Year : 2012 | Volume : 21 | Issue : 1 | Page : 22--31
Impact of psychiatric education and training on attitude of medical students towards mentally ill: A comparative analysis
Tarun Yadav1, Kishore Arya1, Dinesh Kataria1, Yatan Pal Singh Balhara2,
1 Department of Psychiatry and De addiction, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Smt SK Hospital, New Delhi, India
2 National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India
Yatan Pal Singh Balhara
Department of Psychiatry, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi
Background: A number of studies from the western world have explored the negative beliefs held by individuals towards people with mental illness. The knowledge of attitude and awareness of undergraduate medical students towards psychiatry, mental health and mental disorders is of utmost importance. Objective: The current study aims at assessment of attitudes of medical students towards mental illness and mentally ill. Materials and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional survey design. The instruments used included Beliefs toward Mental Illness (BMI) scale, Attitudes to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ). ANOVA was carried out to compare the in between group differences for the four study groups. Additionally Bonferroni correction was used to conduct the post hoc analysis. Results: The interns were significantly more likely to agree with the statement that the mental disorders are recurrent; less likely to be of thought that the behavior of people with mental disorders is unpredictable; more likely to disagree with the fact that diagnosis of depression as described in the case vignette was going to damage the career of the individual; more likely to agree with the option of inviting a depressed person to a party; more likely to believe in fact that mentally ill individuals are more likely to be criminals as compared to medical students in different professional years. Conclusions: Adequate modifications to existing medical curriculum would help improve attitude of medical students towards mentally ill.
Yadav T, Arya K, Kataria D, Balhara YS. Impact of psychiatric education and training on attitude of medical students towards mentally ill: A comparative analysis.Ind Psychiatry J 2012;21:22-31
Yadav T, Arya K, Kataria D, Balhara YS. Impact of psychiatric education and training on attitude of medical students towards mentally ill: A comparative analysis. Ind Psychiatry J [serial online] 2012 [cited 2019 Jul 17 ];21:22-31
Available from: http://www.industrialpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2012/21/1/22/110944
A number of studies from the western world have explored the negative beliefs held by individuals towards people with mental illness. [1],[2],[3] There is little work in non-western societies on psychiatric stigma. The need to study the issue assumes a greater significance in these societies as these have been dominated by non-western medical traditions. In most societies some supernatural, religious, moralistic, and magical approaches to illness and behavior exist. This can complicate the perception of mental disorders even further. Stigmatization of people with mental disorder not only affects the way people seek help individually. It also has enormous implications on the development of policy at a national level.
India, like most developing countries, has limited resources for health sector. The knowledge of the attitude and awareness of the undergraduate medical students towards psychiatry, mental health and mental disorders is of utmost importance. This is because these individuals are going to be involved in the care of the patients either directly or indirectly during the later years of their careers.
People tend to have strong beliefs about the mentally ill. Many of these concepts are based on prevailing local systems of belief. [4] These attitudes have important implications for planning of mental health policy and mental health program for the country. [5] Many people have prejudiced attitudes towards mentally ill individuals. Social stigma and negative attitudes can affect the quality of life for people with mental illness. There may be various reasons for this negative attitude. Lack of accurate information about mental illness, lack of contact with individuals with mental illness and lack of familiarity might be some of the most important reasons of these negative attitudes. [6] Such negative attitudes may be detrimental not only to the patient care but also to the society's attitude to mental disorders if they are present in the health professionals. Studies looking into the impact of education or information on attitudes of individuals towards mental illness and mentally ill have shown that education may have positive impact on the prejudice. [7]
Attitude of an individual determines orientation towards environment. Maximum part of attitude building towards different medical disciplines and the disorders takes place during the initial medical training. Therefore, attitude of medical students is of utmost importance. Most of the literature has shown negative attitude of the students towards psychiatry. [8] It has been seen that medical practitioners hold similar views about those with mental health problems as the population at large. Moreover these views were shown not always to be positive. The concept of iatrogenic stigma is used to describe the stigma caused or perpetuated by mental health professionals. [9] There is limited literature on the issue from India.
Role of education has been cited as integral to reduce stigma towards mentally ill. [10] Agencies concerning medical professional accreditation and training hold a key role in this regard. [11] Research has demonstrated the positive effects of completing undergraduate psychiatric training [12] and of specific education program [13] on attitudes of medical students. Use of experimental methods is recommended over the instructional methods for this purpose.
The present aimed at assessment of the impact of psychiatric education and training on attitude of medical students towards mentally ill and mental disorders. There is limited literature comparing medical students across different professional years on this issue. Studies either explore the attitudes towards mental illness or mentally ill. The present study aimed at assessment of both these aspects. A comparative study across successive training years would help understand the impact of undergraduate learning on attitude of medical students towards mentally ill and mental disorders. The findings would help understand the strengths and lacunae of the current undergraduate training in India.
The study used a cross-sectional survey design. It was conducted among the medical students at a medical college in India. It included students from all three professional years and those doing their internship training. The study included a total of 452 completed responses from medical students and interns. It included 227 students from the first and second professional years, 92 from the third professional year part I, 57 from the third professional year part II and 76 interns. Almost all the participants were females (99%). This was so because the medical school enrolls only female students. It accepts male students only during internship. Majority of them were unmarried (98%).
The students were approached in their lecture theaters and the clinical posting wards and were asked for their consent to participate in the survey. Those refusing to participate in the study were excluded.
Semi structured proforma which included socio-demographic data (age, sex, semester, marital status, residence, religion, and socioeconomic status), family history and past historyBeliefs towards Mental Illness scale (BMI). The BMI is a 21-item self-report measure of negative stereotypical views of mental illness. There is a Total Score and three subscales based on factor analysis: dangerousness, poor social and interpersonal skills, and incurability. The poor social skills subscale also taps feelings of shame about mental illness and the perception that the mentally ill are untrustworthy. Items are rated on a six-point Likert scale ranging from 'completely disagree' (0) to 'completely agree' (5), with higher scores reflecting more negative beliefs. In the primary validity study, Cronbach's alpha was high among American (0.89) and Asian students (0.91). The measure holds promising evidence of validity [14] Attitudes to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ).
The 5-item AMIQ is a brief, self-completion questionnaire with good psychometric properties that can be used in most situations. Content validity and reliability is high, as indicated by Cronbach's alpha score, factor analysis and test-retest correlation coefficients. Vignettes describing highly stigmatized individuals (such as a convicted criminal) produce consistently negative scores and those describing non-stigmatized individuals produce positive scores. This indicates good face validity. [6]
The survey forms were distributed to 500 medical students and doctors. Those consenting to participate were recruited in the study. The response rate was high at 90%. The survey questionnaire was administered in an anonymous form and no identifiable information was collected from the participants. Conditions of anonymity and confidentiality were observed throughout the course of the study.
The data were analyzed using SPSS ver 17.0 ANOVA was carried out to compare the in between group differences for the four study groups. These groups included first/ second professional year students; third professional year part I students; third professional year part II students and interns. Additionally Bonferroni correction was used to conduct the post hoc analysis. Perason's correlation coefficient was used to calculate the correlation between different questionnaires and the level of training and education in terms of the professional years.
The study included a total of 452 completed responses from medical students and interns. It included 227 students from the first and second professional years, 92 from the third professional year part I, 57 from the third professional year part II and 76 interns. Almost all the participants were females (99%).
The mean scores (and standard deviation) of the four study groups on the Belief Towards Mental Illness (BMI) scale and Attitude to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ) have been presented in [Table 1] and [Table 2] respectively. In between group analysis for the different study groups using ANOVA with Post-hoc analysis for the Belief towards Mental Illness (BMI) scale and Attitude to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ) has been presented in [Table 3] and [Table 4], respectively.{Table 1}{Table 2}{Table 3}{Table 4}
Interns v/s first/second professional year students
Most significant differences were observed between the interns and the first/second professional year students. The interns were significantly more likely to agree with the statement that the mental disorders are recurrent (mean difference 1.02, SE±20, 95% CI 0.48-1.56; P<.05). There were significantly less likely to be of the thought that the behavior of people with mental disorders is unpredictable (mean difference .51, SE±.19, 95% CI -0.01-1.01; P<0.05). They were more likely to disagree with the fact that diagnosis of depression as described in the case vignette was going to damage the career of the individual (mean difference 0.60, SE±0.16, 95% CI -0.16-1.03; P<0.05) and they were more likely to agree with the option of inviting a depressed person to a party (mean difference 0.52, SE±0.13, 95% CI -0.17-0.88; P<0.05). They were also comparatively less likely to believe that the wife of a person with OCD is going to leave him because of his mental condition (mean difference 0.38, SE±0.13, 95% CI -0.02-0.74; P<0.05). The interns were more likely to believe in the fact that the mentally ill persons are more likely to be criminals (mean difference 0.21, SE±0.07, 95% CI -0.04-0.39; P<0.05). They also found media reports to be more favorable with regards to 'projecting negative image of those with depression and psychosis' (mean difference 0.19, SE±0.06, 95% CI -0.02-0.36; P<0.05).
Interns v/s third professional year part I students
Interns were more likely to disagree with the fact that diagnosis of depression as described in the case vignette was going to damage the career of the individual (mean difference 1.021, SE:±0.24, 95% CI -0.39-1.65; P<0.05) and they were more likely to agree with the option of inviting a depressed person to a party as compared to the third professional year part I students (mean difference 0.81, SE±0.19, 95% CI -0.30-1.32; P<0.05).The interns were more likely to believe in the fact that the mentally ill persons are more likely to be criminals (mean difference 0.53, SE±0.16, 95% CI -0.11-.94; P<0.05).
Interns v/s third professional year part II students
The interns were more likely to believe in the fact that the mentally ill persons are more likely to be criminals as compared to the third professional year part II students (mean difference 0.91, SE±0.27, 95% CI-20-1.62; P<0.05).
Pearson's coefficient of correlation was calculated to find out degree of correlation between the level of medical education and different questions of the two scales used in the study. Significant correlations were observed between level of medical education and items 'Likelihood of wife of heroin user to leave him' (r=-0.116, P=0.02); 'Likelihood of depression damaging ones career' (r=-0.127, P<0.05); 'Level of comfort having someone with depression as colleague at work' (r=0.097, P=0.04); 'Likelihood of schizophrenia damaging ones career' (r=-0.113, P=0.018); ' Likelihood of wife of patient with schizophrenia to leave him' (r=-0.160, P=0.00); and 'Likelihood of mentally ill to be criminals' (r=-119, P=0.01) [Table 5].{Table 5}
The current study made use of a survey based methodology to study the attitude of medical students towards mental illness and mentally ill. Additionally, a comparative analysis was carried out between the students from different professional years in order to assess the impact of the medical education and training on these aspects.
There is limited information on the impact of the medical education and training on the attitude towards mentally ill among Indian students. [15] The assessment was done among a total of 452 medical students.
There were significant differences between the interns and the students from different professional years. Overall interns were found to have more favorable attitudes towards mentally ill as compared to the medical students from different professional years as assessed by BMI scale and AMIQ. They were more firm believer in the fact that mentally ill is likely to find support from the spouse. They were more comfortable in having interaction with mentally ill in social and professional settings. Similarly a negative correlation was observed between the stigmatizing attitude and level of medical education and training with a progressive increase in favorable attitudes along increasing years of medical education.
Patients suffering from schizophrenia, alcohol and drug problems were reported as dangerous, unpredictable and different looking in another study. [8] Negative attitude were also observed for those with depression, regarding predictability, ability to talk to, and their ability to pull themselves together and focus of blame in this study. Negative attitudes towards blame and ability to pull oneself together were also noticed for those with alcohol and drug problems.
In a previous study from India, undergraduate medical students were found to have multiple lacunae in their knowledge toward psychiatry, psychiatric disorders, psychiatric patients and psychiatric treatment. [16] The interns are likely to have the maximum exposure to psychiatric patients and mental disorders. Maximum differences were observed between the interns and the first/second professional year students- a finding reflective of the fact that exposure to psychiatry teaching and training can module the negative attitude towards the mentally ill people. Since the first/second year students are not exposed to any psychiatry lectures or ward postings their understanding in to these conditions is expected to be minimal. With gradual exposure to lectures (from third professional year I onwards) and ward postings (from third professional year part II onwards) there is a progressive increase in the understanding and awareness of the psychiatric conditions. This could be the detrimental factor for reduction in negative attitude and biases of the medical students. The findings of correlation between the level of psychiatry education/training and different parameters assessed also corroborate this explanation. The favorable impact of psychiatry posting on the attitude of medical students towards mentally ill has been found in previous studies from western countries. [17] Work by Mas and Hatim (2002) from Malaysia found that final year MBBS students had more favorable attitude towards mentally ill as compared to the first year students. [18]
High levels of ignorance, prejudice and discrimination towards mentally ill has been confirmed by studies among health professionals in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, England, Malaysia, Spain and Turkey. [17],[18],[19] Studies among medical students have also reported unfavorable attitudes towards mentally ill. [20],[21],[22],[23]
Role of medical education in addressing stigma towards mentally ill has been debated by certain authors. [24] A study by Ay et al. (2006) failed to find a favorable impact of medical education on stigmatizing attitudes of medical students towards mental illness. [25]
It has been recommended to design program for medical students based on policy of 'catch them young'. [26] The clinical rotation in psychiatry has been found to be an important factor influencing medical student attitudes towards psychiatry. [27],[28] A one hour supplementary education program in addition to the traditional medical curriculum led to significant improvement in attitude of medical students towards mentally ill in Japan. [29],[30]
The knowledge of the attitude and awareness of the undergraduate medical students towards psychiatry, mental health and mental disorders is of utmost importance as these individuals are going to be involved in the care of these patients either directly or indirectly during the later years of their careers. An overwhelming majority of patients with neurosis, depression, alcohol-related problems, sexual problems and psychosomatic disorders have been found to seek treatment from general physicians in India. [31] The need to impart adequate psychiatry training to even those medicals students who might specialize in other specialties later on has been expressed. [32]
Concerns have been expressed over the reduction in funding for medical student education-related roles and positions within departments of psychiatry. [33] Psychiatry as a discipline is felt to be given a step motherly treatment at the undergraduate level which is reflected in the number of lectures in psychiatry and number of hours of psychiatry clinical posting. Very recently psychiatry rotation has been made compulsory during the internship in India. This is a welcome move. However, much more needs to be done in this direction. Even a brief one hour orientation session of the first year medical students helped improve their attitude towards mental illness. [5]
Limited number of psychiatry trainees in the country make the issue even more relevant. There are just 0.4 psychiatrists and 0.02 psychologists per 100,000 people. The recent publication by WHO and WPA title 'Atlas: Psychiatric Education and Training Across the World 2005' has highlighted the limited mental health professionals in the country. [34]
The current has certain strengths. We made use of a survey based methodology. The survey had a high response rate. Additionally we assessed students across different professional years during the medical school. The assessments were made using standardized instruments and hence the findings are comparable with those of the other studies. The reasons for studying psychiatric stigma specifically among medical students were twofold: (a) doctors can play an important role in reduction of stigma; (b) the findings will help to focus education and other strategies to change attitudes in this group.
However, we made a cross sectional evaluation. It would be interesting to follow up the cohort prospectively and assess the change over time. Also impact of these attitudes on behavior of these students can also be assessed when they start their own clinical practice. Also we have assessed only female students due to logistic reasons. Future studies should include male students as well. It would be interesting to compare the findings from other medical schools across different regions and cultures. This would be important before the findings could be generalized to other parts of the country.
Attitude of medical students is detrimental to the care of the mentally ill persons. The negative attitude of the medical students is amenable to psychiatric education and training. Hence, adequate modifications to the existing medical curriculum would help improve the attitude of medical students towards mentally ill.
1 Crisp AH, Gelder MG, Rix S. The stigmatization of people with mental illness. Br. J. Psychiatry 2000; 177:4-7.
2 Jorm AF, Jacomb PA, Christensen H. Attitudes towards people with a mental disorder: A survey of the Australian public and health professionals. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 1999; 33:77-83.
3 Crisp AH. The stigmatization of sufferers with mental disorders. Br J Gen Pract 1999;49:3-4.
4 Asuni T, Schoenberg F, Swift C. Mental health and disease in Africa. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd;pp 25-32, 1994.
5 Mino Y, Kodera R, Bebbington P. A comparative study of psychiatric services in Japan and England. Br J Psychiatry 1990;157:416-20.
6 Luty J, Fekadu D, Umoh O, Gallagher J. Validation of a short instrument to measure stigmatised attitudes towards mental illness. The Psychiatrist 2006;30:257-60.
7 Corrigan PW, Green A, Lundin R, Kubiak MA, Penn DL. Familiarity with and social distance from people who have serious mental illness. Psychiatr Serv 2001;52:953-8.
8 Naeem F, Ayub M, Javed Z, Irfan M, Haral F, Kingdon D. Stigma and psychiatric illness. A survey of attitude of medical students and doctors in Lahore, Pakistan. J. Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2006;18:46-9.
9 Sartorius N. Iatrogenic stigma of mental illness. BMJ 2002;324:1470-1.
10 Pinfold V, Toulmin H, Thornicroft G, Huxley P, Farmer P, Graham T. Reducing psychiatric stigma and discrimination: Evaluation of educational interventions in UK secondary schools. Br J Psychiatry 2003;182:342-6.
11 Roberts LM, Wiskin C, Roalfe A. Effects of exposure to mental illness in role-play on undergraduate student attitudes. Fam Med 2008;40:477-83.
12 Baxter H, Singh SP, Standen P, Duggan C. The attitudes of 'tomorrow's doctors' towards mental illness and psychiatry: Changes during the final undergraduate year. Med Educ 2001;35:381-3.
13 Altindag A, Yanik M, Ucok A, Alptekin K, Ozkan M. Effects of an antistigma program on medical students' attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2006;60:283-8.
14 Hirai M, Clum GA. Development, reliability, and validity of the beliefs toward mental illness scale. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 2000; 22:221-36.
15 Sharma S. Postgraduate training in psychiatry in India. Indian J Psychiatry 2010;52:89-94.
16 Chawla JM, Balhara YP, Sagar R, Shivaprakash. Undergraduate medical students' attitude toward psychiatry: A cross-sectional study. Indian J Psychiatry 2012;54:37-40.
17 Roth D, Antony MM, Kerr KL, Downie F. Attitudes toward mental illness in medical students: Does personal and professional experience with mental illness make a difference? Med Educ 2000;34:234-6.
18 Mas A, Hatim A. Stigma in mental illness: Attitudes of medical students towards mental illness. Med J Malaysia 2002;57:433-44.
19 Mukherjee R, Fialho A, Wijetunge A, Checinski K, Surgenor T. The stigmatization of psychiatric illness: The attitudes of medical students and doctors in a London teaching hospital. Psychiatr Bull 2002;26:178-81.
20 Adewuya AO, Makanjuola RO. Social distance towards people with mental illness amongst Nigeria university students. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2005; 40:865-8.
21 Ogunsemi OO, Odusan O, Olatawura MO. Stigmatizing attitude of medical students towards a psychiatry label. Ann Gen Psychiatry 2008; 7:15.
22 Chawla JM, Balhara YP, Sagar R, Shivaprakash. Undergraduate medical students' attitude toward psychiatry: A cross-sectional study. Indian J Psychiatry 2012; 54:37-40.
23 Issa BA, Adegunloye OA, Yussuf AD, Oyewole OA, Fatoye FO. Attitudes of Medical Students to Psychiatry at a Nigerian Medical School. HK J Psychiatr 2009;19:72-7.
24 Ping Tsao CI,, Tummala A, Roberts LW. Stigma in mental health care. Acad Psychiatry 2008;32:70-2.
25 Ay P, Save D, Fidanoglu O. Does stigma concerning mental disorders differ through medical education? A survey among medical students in Istanbul. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2006;41:63-7.
26 Hasui C, Sakamoto S, Suguira B, Kitamura T. Stigmatization of mental illness in Japan: Images and frequency of encounters with diagnostic categories of mental illness among medical and non-medical university students. J Psychiatry Law 2000;28:253-66.
27 Lampe L, Coulston C, Walter G, Malhi G. Familiarity breeds respect: Attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry following a clinical attachment. Australas Psychiatry 2010;18:348-53.
28 Tan SM, Azmi MT, Reddy JP, Shaharom MH, Rosdinom R, Maniam T, et al. Does clinical exposure to patients in medical school affect trainee doctors' attitudes towards mental disorders and patients? A pilot study. Med J Malaysia 2005;60:328-37.
29 Mino Y, Yasuda N, Tsuda T, Shimodera S. Effects of a one-hour educational program on medical students' attitudes to mental illness. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2001;55:501-7.
30 Chew-Graham CA, Rogers A, Yassin N. 'I wouldn't want it on my CV or their records': Medical students' experiences of help-seeking for mental health problems. Med Educ 2003;37:873-80.
31 Ghosh AB, Mallick AK. Why should psychiatry be included as examination subject in undergraduate curriculum? Indian J. Psychiatry 2007;49:161-2.
32 Feldmann TB. Medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry and mental disorders. Acad Psychiatry 2005;29:354-6.
33 Feldmann TB. Resource allocation: ADMSEP task force update. ADMSEP Newsletter 2004;16:5.
34 WHO. WHO Atlas Psychiatric Education and Training across the World 2005. Switzerland: WHO Geneva; 2005. p. 15-35.


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Looking out for our neighbours
'Looking out for each other' – a new campaign for young people
Written by West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the 'Looking out for our neighbours' community inspired over 49,000 people to get involved by making a positive difference to their neighbours' lives through acts of kindness. For 2021, the campaign has launched a new phase called 'Looking out for each other'.
This campaign has been created to encourage young people aged 15-24 years to #SpreadTheKindness with their friends and peers.
September and October is a time of big changes and transitions that can affect young people's mental health and wellbeing, which for many had been impacted by the pandemic.
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Kazakhstan, Central Asia
Kazakhstan's Dungan community stunned by spasm of deadly bloodletting
Eyewitnesses told Eurasianet that mobs of Kazakhs attacked the village from two sides, armed with stones, metal bars and firearms.
Joanna Lillis Feb 10, 2020
Burnt cars left behind after the violence in Masanchi (all photos by Joanna Lillis)
In a house down a rutted track in the village of Masanchi, in southeastern Kazakhstan, a family was mourning its son.
"I have lost my son. I have only one son," said the head of the household, his face contorted with grief, as well-wishers streamed through to pay their respects.
A toddler emerged chuckling from the kitchen, unaware that his father was one of the victims of the spasm of bloodshed inflicted upon the ethnic Dungan community over many hours on the night of February 7. The latest death tally accounts for 10 lives lost.
"I am barely holding myself together. My nerves are giving way," the father of the deceased told Eurasianet as the sun set on the traumatized village of Masanchi.
A few hours earlier, the man had buried his son, who died after sustaining a gunshot wound in the back.
The people who spoke to Eurasianet for this story did so on condition of anonymity as they feared for their safety amid the still-uncertain situation.
Masanchi is a picture of devastation. In the aftermath of the unrest, shocked residents milled around, surveying the charred remains of their homes and businesses as municipal workers in orange vests swept up debris and police in riot gear patrolled the streets.
Intact among the wreckage stood the Kairat wholesale store, whose name proclaimed it as a Kazakh-owned business in this village populated almost entirely by Dungans, Mandarin-speaking Muslims of Chinese ancestry who fled to Central Asia 140 years ago during an uprising in China.
The government has characterized the violence that gripped Masanchi and other nearby villages not as an ethnic clash but rather as a mass brawl that began over a dispute about who would give way on a road.
That is not how residents of Masanchi recall the events.
Eyewitnesses told Eurasianet that mobs of Kazakhs attacked the village from two sides, armed with stones, metal bars and firearms. Mobs went on the rampage, beating and shooting Dungans and hurling Molotov cocktails into houses and shops, while sparing the few Kazakh-owned buildings, according to those testimonies.
Locals in both communities agreed that the spark on the day was a rumor that Dungans had beaten up an old Kazakh man. While most Kazakhs in the area insisted this story was true, Dungans expressed doubts.
Video footage that circulated of Dungans having an altercation with Kazakh police in the village of Sortobe, which is a short drive from Masanchi, also inflamed passions. The government says incendiary messages that circulated widely on social media and messaging apps only served to worsen tempers.
At least 170 people were injured, including two police who sustained gunshot wounds. Fourteen remain in a serious condition.
Getting to the root of the violence is complicated by the state-enforced taboo around the discussion of ethnic tensions, whose existence authorities typically seek to downplay or deny outright. The official line, that the 100 or so ethnic groups that occupy Kazakhstan live in peace and accord, is a central tenet of the ideology that Nursultan Nazarbayev, who resigned as president last year, formulated over his three-decade rule.
With a community of 72,000, the Dungans make up just 0.4 percent of the overall population. Most of them live in the southern district of Kordai. As the chaos escalated, thousands of Dungans from Masanchi and other villages sought refuge in nearby Kyrgyzstan.
Some Dungans interviewed by Eurasianet, clearly cognizant of the sensitivities around the ethnic question, appeared to dissemble when talking about the causes of the unrest and spoke vaguely about the involvement of unidentified "third forces."
Others hinted at something more sinister, suggesting that what had happened was not random but somehow premeditated and organized.
An eyewitness from the village of Bular Batyr told Eurasianet that police stood by as assailants rampaged through, stealing cars and running them into the crowd.
Law-enforcement structures have said local officers were simply overwhelmed and powerless to intervene until reinforcements arrived from the nearest big city, Almaty, about four hours away by car.
The dark and confusion made it hard to identify the attackers, but many Dungans are convinced most were outsiders who came not only from neighboring villages but from far and wide.
"People came from all over Kazakhstan to trash things and kill people," said one young man, a business studies student. "There were strangers, and everything was prepared."
It is impossible as yet to verify such claims, which others deem unlikely, but shock and fear have sent the rumor mill into overdrive.
The authorities have named one of the deceased as Darkhan Abdrakhim, a Kazakh present in a Dungan village at the time of his death. All the other fatalities appear to have been Dungans.
A checkpoint between Masanchi and Karakemer set up after the violence
The Kazakh version of events is difficult to pin down. In the Kazakh-populated village of Karakemer, which can be reached from Masanchi in a brief stroll across a river, most people queried claimed complete ignorance about what had happened. A number of residents insisted they did not hear the gunshots or notice the rows of burning buildings just one kilometer away.
Others were more blunt, however. One outspoken Kazakh man told Eurasianet: "What happened is what should have happened."
"These people, the Dungans, had started to get cocky. This didn't happen in one day – it has built up over years and years," he said, without giving his name. "Patience snapped. They got rich, and when people get rich, they start looking down on other people. They started saying to us: 'Though the land is yours, the power is ours.'"
There is, however, no obvious disparity between Masanchi and Karakemer, both of which exude an air of relative prosperity. Even the Kazakh man complaining about Dungans acknowledged as much as he loaded up the trunk of his expensive jeep outside his large house.
The government has set up a commission headed by deputy prime minister Berdibek Saparbayev to get to the bottom of the violence and punish those responsible, although 47 people arrested in connection with it have now reportedly been freed. Authorities say they have opened 25 criminal case relating to the unrest.
Authorities have promised compensation for bereaved families and property damaged. The tally of destruction now includes 30 homes, 15 businesses and 23 cars.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has ordered the dismissal of the regional police chief, the deputy regional governor and the district governor.
For the victims, this will be too little and too late.
Back in Masanchi, the distraught father of the young man shot dead in the violence was surveying his own well-appointed house, which he had expected to bequeath to his only son.
"Who is this all for?" he asked, gesturing despondently around the courtyard. "I built it for him."
Joanna Lillis is a journalist based in Almaty and author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan.


Wrestling is here! A look at the non-con schedule
The events to watch out for as we gear up for another Big Ten wrestling season!
By Atinat Oct 31, 2022, 2:00pm CDT
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He's a bad, bad man
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
That's right, folks, it's just about wrestling season. Now, nobody here has the time to talk about your team, and why this year will be special, and who's gonna start and who's gonna all-American and who's gonna win a title. But, being a Big Ten blog, we can give you a little look at the important things to watch out for in the conference this year. Today, we're gonna look at the non-conference schedule. Action starts this Friday with a pair of duals, and continues through the weekend as most teams in the Big Ten will compete in the next seven days. Let's walk through the important dates and events.
Nov 4-6
There's only one good dual this weekend, if you ask me, but as noted above, this is important because it's where the 2022-23 season starts. Everybody but Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State, and Rutgers kicks off action, though mostly in boring JV open tournaments like the MSU Open and the Clarion Open. Indiana, Maryland, and Nebraska all have duals, but the biggest one to watch is probably #9 Wisconsin vs #14 Iowa State in Jacksonville, Florida, at the Battle in the River City. This one is available via Rokfin, along with Wisconsin's duals against Chattanooga and Buffalo and Iowa State's vs Little Rock and Campbell.
Duals by Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State, and Purdue go down this weekend but are all pretty mundane. Punctuating the stretch are #4 Ohio State hosting #15 Virginia Tech on Friday; #10 Nebraska facing #17 NC State and Rutgers facing #3 Arizona State in Bethlehem, PA, at Wranglemania on Saturday; and #6 Michigan's trip to Chapel Hill on Sunday to face #19 North Carolina. Journeyman Wrestling is hosting Wranglemania, which features ten duals between eleven schools, and that will be broadcast on Rokfin (who's starting to look like a big player this year). I can't find broadcast info for the other two. If you can, leave it in the comments! I imagine Flo will have some of these or the following must-watches.
I do want to take a second to mention that Iowa is going on the road to wrestle Army, Buffalo, and Sacred Heart, partly as a gesture of thanks to Army for stepping in at the last minute last year. However, I do not recommend you watch it, as it shouldn't be close. Three good duals take place during this stretch, starting with #24 Illinois going on the road to face #17 NC State in Albany, NY, on Friday, followed by Wisconsin going to Ithaca to face #7 Cornell on Saturday, and finally Ohio State following Michigan to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina. You'll notice a trend: some schools are more ambitious with their non-con scheduling than others. That Wisconsin dual will be on ESPN+.
On November 22nd, Cliff Keen is bringing back the NWCA All-Star Classic, presented by FloWrestling. It will be in Austin, Texas, and will have a match at each weight between two top collegiate wrestlers. Pat McKee (MN), Lucas Byrd (ILL), Real Woods (IA), Sammy Sasso (OSU), Austin Gomez (WI), Will Lewan (MI), Dean Hamiti (WI), Carter Starocci (PSU), Aaron Brooks (PSU), Jacob Warner (IA), Tony Cassioppi (IA), and Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) will all be competing. There will also be at least two women's matches. Also, despite being pretty near Austin, I will not be able to attend this, as I will be flying back to Iowa that week for Thanksgiving. D'oh!
Dec 2-4
#24 Illinois hosts #15 Pittsburgh, #2 Iowa hosts #14 Iowa State, #1 Penn State visits Rider and #26 Lehigh, and #9 Wisconsin and Rutgers battle Penn and Drexel in Newark, but the big event this weekend is the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, presented by FloWrestling. Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Purdue will be sending wrestlers to compete is the first national non-conference tournament of the year.
Dec 9-11
Rutgers goes on the road to face #11 Princeton in what could be a good match, but otherwise there's a lot of nothing this week. Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State, and Minnesota are all wrestling, but none of those duals should be close. In lieu of a really competitive dual, I'd like to acknowledge the Wisconsin Wrestling Showcase, in which Wisconsin will wrestle Drexel, but also play host to Division II and Division III duals in the UW Field House. Parkside will wrestle McKendree for the DII show, and La Crosse will face off against Cornell College from Iowa at the DIII level. If you're in the area, go buy tickets! That feels like a fun event.
Dec 19-20
Here's an event I will be at! Following a mundane weekend, the Collegiate Duals are back for the second consecutive year, this time in New Orleans! Again the event will be broadcasted by Rokfin, and again it will feature two representatives from the Big Ten. This year Ohio State steps in for Iowa, while Penn State returns as the other Big Ten squad. The Buckeyes will face Lock Haven and #18 Northern Iowa while the Nittany Lions will get Central Michigan and #19 North Carolina. The championship rounds could see #17 NC State, #26 Lehigh, or Cal Poly face off with Ohio State, while Penn State could face #7 Cornell, #14 Iowa State, or Oregon State.
After some shenanigans last year, the Ken Kraft Midlands return to the Chicagoland area in the second big national non-conference tournament of the year. Illinois, Indiana, Rutgers, Wisconsin, and host Northwestern all have this one on the schedule, while Iowa is notably absent.
Iowa attempted to host their own tournament after Midlands was canceled last year, but never got it off the ground. They'll be trying again this year, calling it the Soldier Salute and hosting it on the same days as Midlands. It will include Iowa, Army, Wyoming, Northern Iowa, and others on the men's side, and a full slate of women's wrestling to accompany it. It will be available on BTN+. I don't know if it's going to be any good, but I do know I'll be tuning in, if for nothing else than to see what the women's collegiate scene looks like in the last year before Iowa turns it upside-down.
Jan 1-2
And finally, the last big non-con tournament, the Southern Scuffle will take place in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on January 1st and 2nd. Maryland, Minnesota, and Purdue will be attending, and it's possible that individuals from other Big Ten institutions attend on their own (Iowa sent a handful of unattached guys last year). FloWrestling will be broadcasting this one.
And here begins the Big Ten season. Indiana hosts Ohio State in the first dual of the night, followed by Penn State visiting Wisconsin, both on the Big Ten Network. Iowa will host Illinois as well, on BTN+. There will be some non-con duals, but I don't care, for at long last, we will have Big Ten wrestling back.
So let me know, what are you most excited for, from your team and in general? Did I miss anything big? Are you going to purchase BTN+, FloWrestling, or Rokfin? Sound off in the comments. We'll have more preview content throughout the non-con schedule.
Best non-con event
Southern Scuffle
All-Star Classic
Collegiate Duals
Something else!


Daily Regular Biblical Izmir (Smyrna) Tour
You can send "Daily Regular Biblical Izmir (Smyrna) Tour" tour to yourself or to your friend by e-mail or sms.
Overlooking the Izmir city: Kadifekale
Imagine the ancient bazaar of Izmir: Izmir Ancient Agora
The oldest church in Izmir: Saint Polycarp Church
See the unique ancient pieces: Izmir Archaeological Museum
Give a photo break at Konak Square
Walk in the shopping centre of Izmir: Kemeralti
When you visit Kemeralti: Kizlaragasi Han
The city is one of the Seven Churches of Revelation mentioned in the Bible. Where Saint Polycarp was martyred. Izmir is attractively multi-cultural. The city has got great tolerance towards different religions and cultures due to its Levantine, Jewish, and Christian heritage. There are synagogues and churches, which are open to visitors and still used.
Route 1 Kadifekale Castle of Izmir
Flight from Istanbul to Izmir. The crown of Izmir: Kadifekale. After a long period of silence, the castle, which became invisible in the 20th century, surrounded by buildings, has the distinction of being the calmest and most beautiful place in Izmir with the partial repairs and landscaping works carried out in recent years. Kadifekale, which was established at a point that dominates the gulf in the centre of Izmir, was built by Lysimachos, one of his generals, on the instructions of Alexander the Great in the 3rd century BC. Established at an altitude of 186 meters above sea level, Kadifekale is located on an area of 6 kilometres. The north and east walls and five towers of the castle, whose east and south walls were completely destroyed, survived. The height of the towers is 20-35 meters. There is a large arched cistern from the Byzantine Period and the remains of a mosque in the castle.
Route 2 Agora
Agora means city square, bazaar and market place, meeting area. Smyrna Agora was built as a rectangular shape. There is a very large courtyard in the middle. There are columned galleries around it. Stoas found in the north and south were unearthed during the excavations. These stoas are located on the basement floor. The north stoa was built in basilica style. The Agora of the new Smyrna, which was moved to Kadifekale by Alexander the Great, welcomes its guests with all its splendour and beauty, right next to today's commercial life. Remains of ancient Smyrna can only be reached at a few points today. The most important of these points is the Smyrna Agora, which is known as the Agora Ruins.
Route 3 St Polycarp Church
St Polycarp Church, one of the oldest churches in Izmir, has a history dating back to 1625. It is dedicated to St Polycarp, who was burned and killed by the Romans in the Roman Stadium for his church belief. It was built with the permission of Suleiman the Magnificent with the help of the King of France. The church had seen several fires and was repaired due to its destruction. The artist depicted the story and death of St Polycarp on the frescoes of the St Polycarp Church repaired by Raymond Pere, a French painter and architect who lived in Izmir. The bell tower was later added to the church. Being one of the most important historical beauties of İzmir, the building hosts many local and foreign visitors today.
St Polycarp Church
Route 4 Izmir Archaeological Museum
Having hosted many civilizations throughout the ages, Izmir is ready to take you on a breathtaking historical journey with its museum as well as its historical buildings! The traces of the life that started in and around Yesilova Mound in Bornova, then continued at the ruins of Symrna - Tepekule and later in Kadifekale can be seen in the city today. Artefacts reflecting different cultures, unearthed through excavations in ancient cities in the city, today transform Izmir into a museum city. We shall visit the Izmir archaeological museum in the city and discover the galleries that are an integral part of the city's culture and art life to follow the traces of the city's 8500 years of history.
Route 5 Konak Square and Izmir Watch Tower
The heart of Izmir beats in Konak, the centre of the city. It covers the areas that form the core of Izmir centres, such as historical Kemeralti, Alsancak, Basmane and Konak Square. At the same time, it is the main source of culture, art and entertainment for the entire Izmir centre.
Route 6 Kemeralti Bazaar
Kemeralti Bazaar, which is one of the first places to come to mind when talking about places to visit in Izmir, dates back to the 1600s. It has continued to be one of the most important trade areas that has not lost its importance since ancient times. Kemeralti Bazaar consists of 15 thousand workplaces spread over an area of 5 km. This feature makes it the world's largest open-air shopping area.
Route 7 Kizlaragasi Inn
Kizlaragasi Han is the biggest and most magnificent of the inns in Izmir. It is still of great importance in the commercial life of Izmir as the only example among Ottoman inns in terms of its architectural characteristics. The inn, which is one of the rare Ottoman works in the city, was created in a square form and has a large rectangular courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard, which is approximately 530 square meters, the traditional mosque and fountain do not exist today. The rooms are lined up on the walls of the courtyard. Kizlaragasi Han is a long-distance inn, therefore it was built as two floors. The ground floor was the meeting point of merchants and brokers trading camels, cargo, and the upper floor was used as accommodation. The building, whose originality is controversial after the restoration, is of great importance in Izmir's commercial life.
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Daily Ephesus Tour By Flight
Full-Day Istanbul Jewish Heritage Tour
Book to full-day Istanbul Jewish Heritage tour starts with the visit of Galata, Ashkenazi, Neve Salom, Italian, and Tofre Begadim synagogues, and Istanbul Jewish Heritage Museum.
Travel to Gallipoli (Anzac Day)
This is an amazing opportunity to travel to Gallipoli from Istanbul. See the Gallipoli peninsula, Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, Neck, Hellespont, the history of WWI.
16 Hours (Full Day) • 1 City • 1 Places
Travel to Edirne
Edirne is blessed with imperial historic architecture. With one day travel to Edirne From Istanbul, you may visit Selimiye Mosque, historic Bazaar, and Palaces.


Air Traffic Control (ATC) Strikes Are Destroying Air Traffic and Economies Across Europe
By Jennifer Janzen Brussels, 20 June 2018 — Last updated on 3 April 2020
300 per cent increase in ATC strikes in France versus 2017
24 strike days in 2018 have caused 5,000 flight cancellations and thousands of delays, affecting millions of travellers
Projected EU economic impact of EUR 13.4 billionEconomic Impact of Air Traffic Control Strikes in Europe, PriceWaterhouseCooper for A4E, Brussels, 2016 continues to grow
A four-fold increase in flight delays over 15 minutes in May 2018 (56,000) compared to May 2017 (14,000)
An alarming increase in Air Traffic Control (ATC) strikes across Europe has wreaked havoc on airlines, their passengers and business. 2018 is shaping up to be one of the worst years ever for ATC strikes in Europe. Year-to-date, A4E member airlines have been forced to cancel nearly 5,000 flights as a result of the strikes, directly impacting around 784,000 passengers across Europe. In addition, millions of travellers have been affected by flight delays caused by airspace diversions and residual backups.
According to Eurocontrol, 39,000 flights — around 30 per cent of the total en-route delays in May — were delayed due to ATC strikes. In addition, Eurocontrol projects total delay minutes for 2018 will be up by 53 per cent compared to 2017 as a result of strikes and capacity shortages (14.3 million in 2018 versus 9.3 million minutes in 2017).
ATC strikes have a costly impact on customers, European economies and the environment. They breach the principle of allowing people and goods to move freely across Europe, because:
Customers' journeys and supply chains are severely disrupted.
Diversions to avoid closed air space result in much longer flights and burn more fuel, resulting in higher CO2 emissions.
Tourism is most affected due to cancelled flights to prime holiday destinations, putting small and medium size businesses at risk.
Airlines have to pay passengers compensation for the delays and rebook them on other flights, significantly disrupting customers' travel plans and the airlines' operations. Airlines don't have the right to recover these costs from the ATC providers who have caused them.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that the economic cost of ATC strikes in the EU between 2010–2017 was €13.4 billion.Economic Impact of Air Traffic Control Strikes in Europe, PriceWaterhouseCooper for A4E, Brussels, 2016 Last summer, the European Commission said that since 2005 there have been around 357 air traffic control strikes in the EU, 254 of which have occurred in France.Link to commission des finances du Sénat's report: http://www.senat.fr/rap/r17-568/r17-5681.pdf
Willie Walsh, IAG's chief executive, said: "IAG and Ryanair are planning to submit a complaint to the European Commission as ATC strikes represent the biggest challenge for our industry. They are destroying European air traffic and having a huge impact on consumers. It's a really frustrating cause of disruption that affects all airlines but in particular has a significant negative impact on Spain's tourism and economy. Continuous strikes by ATC staff in Marseille have a disproportionate impact on those airlines flying from Barcelona because they control flights over most of the Mediterranean airspace. For Vueling this means that 50 per cent of its flights are affected. The EU must act now to protect the rights of the consumers and prevent long term damage to European economies".
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, said: "These disruptions are unacceptable, and we call on the Governments, and the EU Commission to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that ATC providers are fully staffed and that overflights are not affected when national strikes take place, as they repeatedly do in France.
"Europe's ATC providers are approaching the point of meltdown with hundreds of flights being cancelled daily either because of ATC strikes or because Europe's ATC don't have enough staff. The situation is particularly acute at weekends where British and German ATC providers are hiding behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as "capacity restrictions" when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to operate.
"Urgent action must now be taken by the UK and German Governments, and the EU Commission, otherwise thousands more flights and millions of passengers will be disrupted, particularly in the peak months of July and August, unless this ATC staffing crisis is addressed".
In response to the continued ATC strike disruptions, A4E has proposed a mandatory 72-hour individual notification period for employees wishing to strike, protection of overflights while ensuring it does not come to the detriment of local services, and a guarantee on minimum services to be provided.
IAG and Ryanair's complaint will argue that by not adequately protecting flights over France, EU law is infringed.
"We have been working constructively and quite intensively over the last several months with French government officials and Parliamentarians to establish a stable and long-term solution to these disruptions. In this context, we urge the French government to take decisive action to resolve this issue on behalf of all our passengers, ahead of this summer's busy travel season", said Thomas Reynaert, Managing Director, A4E.
Consumers can also demand swifter action by EU politicians by signing A4E's online petition: www.keepeuropesskiesopen.com. The petition will be presented to the relevant authorities in Brussels and EU capitals by the end of 2018.


Biden's Victory—A Likely Boon For ESG, But Is It Enough?
Biden's Victory—A Boon For ESG?
Though the U.S. will likely remain divided on constitutional issues, ESG (environmental, social and governance) observers expect President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the Paris climate deal and roll back many of President Donald Trump's cuts to environmental rules, including fracking/methane emissions regulations on domestic oil and gas drilling and federal greenhouse gas emissions-reduction initiatives such as the Clean Power Plan. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives will likely echo Biden's stance on climate change, resulting in a strengthening of the federal government's role in energy and environmental policy.
A 180-Degree Turn on Climate?
While the appeal of investing in renewable energy assets will continue irrespective of regulatory developments as technological learning curves improve, an abrupt switch away from fossil fuels should be limited as a result of continued low natural gas prices, infrastructural obstacles and potential pushback from Republicans if they maintain control of the Senate.
Biden has voiced support for a gradual energy transition in which natural gas (and by extension the controversial practice of fracking) will likely remain categorized as a "transitional fuel." From an ESG investing standpoint, we believe the focus on environmental protection and operational health and safety will continue to be material issues at the forefront of the fracking debate.
A Boost for Sustainable Investing?
While the Biden win is certainly a positive from a momentum perspective, we expect interest in ESG investing to continue growing beyond political and regulatory developments such as the Department of Labor's proposed rule on limiting ESG investment options for pension plans or Biden's climate plan. This corresponds with deep shifts in investor mindset and the growing linkage between ESG issues and their social and economic impacts. Climate change, affordable health care and education and income inequality are pressing global issues that are increasingly shaping the millennial generation's worldview and fueling interest in impact investing. A 2020 American Century Investments study recently found that 60% of millennials in the U.S. find impact investing appealing.
Top ESG Investment Themes for 2021
Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic will be a top priority for the Biden administration. This should continue to position health care as a key investment theme in 2021, especially as it relates to innovation in treatments and therapies and access to medicines.
Related to the fight against COVID-19, businesses exposed to the stay-at-home/digital economy such as software, data center, cloud-based and 5G networking companies will also remain attractive. However, these companies will likely face heightened data privacy and security risks. We expect cybersecurity to be of growing importance for investors in 2021 and beyond.
The pandemic and its material human, economic and financial costs will also likely continue supporting the notion that the environment, public health and global economy intertwine. Therefore, another key ESG issue in 2021 will be the implications of transitioning toward a circular economy, which goes beyond increased use of renewable energy or recycling. To be successful, it must represent a systemic shift in value chains. Companies must rethink resource consumption, energy usage and manufacturing processes with an aim toward eliminating waste and generating renewable output. We see upside potential in several areas, including water and waste management, sustainable agriculture, bioenergy and renewable biochemicals, smart grid technologies and power storage.
Sustainable Development—Do It Strategically, Not Tactically
Like with any form of systemic change, moving effectively toward a circular economy, fostering a clean tech innovation "revolution," and implementing concrete policies to contain climate change shouldn't be about speed per se. Tactical changes are seldom sustainable, but strategic ones tend to be. Before articulating an argument on how sustainable development is achievable, it's necessary to focus on why it isn't.
If sustainable development isn't yet compatible with our current, fossil fuel-dependent and open-loop system, change must come from within the system. We believe the Biden administration's key challenge will be maximizing the incentives to scale advanced and knowledge-intensive renewable energy/closed-loop solutions while balancing social and economic considerations to which the U.S. is currently exposed. Sustainability is not a binary concept—it is also about establishing an equilibrium between shared priority issues for all stakeholders. This exercise goes beyond defining "materiality" and can only be achieved through a sustained effort on the part of business leaders, policymakers and their constituents to gradually evolve traditional measures of productivity, wealth and well-being.
References to specific securities are for illustrative purposes only, and are not intended as recommendations to purchase or sell securities. Opinions and estimates offered constitute our judgment and, along with other portfolio data, are subject to change without notice.
The information is not intended as a personalized recommendation or fiduciary advice and should not be relied upon for, investment, accounting, legal or tax advice.


Visit Tuscany
Tour florence
Tour Pisa
Tour Vinci
Visit San Miniato
Discover Vinci and surroundings
Vinci, Montalbano, Leonardo Hills
Tours > Vinci and surroundings
Leonardo da Vinci tour
During the guided tour you will dive into Leonardo's life and experience the origin of the genius at his home! We will tell you the "infinite" stories about Leonardo. The Leonardian horse of Nina Akamu on the Piazza della Libertà, the Vitruvian Man sculpture by Mario Ceroli on the square behind the caste of the Counts Guidi , the Baptisimal Font of Santa Croce Church, are all places you can experience with us.
You will enjoy a one-to-one dating with Leonardo's projects, which include, among the others, studies of anatomy, studies of water, of air, and a full immersion in his micro and macro world by visiting the Museo Leonardiano with us.
From Vinci we will arrive to the Montalbano Hills to Anchiano, Leonardo's birthplace. Anchiano is surrounded by that loved, investigated Nature,
"Nature, teacher of all things", whose motion and emotion was masterly painted by Leonardo.
You will enjoy the full scale, HD digital reproductions of Leonardo's paintings all gathered in the Historic House, Villa il Ferrale, nestled in a wonderful setting.
You will experience the "ghiribizzo", the prime mover of the genius, in the Biblioteca Leonardiana, among the main research centers on Leonardo's work in Italy, with a collection of over 16.500 texts by and about Leonardo da Vinci.
Among these, there are duplicates of the entirety of Leonardo's manuscripts, drawings and printed works, starting from the first edition of A Treatise of Painting, 1651.
Vinci, one of the greatest geniuses of the Renaissance, who included the Montalbano landscape and flora in a number of his tables and drawings.The Montalbano landscape also known as the Hills of Leonardo is dominated by typical Tuscan hills with vineyards cultivation growing in the plains or on the lower terrace fields, whilst the higher slopes are carpeted with olive groves interspersed by chestnut trees, amidst holm oak woods. Would you like to taste the extra virgin olive oil, the true gold of Montalbano, and Chianti wine of this territory?
Tour of Cerreto Guidi
The Villa in Cerreto Guidi, a Unesco World Heritage Site together with the other Medici Villas in Tuscany, rises on the hilltop and was the stronghold of the Guidi counts.
The Villa, located on its highest spot and which dominates the whole valley, bears visible witness of the presence and the power of the Gran Duke Cosimo I de' Medici over his territory, that stretched from the slopes of the Montalbano, his hunting reserve, to the surrounding territory of the Padule, Marshland of Fucecchio.
The Villa houses the Historical Hunting Territorial Museum, that includes a large weapons collection, mainly for hunting and shooting, from the Middle Ages up to the Modern Age.
During the guided tour you enjoy the composite collections, and the multi- faceted taste of the Medici collections.
Alongside a substantial and significant core of portraits of the Medici – coming from the galleries of Florence, tapestries, paintings on wood and canvas, inlaid and painted chests, cabinets, sculptures in marble and terracotta, majolica, and artefacts featuring semi-precious stones.
You will hear themany stories on Isabella, the favourite daughter of the powerful Cosimo I de' Medici, an extraordinary woman, "Wit, beauty, and talent made her conspicuous among all the ladies of the day, and she captivated every heart but her husband's.
Speaking French, Spanish, and Latin fluently, a perfect musician, singing beautifully, a poetess and improvisatrice by nature, Isabella was the soul of all around her, and the fairest star of the Medici."
Isabella, the "First lady", died unexpectedly. Was it an honour killing? Was the Gran Duke's daughter the young victim of the bloodiest black legend of our Renaissance, amid a thousand slanders and diplomatic agreements?
Near to the Medici Villa is the Pieve, the Parish church of San Leonardo, which, you will discover, houses very valuable works, such as the great baptismal font in glazed terracotta by Della Robbia, as well as crucifixes and paintings of remarkable workmanship. By leaving the Villa from the spectacular stepped access ramps, called "Ponti Medicei" attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti, you will reach the centre of the village, whose urban plan is characterized by a concentric network of streets that runs around the Medici Villa, which remained almost unchanged from Leonardo da Vinci's original drawings.
The Oratory of the Holy Trinity and the Museum of the Local Memory, the MuMeLoc museum, is worth to visit. Here you will lear more about the territory and its history as well as about one of the more dramatic events in local history: the Nazi-Fascist massacre of 23 August 1944.
Tour of Empoli
Emporium, Castrum Impoli, the city of Empoli has always been at the centre of great interests. It preserves traces of the many territories, those of proximity, of a border land, where the Arno and the Elsa rivers meet.
A millenary history, rich and "colourful", like the white and green of the Collegiata di Sant'Andrea, designed by a wise magister, most likely the same who realized the facade of the Basilica di San Miniato a Monte, in Florence.
A few steps away, in the Museo della Collegiata, we will tell you the stories of other masters, stories of "golden glows", a colourful spring of art works including those by Giovanni Pisano, Lorenzo Monaco, Masolino, Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino, Filippo Lippi, to name a few.
Additional evidence of this rich heritage can be experienced in the historic Chiesa di Santo Stefano.
You will enjoy the MUVE, the Museum of Glass in Empoli, located in the medieval salt storage building, re-designed as the Museo del Vetro Verde. You willl be fascinated by the simplicity and beauty typical of the tuscan art and by the stories of men and women, artisans of the Empoli green glass, known as "Empoli Verde" as well as by the paintings of the Scuola Empolese! An "evergreen" story.
Enjoy another "colourful" story in Montelupo Fiorentino, one of the pottery production centers, the most important of the Renaissance. We will lead you to discover the story of craftsmanship and ceramic works in the Ceramics Museum of Montelupo.
In the nearby village: The Tuscan way of Pontorme
In Pontorme, you will experience the house in which Jacopo Carrucci, known as Pontormo, was born. Inside, the artist's famous diary and an ancient copy of the most copied Madonna of the entire Florentine Cinquecento, the Madonna of the Book, all of them preserved in facsimile. A few steps away, in the nearby Chiesa di San Michele, the altarpiece by Pontormo depicting Saint John the Evangelist and Michael the Archangel.
Guided Tour in Certaldo
"Allegra brigata': 'as you may have heard, Certaldo, it is a castle of Val d'Elsa located in our district,which, although small, was already of noble men and the well-off was inhabited as you may have heard, Certaldo is a castle in the Val d'Elsa situated in our district, which, although small, was already inhabited by noble and wealthy men…
The houses of these "immigrants" people remain in Certaldo, their stories we will tell you.
The tour starts in Certaldo Basso.From Piazza Boccaccio, we can either walk up the old street c. 10-15 minutes, or sit comfortably in the funicular, which will take us up,near one of the three city gates.
During the tour, walking along Via Boccaccio, the main street of the lower part of the castle, you will be told about the story of the castle, which was part of a series of fortifications with which the Counts Alberti controlled the Val d'Elsa and discover the treasures of the village.
Palazzo dei Vicari, once home of the Alberti Counts, became from 1415 seat of the Vicar, magistrate fiorentino responsible for the administration of justice in Valdelsa and in Val di Pesa. Its story offers a fascinating insight into the medieval history of Certaldo. The tour includes the visit of the prisons, the audience hall, the chapel, and the private quarters of the Vicars.
In the Palace and in the adjacent Church of St. Thomas and Prosper, you will admire 15th and 16th century frescoes and sinopias; the Church houses the most important work, The Tabernacle of the Executed (c. 1464/65).
Enjoy more stories about out of the ordinary people and artworks in the Museum of Casa Boccaccio, the House that hosted the poet in the last years of his life, and in the Church of the Saints San Jacopo e Filippo, where Giovanni Boccaccio and Beata Giulia are buried.
Private tour rates
3 hour tour Euro 150. The rate is per tour not per person.
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Choose your tour Tailormade tour Vinci, Leonardo. This is my home The Medici Villa in Cerreto Guidi Empoli: Florence and its province, stories of geographical proximity Certaldo - daily stories of an unusual poet, Giovanni Boccaccio
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3 hour tour Euro 150. The rate is per tour not per person. Museum tickets are not included
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Our tours are with a skip the line access, so please contact us.
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Our tours are in English, German, French, Spanish
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Home Article Safety Net for the Net
Safety Net for the Net
Barack Obama's new plan makes the case for government involvement in cybersecurity.
by Nancy Scola
Last week, President Barack Obama unveiled legislation aimed at making cyberspace safer. "Cyberspace" is, admittedly, a clunky term, but no one has yet come up with anything better to describe the totality of Internet connections, electrical grids, consumer databases, financial networks, military systems, and other networks on which American life has grown dependent. But when it comes to securing it, as Obama has said, "we're not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country."
Obama's proposal won't win any awards for innovation, but it does seek to answer the two big questions: Can we protect the digital realm from the viruses, hacks, and breaches that regularly threaten it? And, can this be done without upsetting the balance between private innovation and government oversight that has enabled the Internet's explosive growth in the last few decades? The president's cybersecurity proposal follows a model first adopted in the early days of the Internet: The government encourages the private sector to take the lead; if it doesn't, or if it fails, the government steps in.
Obama's plan would formally appoint the Department of Homeland Security to act whenever there's a digital breach of information -- whether it's in the private or public sector. The proposal also sets up a legal framework to govern how DHS responds once a company asks the government to get involved.
Part of the goal is to avoid scandals like the recent ones at Sony and Google. In the case of Sony, the records of millions of its gamers were hacked during a two-week period in April, and the company is accused of a delay in informing their customers. In February, Google, after finding out that Gmail and other systems had been infiltrated, with digital forensics showing the threat came from China, caused a stir by giving the National Security Agency access to its records. We learned after the fact that Google executives had been outraged that some 20 other large companies from "the Internet, finance, technology, media, and chemical sectors" had been similarly targeted by China, but only Google had risked public wrath by seeking assistance from one of the government's most distrusted agencies. The idea behind the Obama plan is to make it less toxic for a company to call for help, by setting clear rules about what government agencies have access to and who's in charge.
Under the president's plan, public-private threat monitoring, information sharing, and data retention would get "strong privacy and civil liberties protections." Identifying information, for example, would be treated carefully, so that opening up Gmail records to federal experts doesn't expose the personal files of its millions of users to federal investigators. Private actors sharing information on threats get immunity, and the attorney general oversees the use of the captured data. But the nuances of how citizens' personal data is treated under the new cybersecurity regime will rightly be a focus of the public debate as these details are worked out.
Obama's cybersecurity proposal also directs industry to batten down its own hatches. Operators of core critical infrastructure -- as-yet-to-be-enumerated systems so important that crippling them would disrupt America -- are required to draw up emergency plans that must be verified by commercial auditors. That approach sidesteps the whole question of creating an "Internet kill switch," which would allow the government to shut off the Internet in the case of an infrastructure attack. Here, the private sector is given a chance to figure out what emergency protections look like. On a press call last week, though, administration officials said they see themselves as retaining the authority to step in should industry not step up. The plan would also institute a single national policy, replacing a patchwork of 47 different state laws, to govern when a company must notify users and the government of a data breach.
Much in Obama's wide-ranging proposal goes beyond reframing that public-private dynamic. The federal government worries a great deal about the security of its own networks. Here, the plan officially tasks the Homeland Security Department with deploying government-wide digital intrusion-detection systems such as EINSTEIN, the monitoring program that guards the points at which federal systems connect to the Internet. To strengthen enforcement, the proposal would create mandatory minimum sentences for cyber crimes, explicitly extend powerful laws like the organized-crime law known as RICO to cyberspace crimes, and strengthen penalties for offenses that courts might tend to treat too softly, such as the trafficking in online passwords.
To some extent, the president is playing catch-up. With dozens of relevant bills bouncing around the Hill, Senate leaders have long pressed Obama to focus Washington's attention on specific cybersecurity legislation.
In response to Obama's proposal, Sens. Joe Lieberman, the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; Susan Collins, one of its ranking members; and Tom Carper, chair of the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee, issued a press release thanking Obama for his contribution, saying that "the Senate and the White House are on the same track" when it comes to cybersecurity. The finally, Mr. President was implied.
There's widespread agreement that the government's current ad hoc response to digital threats isn't the best or most sustainable approach. But it's worth keeping in mind the flip-side risk: overreaction. It's a short hop from cybersecurity to cyber war. Seymour Hersh has reported for The New Yorker that the U.S. is on its way toward building a sizable military-cyber complex. The federal government spends some $8 billion annually on unclassified cybersecurity work and about the same on classified work. There's big money, as ever, in war. And this is a debate where the rhetoric hasn't always been careful. One of the major works in the cybersecurity field is Cyber War, a book that came out last April written by Richard Clarke, a former official in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Clarke's book offers a terrifying view of the insecurity of modern technology, leaving the impression that anything with a plug is waiting for the opportunity to kill us.
For many, the exact details of what Obama proposed last week are less important than the fact that he joined the battle to secure cyberspace. Obama has come out as committed to maintaining the balance between the private and public sectors that has been, rather improbably, one of the strong suits of the Internet thus far. Obama is driving forward a debate that already agrees on a premise: We must make cyberspace safe enough for our networked world to continue to thrive.
Nancy Scola
Nancy Scola is a writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in Science Progress, Politics Magazine, AlterNet, and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Read more by Nancy Scola


Amyloid precursor protein knockout mice show age-dependent deficits in passive avoidance learning.
Senechal, Yann and Kelly, Peter and Dev, Kumlesh K. (2008) Amyloid precursor protein knockout mice show age-dependent deficits in passive avoidance learning. Behavioural Brain Research, 186 (1). pp. 126-132. ISSN 0166-4328
Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleUR...
Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its role in cognition has been relatively little studied. APP knockout (KO) animals have been described previously and show deficits in grip strength, reduced locomotor activity and impaired learning and memory in a conditioned avoidance test and the Morris water-maze. In order to further investigate the in vivo function of APP and its proteolytic derivatives, we tested APP KO mice and age-matched wild type controls at two different ages, 3 and 8 months, in a range of behavioural tests measuring neuromuscular, locomotor and cognitive functions. These tests included the acquisition of a passive avoidance response as a measure of long-term memory of an aversive experience, and spontaneous alternation in a Y-maze, regarded as a measure of spatial short-term memory. The absence of APP expression in APP KO mice was confirmed at the protein level using hippocampal tissue in Western blotting. APP KO mice displayed deficits in forelimb grip strength and locomotor activity in agreement with previous studies. In the Y-maze test used for spontaneous alternation behaviour, APP KO animals did not exhibit reduced alternation rates. On the other hand, in the passive avoidance test, APP KO mice showed an age-related deficit in retention of memory for an aversive experience. The results suggest that APP and/or its proteolytic derivatives may play a role in long-term memory in adult brain and/or may be required during the development and maintenance of neuronal networks involved in this type of memory.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez...
doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2007.08.003
author can archive post-print (ie final draft post-refereeing); Publisher's version/PDF cannot be used
Amyloid precursor protein; Knockout mice; Long-term memory; Locomotor activity; Passive avoidance; Spontaneous alternation
https://oak.novartis.com/id/eprint/373


Distinctive Neurochemistry in Alzheimer's Disease via 7 T in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Małgorzata Marjańska, J. Riley McCarten, James S. Hodges, Laura S. Hemmy, Melissa Terpstra
Center for Magnetic Resonance Research
Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
This study's objective was to increase understanding of biological mechanisms underlying clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) by noninvasively measuring an expanded neurochemical profile and exploring how well this advanced technology distinguishes AD from cognitively normal controls. We measured concentrations of 14 neurochemicals using ultra-high field (7 T) ultra-short echo time (8ms) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in 16 participants with mild to moderate clinical AD and 33 age- and gender-matched control participants. MRS was localized to the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a region known to be impacted by AD, and the occipital cortex (OCC), a control region. Participants with AD were recruited from dementia specialty clinics. Concentration of the antioxidant ascorbate was higher (p<0.0007) in both brain regions. Concentrations of the glial marker myo-inositol and the choline-containing compounds involved in membrane turnover were higher (p≤0.0004) in PCC of participants with AD. Ascorbate and myo-inositol concentrations were strongly associated, especially in the PCC. Random forests, using the 14 neurochemicals in the two regions, distinguished participants with AD from controls: same-sample sensitivity and specificity were 88% and 97%, respectively, though out-of-sample-values would be lower. Ultra-high field ultra-short echo time MRS identified the co-occurrence of elevated ascorbate and myo-inositol in the PCC as markers that distinguish participants with mild to moderate AD from controls. While elevated myo-inositol may be a surrogate marker of neuroinflammation, the unexpected elevation of the antioxidant ascorbate may reflect infiltration of ascorbate-rich leukocytes.
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180861
Neurochemistry
Gyrus Cinguli
Alzheimer Disease 7
Neuroglia
Ascorbate
myo -inositol
neurochemical profile
posterior cingulate cortex
ultra-high field
ultra-short echo time
PubMed: MeSH publication types
Marjańska, M., Riley McCarten, J., Hodges, J. S., Hemmy, L. S., & Terpstra, M. (2019). Distinctive Neurochemistry in Alzheimer's Disease via 7 T in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 68(2), 559-569. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180861
Distinctive Neurochemistry in Alzheimer's Disease via 7 T in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. / Marjańska, Małgorzata; Riley McCarten, J.; Hodges, James S.; Hemmy, Laura S.; Terpstra, Melissa.
In: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Vol. 68, No. 2, 01.01.2019, p. 559-569.
Marjańska, M, Riley McCarten, J, Hodges, JS, Hemmy, LS & Terpstra, M 2019, 'Distinctive Neurochemistry in Alzheimer's Disease via 7 T in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy', Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 559-569. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180861
Marjańska M, Riley McCarten J, Hodges JS, Hemmy LS, Terpstra M. Distinctive Neurochemistry in Alzheimer's Disease via 7 T in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 2019 Jan 1;68(2):559-569. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180861
Marjańska, Małgorzata ; Riley McCarten, J. ; Hodges, James S. ; Hemmy, Laura S. ; Terpstra, Melissa. / Distinctive Neurochemistry in Alzheimer's Disease via 7 T in Vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. In: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. 2019 ; Vol. 68, No. 2. pp. 559-569.
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AU - Marjańska, Małgorzata
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AU - Hemmy, Laura S.
AU - Terpstra, Melissa
N2 - This study's objective was to increase understanding of biological mechanisms underlying clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) by noninvasively measuring an expanded neurochemical profile and exploring how well this advanced technology distinguishes AD from cognitively normal controls. We measured concentrations of 14 neurochemicals using ultra-high field (7 T) ultra-short echo time (8ms) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in 16 participants with mild to moderate clinical AD and 33 age- and gender-matched control participants. MRS was localized to the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a region known to be impacted by AD, and the occipital cortex (OCC), a control region. Participants with AD were recruited from dementia specialty clinics. Concentration of the antioxidant ascorbate was higher (p<0.0007) in both brain regions. Concentrations of the glial marker myo-inositol and the choline-containing compounds involved in membrane turnover were higher (p≤0.0004) in PCC of participants with AD. Ascorbate and myo-inositol concentrations were strongly associated, especially in the PCC. Random forests, using the 14 neurochemicals in the two regions, distinguished participants with AD from controls: same-sample sensitivity and specificity were 88% and 97%, respectively, though out-of-sample-values would be lower. Ultra-high field ultra-short echo time MRS identified the co-occurrence of elevated ascorbate and myo-inositol in the PCC as markers that distinguish participants with mild to moderate AD from controls. While elevated myo-inositol may be a surrogate marker of neuroinflammation, the unexpected elevation of the antioxidant ascorbate may reflect infiltration of ascorbate-rich leukocytes.
AB - This study's objective was to increase understanding of biological mechanisms underlying clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) by noninvasively measuring an expanded neurochemical profile and exploring how well this advanced technology distinguishes AD from cognitively normal controls. We measured concentrations of 14 neurochemicals using ultra-high field (7 T) ultra-short echo time (8ms) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in 16 participants with mild to moderate clinical AD and 33 age- and gender-matched control participants. MRS was localized to the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), a region known to be impacted by AD, and the occipital cortex (OCC), a control region. Participants with AD were recruited from dementia specialty clinics. Concentration of the antioxidant ascorbate was higher (p<0.0007) in both brain regions. Concentrations of the glial marker myo-inositol and the choline-containing compounds involved in membrane turnover were higher (p≤0.0004) in PCC of participants with AD. Ascorbate and myo-inositol concentrations were strongly associated, especially in the PCC. Random forests, using the 14 neurochemicals in the two regions, distinguished participants with AD from controls: same-sample sensitivity and specificity were 88% and 97%, respectively, though out-of-sample-values would be lower. Ultra-high field ultra-short echo time MRS identified the co-occurrence of elevated ascorbate and myo-inositol in the PCC as markers that distinguish participants with mild to moderate AD from controls. While elevated myo-inositol may be a surrogate marker of neuroinflammation, the unexpected elevation of the antioxidant ascorbate may reflect infiltration of ascorbate-rich leukocytes.
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KW - neurochemical profile
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DO - 10.3233/JAD-180861
JO - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
JF - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
10.3233/JAD-180861


2019 AFCON Qualifiers: One dead during Senegal – Madagascar match
11 septembre 2018 Benly Anchunda1253 Views 0 Comments
At least one person has died, and about 40 others injured in a stampede at the Mahamasina Municipal Stadium in Madagascar.
The incident happened on Sunday 9th September 2018 before kick-off of a 2019 AFCON qualifier match between Senegal and Madagascar.
The game which ended in a two all tie counted for day-2 action of the first round of qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations.
The stampede occurred at the main entrance of the football structure as thousands hustled to make their way into the stadium.
Results say many started assembling as early as 6 a.m. for a match scheduled for 2: 30 p.m. in the afternoon.
"We were waiting in the queue from six o'clock in the morning. We were meters from the gate when the stampede took place. I was trampled on the back, but my backpack cushioned the impact", Rivo Raberisaona told AFP.
"I do not understand why there was only one gate open to the stadium when it's such a big game", said Henintsoa Mialy Harizafy, whose uncle was injured.
Officials at the Hrja Hospital in Antananarivo where the victims were hospitalised said two of the injured are in critical conditions.
Presently, the hospital is playing host to 41 persons plus the deceased.
Football pundits say the presence of the Liverpool football star, Senegalese born Sadio Mane pulled crowds of football fans.
The presence of many other former Senegalese football celebrities attracted the 20,000 spectators at the soccer play ground
The recent incident is just one of the many tragedies that have occurred in stadia across Africa.
In July 2017, eight people – including seven children – died at a stadium during Senegal's League Cup final.
In February 2017, 17 people died, and 58 others were injured in Angola during an opener ahead of the national championship.
Nineteen people also died in the Ivorian city of Abidjan in 2009 as the qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup between Ivory Coast and Malawi ended in state of chaos.
Tasha Seidou (intern)
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Just Dance® 4
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Game Rating: E10 (Everyone 10+)
Comic Mischief
See Game Manual Buy Game $29.99 FreeTry Demo
The Games on Demand version supports English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese. Download the manual for this game by locating the game on http://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting "See Game Manual". This game requires a Kinect™ Sensor. The world's #1 dance game brand is back with Just Dance®4! The latest edition of the record-breaking franchise takes the party to a whole new level of fun with new game modes, brand new features, coaches and stylish environments. Discover over 40 chart-topping hits from "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida, and "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction to legendary tracks like "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. Challenge your friends in 5 rounds of dance battles with the brand-new Battle mode! Go head to head to unique choreographies and music to be crowned the dance battle champion! Browse through the latest and most popular community content with Kinect™-exclusive Just Dance TV, check out all of you and your friends' videos, and explore the Featured video section, where the very best content is highlighted by our team. With Just Dance 4, the party never ends! Have a blast dancing, laughing, and breaking a sweat with friends and family all night long.
Original release date: 1/8/2013
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Music, Kinect
Offline players 2 - 4
Content downloads
Copy and paste this link into an e-mail or instant message:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Just-Dance-4/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802555308b5?cid=SLink
$29.99 Download to Xbox 360


Carnegie Council Appoints 10 Pacific Delegates for Fact-Finding Trip to the Philippines on Climate Change
L to R top row: Austin McKinney, Candace Burnham, Chetan Peddada; L to R middle row: Jaehyeon Park, Junko Asano, Layla Kilolu, Milan Chen; L to R bottom row: Mark Payumo, Ratchada Arpornsilp, Yoko Okura. CREDIT: Terence Hurley
In October 2018, Carnegie Council's Asia Dialogues program is leading a fact-finding trip to Manila to investigate the effects of climate change on Philippine politics and society.
With severe typhoons a regular occurrence, the Philippines has become the portrait of climate change victimhood. At COP21 in Paris, the country's representative told delegates: "For the Philippines, climate change means sorrowful catalogues of casualty and fatality; the countless voices of the homeless and the grieving, their very tears and screams carried to us by the winds and waves that blew their homes away." Many island nations like the Philippines are already being affected by rising sea levels, a specter of what lies ahead for low-lying cities such as Miami, Florida. How is the encroaching threat of climate change reshaping culture, politics, and even faith in these communities? How can the claim of economic prosperity be reconciled with the equally valid claim of sustainability and conservation? How can the way Filipinos are coping with extreme climate change-related weather and disasters inform the rest of the world about response and resilience?
Drawn from a variety of professional, regional, and academic backgrounds, the group of Pacific Delegates selected to join this trip are as follows:
Ratchada Arpornsilp (Thailand) is a Thai Fulbright Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow for 2017-2018 at the International Program, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Cornell University.
Junko Asano (Hong Kong, China) is a Ph.D. candidate in international development at the University of Oxford and a senior research assistant in public international law at City University of Hong Kong.
Candace Burnham (U.S.) is an analyst with the New York State Police, assigned to the New York State Intelligence Center, a post-9/11 fusion center that links local, state, tribal, and federal partners to prevent major criminal threats.
Milan Chen (Taiwan) is a doctoral researcher under the chair of environmental and climate policy at School of Governance, Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Layla Kilolu (U.S.) is an East West Center degree fellow and graduate student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, with an emphasis on disaster management and humanitarian assistance.
Austin McKinney (U.S.) is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, where he is a Tillman Scholar. He is also a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and works with Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx).
Yoko Okura (Japan) Yoko Okura is the program and research manager, flood resilience, at Mercy Corps. Based in Jakarta, she manages the research and advocacy portfolios of Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Nepal for the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance.
Jaehyeon Park (Korea) is a Ph.D. student in urban planning at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Mark Payumo (U.S.) is co-founder of Strategic & Warfare Studies Group, an emerging research entity on Asia-Pacific security.
Chetan Peddada (U.S.) is a senior manager at Liberty Mutual, where he leads a team that builds machine-learning applications that are widely used throughout the organization.
The Carnegie Council's Asia Dialogues program gratefully acknowledges the support for its work from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Asia DialoguesEducation Climate Change Southeast Asia The Philippines
Reading List and Discussion Questions on Climate Change and The Philippines


Star Trek Logo Kids' T-Shirt - White
The United Federation of Planets is the interstellar government that sent the USS Enterprise crew on its peaceful exploration. The Star Trek crew were commanded on a 5-year mission of deep space exploration into uncharted space to discover new species, worlds and civilisations, going where no man has gone before.
Set out "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisation, to go where no man has ever gone before!" Star Trek: The Original Series followed the voyagers of star ship USS Enterprise; set in 2265 exactly three centuries after the first episode aired in 1966. With a futuristic setting, the programme was also known for its progressive thinking and controversy around issues surrounding that decade. Show love to your favourite space trekkers with Zavvi's exclusive Star Trek range. Become a part of the team with your own enterprise crew uniform an operator like Scotty or a scientist like Spock. Packed with designs of your favourite characters and episodes this range is perfect for any Star Trek fan.
T-Shirts are made from pre-shrunk 100% Cotton (Grey 90% Cotton / 10% Polyester). If you prefer a baggy fit, please order a size up.
Size Please choose... 3-4 Years 5-6 Years 7-8 Years 9-10 Years 11-12 Years
Color Please choose... White