship. There is no way you can think about living with dementia from an individualistic point of view because somebody with dementia will always share their lives with another person, but that person is completely ignored in contemporary support structures.” With her commitment to engaged research, she said she has been fortunate to have support from well-educated, critical-thinking Wiradjuri people. Asked if there was any criticism of her as a white woman writing Wiradjuri history, she said: “This is my book, my story about what I’ve learnt about them and I make that very clear. I am not wanting to speak on behalf of Wiradjuri people. But in a sense, I am trying to encourage them. “They might not all like me writing it but I hope they will want to draw on it. Sometimes you write because you want to challenge other people. If they want to write their own story and it contradicts mine, then a lot of growth and learning will come out of that.” Her ultimate aim is for a “decolonised anthropology” that supports decolonisation. She writes: “Recognition must start with the Wiradjuri as a sovereign people, with the right to their own law; to treaties that govern the use of their country; and to restitution of a healthy, viable economy.”

Less than a decade ago, an automobile having an engine that pumped out 300 horsepower was all it took to earn the moniker of muscle car, along with a certain level of respect on the road. Anything above 500 hp was bonkers, reserved for the likes of McLaren's F1 supercar. Then electric vehicles, Teslas foremost among them, burst out of their city-car-chrysalis. They started dominating the power wars, drag strips, and races like the Pikes Peak Hill Climb—VW smashed the record with the all-electric ID R this year. But engineers haven't written off the internal combustion engine just yet. The team at Aston Martin has released details on the V12 engine that will breathe life into its upcoming, $3 million Valkyrie hypercar, and the gleaming maze of metal is a beautiful beast. The 6.5-liter V12 will produce 1,000 horsepower (because excess) and revs to 11,100 rpm. Putting this overall insanity aside, what's remarkable about such figures is that Aston's engineers hit them without resorting to turbochargers. The automaker says it recognizes that turbos offer a ton of benefits, but wanted “an internal combustion engine that sits at the absolute pinnacle for performance, excitement, and emotion,” which it could only get through natural aspiration. And while turbochargers do boost performance, even the very best ones introduce a little lag time before they get fully spooled up pumping air into the cylinders. For the Valkyrie, that was unacceptable. Do the math, and the engine develops 153.8 horsepower per liter, smashing the gold standard of 100 hp per liter for a naturally aspirated engine that was so remarkable when the McLaren F1 passed it in 1992. Sure, the ridiculously powerful Bugatti Chiron develops 1,500 horsepower from its W16 engine, but it uses four turbos to do it. While you should admire the simple elegance of the batteries and motors that power electrics, you can't deny the intricate, terrible beauty of the internal combustion engine. Just consider the engineering brilliance needed to harness hundreds of explosions every second, moving air into the combustion chambers and out of the exhaust. Not convinced? Spend a moment gawking at the photos above. To make this happen, Aston Martin tapped famed engine builder Cosworth for its Formula 1 expertise, particularly for help keeping the engine to a relatively trim 454 pounds. Because the power plant is a structural element of the car (it's the only thing joining the front wheels to the back), it had to be strong at the same time. That explains the titanium connecting rods. The crankshaft is milled from a solid steel bar in a process that takes six months, alternating heat treatments for strengthening, and machining to remove excess material. In the end, 80 percent of the original bar has disappeared. The Valkyrie itself is designed by Adrian Newey, better known as an F1 guru now working for Red Bull's racing team. (The car is a collaboration between the two companies.) It’s road legal, but very much meant for the track, with a super low chin splitter at the front, high wheel arches crowding a small glass cockpit, and a giant active rear spoiler. Aston Martin may insist on avoiding turbochargers, but it’s not against all tech. The insane performance figures of this engine, the automaker says, may still be boosted further by a battery hybrid system, which it's not yet ready to discuss. That means that even here, at the pinnacle of the internal combustion engine’s development, the electric motor has a role in the future.

Supplementary MaterialsSupplemental Info 1: Table S1. sediment elutriates. Bad control (CN), Positive control (CP), and elutriates from your Humber drain (HD), Humber Estuary (HE), Old Tutaekuri Estuary (OE) and Old Tutaekuri riverbed (OR)sediments. Humber drain ( 0.01) Old Tutaekuri Riverbed ( 0.001). peerj-06-4936-s004.png (74K) DOI:?10.7717/peerj.4936/supp-4 Supplemental Information 5: Chemistry from estuarine sites. Analytical results from elutriates prepared from your Humber Estuary, the Old Tutaekuri Estuary and Waitangi Estuary samples. All ideals are reported in mg L?1. peerj-06-4936-s005.pdf (67K) DOI:?10.7717/peerj.4936/supp-5 Supplemental Info 6: Sediment chemistry Salinomycin reversible enzyme inhibition with TOC normalization. peerj-06-4936-s006.xlsx (18K) DOI:?10.7717/peerj.4936/supp-6 Supplemental Info 7: Elutriates chemistry from your tributary sites. Trace elements and Salinomycin reversible enzyme inhibition polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons analyzed for the Humber drain and the Old Tutaekuri riverbed samples. All ideals are reported in mg L?1. peerj-06-4936-s007.pdf (66K) DOI:?10.7717/peerj.4936/supp-7 Supplemental Information 8: Comet assay natural data. peerj-06-4936-s008.csv (81K) DOI:?10.7717/peerj.4936/supp-8 Supplemental Information 9: Sediment and elutriates natural data. peerj-06-4936-s009.xlsx (20K) DOI:?10.7717/peerj.4936/supp-9 Data Availability StatementThe following information was supplied regarding data availability: The natural data are provided in the Supplemental Documents. Abstract Urban estuarine sediments are sinks to a range of pollutants of anthropogenic source, and a key challenge is definitely to characterize the risk of these compounds to receiving Salinomycin reversible enzyme inhibition environments. In this study, the toxicity of urban estuarine sediments was tested using acute and chronic bioassays in the benthic harpacticoid sp., and in the planktonic calanoid sp. However, results from one from the estuary sites weren’t dissimilar to those in the tributaries Salinomycin reversible enzyme inhibition sites considerably, suggesting that chemical substances other than track metals, polycyclic aromatic ammonia and hydrocarbons could be the causative stressors. Sediment elutriate examples had significant results on reproductive endpoints in sp. (M.P. Charry et al. 2018, unpublished data) is normally a benthic harpacticoid copepod, indigenous to New Zealand seaside areas. Its geographic range expands from silty sediments in the Houhora Harbour (North Isle), to silty muddy sediments in Portobello Bay in the Otago Harbour (South Isle). (Bayly, 1963) is normally a pelagic types of calanoid copepod typically within New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania (McKinnon & Arnott, 1985). is normally tolerant to salinity fluctuations extremely, and can distribute from freshwater lakes, estuaries and coastal areas, to open up waters (Bayly, 1965; Hall & Uses up, 2002). Both types were collected, grown up and isolated in monocultures within an artificial sodium drinking water reticulation program, with controlled heat range (20 C), salinity (30 ppt), light:dark photoperiod Salinomycin reversible enzyme inhibition (12:12 h), light strength (10C15 mol) and dissolved air ( 7 mg L?1), following culturing strategies described in Stringer et al. (2012), Chandler & Green (1996) and ISO (2015). Eating requirements were improved for sp. and had been fed two times per week using a blended algae diet plan of 2 106 and 5 105 cells mL?1 of respectively. The three types of microalgae had been grown up in F2 mass media at Cawthron Institute. Sediment toxicity check Entire sediment bioassays had been conducted following strategies defined by Chandler & Green (1996), with an adjustment for sp. (Stringer et al., 2014). The assay was executed over 2 weeks on the semi-static system, using a 14/10 light/dark photoperiod, heat range 20 2 C, drinking water salinity Rabbit Polyclonal to 5-HT-6 of 30 1 ppt, pH 8 0.2 and Perform 7 mg L?1. For every treatment there have been four replicates. Three replicates had been used for biological analysis, and one replicate for physicochemical analyses. Test chambers consisted of 50 mL borosilicate Erlenmeyers, with one diameter apertures in the neck of the flask, covered having a 55 l nylon mesh. These openings allowed for continuous water blood circulation. Each flask contained 10 g of sediment, 15 adult males and 15 non-gravid females, previously isolated via glass pipette. Copepods were fed every third day time with 2 106 cells mL?1 of an algae mix of neonates ( 12 h old). Elutriates were prepared following ASTM E (2014) recommendations. Briefly, sediments were refrigerated over 24 h, while wet and dry.

There have been a number of important developments of direct relevance to synthetic biology research in the UK including: - the publication of ‘a synthetic biology roadmap for the UK’ which contained key recommendations to support and develop the UK research and industrial communities - the establishment of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council (bringing together stakeholders from government, funding agencies, academia and industry) - an announcement of a government capital investment of £50 million in synthetic biology in the 2012 Autumn Statement. To implement the roadmap recommendations, deliver on the investment from government and taking heed of the advice from the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council, the Research Councils came together to produce the business case for the Synthetic Biology for Growth Programme (SBfG). To develop the strategy for the delivery/implementation of the capital monies through the SBfG programme, the RCUK Synthetic Biology Working Group was established, under the direction of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). This group meets regularly and comprises representatives from: - the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - the Medical Research Council (MRC) - the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) - observers from Innovate UK and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). In total, the SBfG Programme represents investments of £102 million: - £50 million Autumn Statement capital - £1.37 million capital from BBSRC - £50.5 million resource funding provided for six SBRCs by BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC. The SBfG Programme consists of four streams of investment. Multidisciplinary Synthetic Biology Research Centres (SBRCs) Six SBRCs, representing a total investment of £70.5 million, have been allocated funding over five years to boost national synthetic biology research capacity and ensure that there is diverse expertise to stimulate innovation in this area. Led by: Professor Dek Woolfson, University of Bristol BrisSynBio aims to develop new techniques, technologies and reagents that will allow biologically-based products to be made easily, quickly and cheaply, and in sufficient quantities to make them useful. Researchers hope to: - develop new antibiotics - assemble virus-like particles to present new routes to vaccines - build simple cells from scratch - use red blood cells to deliver complex molecules like anti-cancer drugs directly to tumours - reprogram bacteria to perform useful tasks like sensing environmental pollutants. Led by: Professor Nigel Minton, The University of Nottingham SBRC Nottingham will provide sustainable routes to important chemicals that modern society needs. They aim to use synthetic biology to engineer bacteria to convert gases that are all around us – such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) – into more desirable and useful molecules, reducing our reliance on petrochemicals. Led by: Professor David Baulcombe and Dr Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge Professor Dale Sanders and Professor Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre The OpenPlant initiative will establish internationally-linked DNA registries for sharing information about plant specific parts and simple testbeds. The development and exchange of new foundational tools and parts will directly contribute to the engineering of new traits in plants. OpenPlant will also provide a forum for technical exchange and wider discussion of the potential impact of plant synthetic biology on conservation and sustainability. UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology Led by: Professor Susan Rosser, The University of Edinburgh This Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology will build in-house expertise in synthetic biology in mammalian systems for use in areas such as: - the pharmaceutical and drug testing industries - biosensing cell lines for diagnostics - novel therapeutics - production of protein-based drugs, for example antibodies - programming stem cell development for regenerative medicine applications. Led by: Professor Nigel Scrutton, The University of Manchester SYNBIOCHEM will bring scientists together to design and engineer biological parts, devices and systems for sustainable fine and speciality chemicals production. This includes new products and intermediates for drug development, agricultural chemicals and new materials for sustainable manufacturing. Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre (WISB) Led by: Professor John McCarthy, The University of Warwick WISB will utilise state-of-the-art principles of biosystems design and engineering. This is in order to develop: - next-generation synthetic biology tools - biosynthetic pathways that generate valuable bioactives - synthetic communities of microbes that could help improve the environment as well as skin and gut health - plants with enhanced resistance to stress and pathogens. Two phases of strategic capital investments in DNA synthesis totalling £18 million were made to: - bring academic expertise to bear on bottlenecks in DNA synthesis - build bridges between academia and synthetic biology companies - help to nurture the UK’s growing synthetic biology industry - boost UK’s capability in the area to help create jobs and drive economic growth. First phase of investment Edinburgh Genome Foundry Led by: Professor Susan Rosser, The University of Edinburgh The Edinburgh Genome Foundry will provide end-to-end design, construction and validation of large gene constructs (up to 1Mbp) for academia and industry, based on the automation of technologies. A DNA synthesis and construction foundry for synthetic biology Led by: Professor Paul Freemont, Imperial College London The Imperial Foundry will develop an experimental platform to enable a standardised framework for DNA synthesis, gene and genome assembly and assembly verification. Led by: Professor Anthon Hall, University of Liverpool The Liverpool GeneMill will develop a high throughput, automated workflow for synthesising genes and DNA parts in bacteria, fungus, plant and mammalian cells. Synthetic Biology Facility Led by: Professor Hugh Pelham, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Up to £2 million to invest in a robotic platform to automate assembly of short DNA fragments into expressible genes. This includes the picking, growth and analysis of DNA from bacterial colonies. DNA Synthesis at the Norwich Research Park Led by: Dr Daniel Swan (previously Professor Mario Caccamo), Earlham Institute The DNA synthesis facility at the Norwich Research Park will support the design, generation and exploitation of high-value compounds and bioactives obtained from plants and microbes. Second phase of investment Software Systems for Imperial College DNA Foundry Led by: Professor Richard Kitney, Imperial College London This will establish a platform to support a suite of synthetic biology software tools, allowing the seamless integration of hardware, management and analysis of generated data. This is for the purpose of building a professional DNA synthesis workflow. Assay Development Platforms Led by: Professor Susan Rosser, involving Edinburgh and Liverpool universities. To enable the rapid design and synthesis of multiple varied DNA circuits (for example, metabolic pathways, biosensors, counting or memory devices) and interrogate the utility of these circuits within host cell chassis via an array of assays including: - growth and fermentation characteristics - cell health - fluorescent reporters - ribonucleic acid (RNA) seq - metabolite profiling. Building national hardware and software infrastructure for UK DNA Foundries Led by: Dr Patrick Yizhi Cai, involving Edinburgh and Cambridge universities This proposal seeks to enhance the national capacity of synthetic DNA design and manufacture, and to ensure the UK is internationally competitive and increase both national and international collaboration. It brings together three strong software teams across the UK to develop national hardwired and software infrastructure for UK DNA Foundries. Next Generation DNA Synthesis Led by: Professor Tom Brown, involving Oxford, Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, and Birmingham universities Ever larger pieces of DNA, such as genes and gene clusters, are required for Synthetic Biology, and making these can be a tedious and slow process. In this project they will analyse DNA made by modern ultra-high throughput chemical methods and optimise the process. They will also explore new ways to make large pieces of DNA. Better training for students Two capital investments of £1 million each were made to the two BBSRC and EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) in synthetic biology at Oxford/Bristol/Warwick, and UCL. The funding will provide equipment to enhance student training at the CDTs, which are world-leading training environments for students of synthetic biology. The BBSRC and EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Synthetic Biology Bristol, Oxford and Warwick universities Up to £1 million capital funding to enhance this CDT, including a dedicated synthetic biology laboratory in Oxford accessible to all students throughout their PhD and specialist facilities in Warwick and Bristol. This will increase the breadth and depth of synthetic biology training by exposing students to a wide range of cutting-edge capabilities. Sustaining world-class training and research innovation in synthetic biology-based biomanufacture University College London (UCL) Up to £1 million in capital funding for the EPSRC CDT in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership at UCL for the acquisition of state-of-the-art bioprocess and analytical equipment and establishment of dedicated training laboratories. This will stimulate development of new training activities which will be fully integrated within the IDC training programme. Synthetic Biology Seed Fund £10 million capital funding has been made available for investment through the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund mechanism (previously the Rainbow Seed Fund, managed by Midven). This fund is to support synthetic biology start-up companies and ‘pre-companies’ and was launched in November 2013.

Boundaries determine the extent of any land or buildings you own. They are, in simple terms, the line which separates your property from that of your neighbours. They may take the form of a wall, a fence, a hedge, a piece of barbed wire or even some other less noticeable feature, such as the edging of a driveway, or an invisible line between two features such as posts or the corner of a building. So, what happens where you need to cross a boundary line to maintain or repair your property, or even to read your gas and electricity meters? A recent court case considered this issue and highlights the importance of taking legal advice. Jonathan Watts, property expert with Forrester Sylvester Mackett explains more. ‘The case of Dickinson v Cassillas got the newspapers very excited. Two neighbours locked in a 15-year battle about rights of access and the significance of a boundary, with legal costs running at more than £200,000. It seemed incredible that a dispute which started with one neighbour occasionally walking along the driveway of another to check on the condition of their property and to take meter readings could have got so out of hand. But it did, and lessons need to be learned’, says Jonathan. Establishing your boundaries When you buy a property, you need to find out where your boundaries are. Your solicitor can help you do this by looking at the paperwork for the property, including any plans, and asking you to compare them with what the property looks like on the ground. Your solicitor will also ask the seller to complete a property information form, which details their understanding of where the boundaries are, whether they are owned outright or shared with someone else, who has assumed responsibility for their maintenance and repair, whether any boundaries have been moved, and, importantly, whether there is (or ever has been) any sort of boundary dispute. If a discrepancy arises between where the paperwork says the boundaries are, and where the boundaries appear to be, your solicitor will investigate this. It may be, for example, that over the years the seller has been looking after a plot of land adjoining their property that no one else seems to want. As a result, they may have moved a fence to incorporate the land into their garden. If this has happened, they will need to take steps to either have their right to claim the land as their own (and to sell it on to you) recognised in law, or arrange for an insurance policy to be taken out to protect you against the risk of that land being taken away from you at some point in the future if the true owner tries to claim it back. Establishing your rights When the court was asked to determine the dispute in Dickinson v Cassillas, it did so by looking at the various rights that were granted to the neighbours when their properties were originally transferred from the developer. By looking at the original transfers, and how the properties were ultimately constructed, the court concluded that Mrs Cassillas did have the right to cross the boundary line and enter onto her neighbour’s land to check the condition of her property, carry out any necessary maintenance or repairs, and read her gas and electricity meters. Your solicitor can help you to ascertain your rights to enter your neighbour’s land by carrying out a similar review. This is something they will do as part of the purchase process, but is also something they can look at again if a dispute about entitlement arises. What if my property details are registered with the Land Registry? People often assume that if their property details are registered with the Land Registry, that the Land Registry title plan will show the exact line of the boundary. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. The Land Registry title plan only gives a general indication of where the boundaries for a property are. The Land Registry’s register of title for a property also often fails to mention anything about responsibility for maintenance and repair. The original transfer and paperwork for the property, together with earlier transfer documents, known collectively as the title deeds, may help to provide more clarification, as can inspecting the property in person and speaking with previous owners. Dealing with disputes The steps you should take to deal with a boundary dispute depend on what the dispute is about. However, most issues concerning boundaries can be resolved by talking the matter through with your neighbour, either directly if you remain on friendly terms or with the help of a solicitor if the relationship has soured. Sometimes, involving an independent mediator can also help. Where a boundary dispute is resolved amicably, it is important to document the terms on which resolution has been reached. This ensures that everybody is clear about how matters should be handled going forward, and provides proof of what was agreed just in case problems arise again. It will also help to reassure a potential purchaser in the event you decide to sell. Where a dispute about the location of a boundary is resolved, your neighbour should be asked to consent to details of the agreed boundary line being noted by the Land Registry. This is so that similar disputes can be avoided in the future by subsequent owners. General boundary matters, such as replacing a fence or rebuilding a wall, ought to be discussed with your neighbours before work starts.