Recovery Act: Initial Results on States' Use of and Accountability for Transportation Funds GAO-09-597T, Apr 29, 2009 Additional Materials: Contact: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provided $48.1 billion in additional spending at the Department of Transportation (DOT) for investments in transportation infrastructure, including highways, passenger rail, and transit. This statement provides a general overview of (1) selected states' use of Recovery Act funds for highway programs, (2) the approaches taken by these states to ensure accountability for these funds, and (3) the selected states' plans to evaluate the impact of the Recovery Act funds that they receive for highway programs. This statement is based on work in which GAO examined the use of Recovery Act funds by a core group of 16 states and the District of Columbia, representing about 65 percent of the U.S. population and two-thirds of the intergovernmental federal assistance available through the Act. GAO issued its first bimonthly report on April 23, 2009.
According to DOT, as of mid-April, the 17 locations that GAO reviewed had obligated $3.3 billion of the over $15 billion (21 percent) in highway investment funds that DOT had apportioned to them. These funds will be used in about 900 projects. States are using existing statewide plans to quickly identify and obligate funding for Recovery Act transportation projects. Several states have generally focused on rehabilitation and repair projects, because these projects require lessenvironmental review or design work. For example, the New Jersey Department of Transportation selected 40 projects and concentrated mainly on projects that require little environmental clearance or extensive design work, such as highway and bridge painting and deck replacement. Some states also reported targeting funds toward projects with an emphasis on job creation and consideration of economically distressed areas. For example, Colorado Department of Transportation officials are emphasizing construction projects, such as highway bridge replacements, rather than projects in planning or design phases, in order to maximize job creation. The Illinois Department of Transportation reported that it is planning to spend a large share of its estimated $655 million in Recovery Act funds for highway and bridge projects in economically distressed areas. States are modifying systems to track Recovery Act funds but are concerned about tracking funds distributed directly to nonstate entities. Officials from all 16 of the states which GAO is reviewing and the District of Columbia stated that they have established or are establishing ways to identify, monitor, track, and report on the use of the Recovery Act funds. However, officials from many of these states and the District of Columbia have concerns about the ability of subrecipients, localities, and other non-state entities to separately monitor, track, and report on the Recovery Act funds these nonstate entities receive. Officials in several states also expressed concern about being held accountable for funds flowing directly to localities or other recipients and indicated that either their states would not be tracking Recovery Act funds going to the local levels or that they were unsure how much data would be available on the use of these funds. Our April 23rd report recommended that the OMB evaluate current reporting requirements before adding further data collection requirements. States vary in their responses to determining how to assess the impact of Recovery Act funds. For programs such as the Federal-aid Highway Surface Transportation Program, some states will use existing federal program guidance or performance measures to evaluate impact. However, a number of states have expressed concerns about definitions of "jobs retained" and "jobs created" under the act, as well as methodologies that can be used for the estimation of each. Given these concerns, GAO recommended in its first bimonthly report that the OMB continue to identify methodologies that can be used to determine jobs retained and created from projects funded by the Recovery Act.


We all wish we had more time in the day. However, the reality is we must all complete everything in the same 24 hour period as our friends, family, colleagues and competitors.
In a recent post on his leadership blog, John Maxwell wrote about this shared limitation of available time. What distinguishes the most successful people, he suggests, is how they prioritize their tasks to make the best use of their time. In fact, Maxwell provided a simple but effective formula for prioritizing tasks to make the best use of time. This approach is similar to formulas I’ve used to prioritize business requirements on projects. Therefore, I created a spreadsheet to leverage John’s formula and provide a tool for prioritizing tasks. You can download a copy of the spreadsheet here by simply clicking on the appropriate version below:
Prioritization Tool I encourage you to read John’s “Don’t Manage Your Time, Manage Your Life!” post yourself. Then, you can either use this spreadsheet or find your own solution for prioritizing tasks.
Question: Did you try this spreadsheet or another formula or tool to prioritize your tasks? What works for you?


Sections
Who Are the Elderly Bereaved? | Theories About Adjustment to Permanent Losses
Excerpt
The terms bereavement and grief reaction have been used to refer to any number of losses experienced by older adults. These losses include (but are not limited to) the death of a spouse, an adult child, another family member, or a close personal friend; divorce (Cain 1988); prolonged caregiving for a severely impaired relative (Bass et al. 1991); and a significant decline in one's own health, attractiveness, capabilities, opportunities, and so forth (Kalish 1987). When used in its narrowest sense, bereavement refers to the reaction or process that results after the death of someone close. Indeed, death of a spouse is generally accepted as the most common and traumatic life event that older people experience (Jacobs and Ostfeld 1977).


Them egg-heads never sleep, it seems. Every day brings something new:
Using treadmill-conditioned mice, a team led by the Department of Kinesiology's Gianni Parise has shown that aerobic exercise triggers those cells to become bone more often than fat. In sedentary mice, the same stem cells were more likely to become fat, impairing blood production in the marrow cavities of bones.This is a real boon for a couch potato like I. The only question is: should I start my diet with these treadmill-conditioned mice or is there a plan to produce treadmill-conditioned cows, sheep and other more gastronomically attractive critters?


To the Editor:In Central NJ, nearly 260 people a week are newly diagnosed with cancer; nearly 89 of those individuals have colon cancer, just like Julie Patskin of Bedminster. At Cancer Support Community Central NJ, we want to recognize that March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
Colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States. For every person affected, there are many people in their lives that are also impacted. CSCCNJ serves all people affected by cancer.
Julie, a colon cancer survivor, has utilized many of the free activities offered at CSCCNJ. CSCCNJ offers a menu of options for individuals including support groups led by professional staff, education, nutrition, healthy cooking, gentle fitness, yoga and stress reducing classes.
All of this is available, FREE, to any person affected by cancer. This includes the individual with cancer, their family and friends. “At CSCCNJ, my entire family found the hope and support we needed on our journey with cancer, ensuring we never felt alone,” said Julie.
Amy J. Sutton Executive Director Cancer Support Community Central New Jersey
Got something to say? Email deborah.bell@patch.com with your letters and opinions.
Related Topics: Cancer Support Community Central New Jersey, Cancer support, Letter to the Editor, and Opinion


The September Business Conditions report, released by the Precision Metalformers Association, or PMA, shows that 24% of participants anticipate that economic activity will improve during the next three months--up from 23% in August. Meanwhile, 51% predict that activity will remain unchanged, up from 46% last month, and 25% report that activity will decline, compared to 31% in August.
Metalforming companies also expect a slight increase in incoming orders during the next three months, with 32% anticipating an increase in orders, compared to 29% in August; 37% forecasting no change--down from 40% last month--and 31% predicting a decrease in orders, the same percentage reported in August.
The PMA report also showed wverage daily shipping levels improved modestly in September, with 22 percent of participants reporting that shipping levels are above levels of three months ago--up from 17% in August. At the same time, 38% report that shipping levels are the same as three months ago, compared to 43% in August, and 40% report a decrease in shipping levels.
“After several months of flat or modestly negative expectations for new orders and shipments, PMA’s manufacturing member companies have moved to a slightly more positive outlook as Q-3 draws to a close,” said William E. Gaskin, PMA president. “During the first four or five months of 2012, the average metalforming company reported that orders and shipments, year-over-year, were growing at the rate of approximately 10% and 12%, respectively, compared to 2011."
One area of concern: The percentage of metalforming companies with a portion of their workforce on short time or layoff increased to 15% in September, up from 13% in August. The September figure is higher than it was one year ago when only 12% of metalformers reported workers on short time or layoff. According to Gaskin, a modest contraction in orders and shipments during the summer was seen across many sectors, with the exception of automotive. This, in turn, reduced growth to approximately 8% year-over-year. "With significant economic uncertainty being exacerbated by the upcoming presidential election, it is expected that the balance of 2012 will continue to show single-digit growth compared to 2011, as we look ahead to Q-4," Gaskin noted.
The full September PMA Business Conditions Report is available online.


Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute
Anthony T. Gallagher
doctoral dissertation, tech. report CMU-RI-TR-09-02, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, April, 2009 Download
Copyright notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
Abstract
Simple Temporal Networks (STNs) have gained increasing acceptance in scheduling applications, and provide key features for dealing with dynamic, uncertain execution environments. STNs provide strong support for flexible-times schedules, which can absorb some of the deviations encountered during schedule execution, lessening the need for rescheduling. Further, they lend assistance to incremental scheduling techniques, which revise the existing schedule instead of formulating a new solution from scratch. This reduces the changes from one schedule to the next, increasing stability. Despite these advantages, STNs have received scant attention in distributed scheduling. A key limitation has been that STNs require consistency of all temporal
information: An inconsistent STN provides no solution. Unfortunately, consistency cannot be guaranteed in a distributed, dynamic, and uncertain environment, where agents frequently have conflicting information due to various factors (such as communication lags). Previous pproaches have concentrated on designing conservative schedules that do not encounter inconsistencies during execution. However, such guarantees are often impractical, and can lead to diminished performance.
This thesis investigates three important issues surrounding the use of Simple Temporal Networks (STNs) in a distributed scheduling environment. We start by presenting strategies to recover from the inconsistent information that naturally arises during schedule execution, and restore the STN to a consistent state. We leverage the conflict analysis tools presented by the STN framework to detect, explain and resolve inconsistencies as they arise. Our strategies extend previous work on explaining STN conflicts in centralized scheduling domains, adapting this technology to the additional complexities presented by a distributed environment. We present a set of "local" and "non-local" conflict resolution actions that an agent can apply to resolve inconsistencies. Local actions make changes to the agent's local schedule. Non-local actions, on the other hand, make assumptions about other agent's activities, restoring consistency while waiting for updated information. Our results show that a team of agents using these conflict resolution actions significantly outperforms a second team of agent that makes conservative assumptions to prevent inconsistencies from arising during execution.
Conflict explanation can also be used on inconsistencies encountered during the scheduling process to enhance the multi-agent schedule. This thesis develops strategies that increase the robustness of the schedule, and enable agents to update previous commitments they had made to each other. Assuming a model of durational uncertainty, we have developed Just-in-Time Backfilling (JIT-BF), a framework that monitors the scheduled activities that are close to execution for potential failures, and takes action to prevent these failures by scheduling redundant activities. JIT-BF extracts low-probability durations from the uncertainty model and inserts them into the STN in a "what-if" mode to see what would happen if the duration does occur. Inconsistencies point to potential impending failures. By analyzing the inconsistency, its effect on the schedule can be determined, and preventative action taken to reinforce the schedule. Our results show that a team of agents that uses JIT-BF significantly outperforms a reactive team of agents that recovers from inconsistencies once they arise.
We conclude this thesis by presenting a conflict-driven coordination approach to updating existing temporal commitments between agents. When an agent fails to schedule a new activity because of conflicts with the scheduled activities of other agents, it can analyze the resulting inconsistency to discover what these conflicting activities are and by how much they need to move to allow the new activity to be scheduled. We present two alternative strategies that provide a trade-off between the amount of information an agent needs to initiate a coordination session, and the time needed for coordination. Our results show that agents using either strategy significantly outperform an agent team that unconditionally maintains inter-agent commitments once formed. Further, we show that agents using either strategy deliver equivalent performance, yet, the less information-heavy strategy significantly reduces the amount of communication at a negligible computational cost increase.
Notes
Number of pages: 259
Text Reference
Anthony T. Gallagher, "Embracing Conflicts: Exploiting Inconsistencies in Distributed Schedules using Simple Temporal Network Representations
," doctoral dissertation, tech. report CMU-RI-TR-09-02, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, April, 2009
BibTeX Reference
@phdthesis{Gallagher_2009_6356,author = "Anthony T Gallagher",
title = "
Embracing Conflicts: Exploiting Inconsistencies in Distributed Schedules using Simple Temporal Network Representations
",booktitle = "",
school = "Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University",
month = "April",
year = "2009",
number= "CMU-RI-TR-09-02",
address= "Pittsburgh, PA",
}
The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.Contact Us | Update Instructions


Catechumenate directors and newcomers to the faith operate in four distinct periods punctuated by three steps. Picking up on the theme of spiritual journey of section 5, the Church teaches:
6. This journey includes not only the periods for making inquiry and for maturing (see no. 7), but also the steps marking the catechumens’ progress, as they pass, so to speak, through another doorway or ascend to the next level.
1. The first step: reaching the point of initial conversion and wishing to become Christians, they are accepted as catechumens by the Church.
2. The second step: having progressed in faith and nearly completed the catechumenate, they are accepted into a more intense preparation for the sacraments of initiation.
3. The third step: having completed their spiritual preparation, they receive the sacraments of initiation.
These three steps are to be regarded as the major, more intense moments of initiation and are marked by three liturgical rites: the first by the rite of acceptance into the order of catechumens (nos. 41-74); the second by the rite of election of enrollment of names (nos. 118-137); and the third by the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation (nos. 206-243).
Working within the framework of the liturgical year, step three is the Easter Vigil. By long tradition the second step coincides with the commencement of Lent. Working backward from there, the first step may take place at any time. The assumption will be that the length of time between steps one and two accommodate nearly all of the spiritual journey. In the early Church that period lasted one to seven years. Today, in practice, a catechumenate period may last a few months, but most catechists would recommend a minimum of one year.


Canadian Forest Service Publications View Record Stability of surface LiDAR height estimates on a point and polygon basis. 2008. Wulder, M.A.; Magnussen, S.; Harding, D.; Coops, N.C.; Boudewyn, P.A.; Seemann, D. Journal of Forest Planning 13: 279-286.
Year: 2008Available from: Pacific Forestry CentreCatalog ID: 28147Language: EnglishAbstract Airborne scanning LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data has significant potential to update, audit, calibrate, and validate operational stand-level forest inventories by providing information on canopy height, vertical structure, and ground elevation. However, using LiDAR data as an operational data source in a sampling context requires repeatable and consistent attribute estimation (i.e. height), from data collected over several acquisition flight lines. We examined the consistency of LiDAR height estimates obtained from the Scanning LiDAR Imager of Canopies by Echo Recovery (SLICER) instrument over Jack pine (Pinus banksiana, var. Lamb) and black spruce (Picea mariana, var. Mill.) forest stands in central Saskatchewan, Canada. Two analyses were undertaken: first, estimated tree heights derived from pairs of LiDAR returns, acquired from multiple flight lines and within 9m of a single LiDAR footprint, were compared to assess the consistency of height estimates (point stability); secondly, height estimates from multiple flight lines within individual forest inventory polygons were compared to assess the consistency of within-polygon estimates of tree height (polygon stability). The point stability analysis indicated that over all forest classes estimates of height were consistent, with 94% of LiDAR returns (n = 15,896) having a pair-wise height difference within ± 5m. On a polygon basis, both between- and within-flight line standard deviations were considered. Results indicated that the within-polygon variability in estimated tree heights was captured by LiDAR data collected over any portion of a polygon. This result suggests that the inventory polygons are homogenous with regards to height (and related variability) and may be characterized with LiDAR, independent of actual flight path.


In Canada, 3793 patients survived to discharge after a cardiac arrest; 628 (16.6%) of these were implanted with a cardioverter defibrillator before discharge. The implant rate rose steadily from 5.4% in 1994/95 to 26.7% in 2002/03. In the United States, 23 688 (30.2%) of 78 538 such survivors received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator before discharge. Wednesday, July 04, 2007 U.S. versus Canada in treatment of survivors of cardiac arrest Survival of cardiac arrest due to ventricular arrhythmia not due to a transient or reversible cause is a slam-dunk indication for an implantable defibrillator. However, almost twice as many eligible patients in the U.S. receive this treatment as do those in Canada according to this report from CMAJ:


Note: Please understand that I am not in the medical profession. The following recommendation is based on my own experience and I recommend it as an OTC remedy if you're in need while you're traveling in China. Obviously, it's best to check with a doctor before taking any medication. It is pretty common to catch a cold when you're traveling, especially when you're sitting for hours on an airplane breathing recycled air - and germs. And although hopefully, you've packed carefully, including your first aid kit, you still might need some cold meds and you probably don't want to go searching when you've got a packed itinerary and the free time you do have you want to spend shopping and eating.
I had one of the worst colds I've ever experienced last fall when I went on my tea-trek out to Yunnan Province and the Linden Centre. The trip was still wonderful but I have a feeling my travel partners would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been honking into tissues the entire time.
When I got back, a girlfriend introduced me to Ban Lan Gen Ke Li (板蓝根颗粒) medication that she gets over-the-counter in Chinese pharmacies. Since that cold, I take it religiously to fend off cold symptoms. I find it certainly does make the cold less severe and shorter.
Ban Lan Gen Ke Li is a Traditional Chinese Medicine that typically comes in little packets that you mix with hot water. You drink it like a tea. I don't mind the flavor - it reminds me of warm Coca-Cola. My local pharmacist recommends drinking it three times a day while your symptoms last.


This study provided an estimate of prenatal smoking based on data from two population-based sources for which smoking information was gathered for the same women at two different time periods and using two different methods. When examining the two data sources separately, the prenatal smoking estimate derived from the PRAMS questionnaires was higher than the BC's estimate; however, the combined estimate identified even more smokers than did either data source alone. These results are consistent with a prior study conducted in six states approximately 10 years earlier.
10 The combined estimate of 15.1% is likely to be lower than the true prevalence because it is based on self-reported smoking. Studies using biochemical validation have found a wide range in nondisclosure rates, from 6% in a population of pregnant women attending a prenatal clinic in Sweden
14 to 73% in a population of pregnant women attending one of four publicly funded clinics in Philadelphia.
15 A study conducted in New Zealand using data from the medical record combined with maternal self-reports from a mailed questionnaire found that 22% of the women in the sample wrongly classified themselves as nonsmokers when using biochemical validation.
16 Windsor et al. recommended applying a 20% smoking misclassification rate to pregnant women in the U.S.
17 If this rate were applied to our sample, the true prevalence of smoking during pregnancy would be 18.1%. The accuracy of self-reported smoking status has been shown to be influenced by many factors, including “characteristics of the individual respondents,” “method and setting of encounter,” “cognitive demands imposed by the question,” and “the motivation of the respondents as mediated by the social desirability of the subject of inquiry.”
18 Additional research is needed to investigate how to improve the accuracy of self-reported measures of smoking during pregnancy.
We found systematic differences in the reporting of prenatal smoking by data source. For example, women who were older and more educated were more likely to be identified as smokers on the PRAMS questionnaire and not on the BC. This finding may indicate that these women were more likely to admit smoking in a confidential self-administered questionnaire than to a provider. However, the systematic differences in reporting by data source are unlikely to result in meaningful biases due to their small magnitude. In fact, each data source independently identified the same subgroups of women with the highest prenatal smoking prevalence.
The 2003 revised BC questions were based on research indicating that when women were asked these questions directly, the trimester-specific question had a significantly higher sensitivity and a lower smoking misclassification rate.
19 However, in some hospitals, this information is gathered from the medical record, and in these cases, it would be unlikely that these revisions to the BC questions would affect reporting. In these situations, the revised BC may even pose some disadvantages, because smoking status during each trimester is not typically recorded in the medical record. In a separate sub-analysis, we examined the prevalence of prenatal smoking before and after South Carolina and Washington State began using the 2003 revised BC, and we found the prevalence unchanged: South Carolina, 11.8% (95% CI 9.3, 14.4) to 12.3% (95% CI 9.9, 15.2); Washington State, 12.8% (95% CI 10.3, 15.7) to 9.2% (95% CI 7.2, 11.7). As more states adopt the 2003 revised BC, further evaluation of these questions and how the rates compare between the old and new BC questions will be important.
Limitations
Our study has several limitations. First, as mentioned previously, our estimate of the prevalence of prenatal smoking is likely an underestimation of the true prevalence, because both the BC and the PRAMS questionnaire rely on maternal self-reporting of smoking status, which is known to be underreported. Errors in self-reporting can occur for several reasons. Respondents may not fully understand the questions being asked, possibly due to language barriers or poorly written questions. Respondents may fail to report the information to their doctors or on a questionnaire because of the social stigma associated with smoking during pregnancy. Finally, there may be errors in data entry, which could lead to an under- or overreporting of smoking.
Second, PRAMS is a retrospective survey, and recall bias may have affected self-reported smoking. Next, because of the different reference time frames, the BC estimate may include women who smoked during their first two trimesters of pregnancy then quit for the last three months of pregnancy, whereas the PRAMS estimate would not include these women. In a separate sub-analysis of the South Carolina and Washington State estimates, we found that 11 (<0.1%) women reported smoking during the first two trimesters and abstinence during the third trimester; subsequently, these women were included on the BC estimate but not captured on the PRAMS estimate. Lastly, our findings are generalizeable only to the 24 states included in this analysis and not to the U.S. as a whole.


Fellow Student-Author Krystyna Baumgartner and I had the privilege of attending the Major League Baseball Players Association’s (“MLBPA”) memorial for Marvin Miller on Monday, January 21st at NYU’s School of Law. The memorial was a glorious tribute to the life and legacy of one of the most important and successful leaders in labor history.
The memorial featured thirteen speakers with clips of Marvin Miller inserted in between. The first speaker was Richard Moss, prominent General Counsel of the MLBPA after Miller was elected Executive Director in 1966. Moss stated that Miller was especially gifted in explaining difficult concepts in a way that everyone could understand, without talking down to the listener, a skill that was echoed by speakers throughout the night.
Executive Director of the National Hockey League Players Association, Donald Fehr, also spoke. Fehr reflected on the emotional side of Marvin Miller that he deliberately concealed from the public. Miller was a brilliant tactician, even outside the negotiating room. For example, Fehr noted that Miller would intentionally speak quietly in order to make the players strain to pay attention. Fehr also notably addressed why Marvin Miller is still remembered today, more than 30 years after he retired. He argued that Miller built the MLBPA into a symbol of what a union could be, if run properly. Since former President Regan’s firing of 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981, there has been a general acceptance of attack on labor unions from management, which continues today. Despite the hostile environment, the MLBPA successfully struck in 1981 and 1994. Finally, Fehr stated that Miller’s work to get individual members to take ownership of their union is the reason for the MLBPA’s success and claimed that unions in other industries would be much better off today if they were run with similar principles.
Of particular interest was the bevy of both current and former players in attendance. Speakers included Hall of Fame members Dave Winfield and Joe Morgan. Many players echoed sentiments that Miller’s most difficult job was to organize a group of individuals who feared for their job security if they joined a union and who wanted to focus on playing baseball rather than deal with labor relations issues. It took several years for the players to realize what could be gained from union solidarity. Buck Martinez and Jim Bouton described Miller as an educator. Current Director of Player Relations, Tony Clark, noted the lasting appreciation that the players have for Marvin Miller and the principles he stood for, inviting several current players in attendance to stand. Just about every single player expressed his offense to Miller’s exclusion from the Hall of Fame.
Finally, the clips of Marvin Miller were especially poignant. During his vignettes Miller expressed pride in his involvement with numerous unions and noted the value of speaking to each and every member. He also noted the conditions players faced prior to taking ownership of their union, and cautioned the players to not take their current position for granted. Miller stressed that educated, involved union members are necessary for the continuing success of the MLBPA.


The 2007-09 global financial crisis disrupted the provision of credit in Latin America less than previous crises. We identify key initial macroeconomic conditions that contributed to the higher resilience of real credit in Latin America during this episode. These relate to economies' capacity to withstand an external financial shock and the scope for countercyclical macroeconomic policies. We also show that in most cases current macroeconomic fundamentals have deteriorated relative to those in 2007.
JEL classification: E65, G2.


Caregivers of elderly or disabled loved ones work hard. There’s no getting around the sacrifices of time, energy, private life and often financial wellbeing that caregivers, be it family or professional, often make. However, the rewards that accompany this self-sacrifice can be priceless.
With a caregiving history involving decades of caring for multiple loved ones, I know quite a bit about the hard times as well as the blessings of caregiving. Yet, because I’m an eldercare columnist, I receive letters from individuals who have caregiving responsibilities far beyond anything I’ve ever imagined. Many people are providing intensive care for adult children, others for parents or spouses.


Our vice president of communications here at GM recently shared some info on the characteristics of a good communications leaders. These are based on recently updated results from a survey of 300 top communications leaders conducted by Heidrick & Struggles.
Understands all functions within the communications mix (and those aligned to it), including internal/external communications, marketing communications, financial communications, new media, public affairs, investor relations, philanthropy and community relations. Can integrate these functions, even if not directly responsible for them all, into a comprehensive communications strategy. Knows the organization’s key stakeholders and how to engage with them. Appreciates the power of the growing base of “unofficial stakeholders” who use new media to reach mass audiences with their own content and interpretations. Serves as a trusted advisor and counselor to the leadership team. Places a high priority on Reputation Management. Works to ensure that the organization’s actions and decisions flow from authentic values and are guided by ethical standards. Is capable of helping to shape and lead organizational transformation. Has the instincts and experience to create, redefine and/or leverage a brand. Mobilizes employees to embrace and embody the brand. Has the courage to face up to difficult situations and to present bad news. Has strong fundamental skills as a thinker, writer and speaker. Inspires his/her team by creating a sense of purpose and expanding their skills. Balances discipline (planning/measuring) with agility (handling the unexpected). Can navigate in complex, global environments. Forges strong relationships and builds a network of good allies. Knows the business. Listens.


When was the last time you thought about the cost of paper? Most people believe that paper is cheap or even free, but in managing your business, paper is expensive - in physical cost and personnel cost.
A Coopers & Lybrand study published in 2004, stated that the typical organization is growing its paper base storage 25% per year. With this growth, you will double your paper storage every three years. Paper is not free!
Consider the following statistics from the same study:
Translated into dollars cost, Coopers & Lybrand studies have stated:
In 1999, a study by The Delphi Group found that companies spend an average of $25,000 to fill a typical four-drawer file cabinet. Once the documents are filed, they spend on average $2,000 per year to maintain each cabinet and an average cost of $30 per piece of paper stored over it's life-span.
What is it costing you to maintain your paper files? What is the real reason you have not moved to a document management solution? CASNET can help! Contact us now!


Abstract:This paper analyzes a model in which a group of rational individuals votes over the composition and time profile of public spending. All voters agree that a balanced budget is ex ante optimal. However, if there is disagreement between current and future majorities, a balanced budget is not a political equilibrium under majority rule. Under certain conditions, a majority of the voters favors a budget deficit, and the equilibrium deficit is larger the greater is the polarization among voters. Copyright 1990 by American Economic Association.


Feb 18 2008
Gender and War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe. Eds. Nancy M. Wingfield and Maria Bucur. Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies, eds. Alexander Rabinowitch and William G. Rosenberg. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. vii, 251 pp. Select Bibliography. Contributors. Index. Paper.This collection of articles examines the variety of gendered experiences during the first and second world wars in Eastern Europe. The essays cover a wide spectrum of experiences and effects of war, exploring both military and civilian aspects (with emphasis on the latter). They seek to reevaluate traditional war narratives that focus heavily on men, particularly combatant men, and thus, “gender the front” (1). The book is divided into thematic sections: “challenging gender/resorting order,” “gendered collaborating and resisting,” and “remembering war: gendered bodies, gendered stories.”
Alon Rachamimov’s “’Female Generals’ and ‘Siberian Angels’: Aristocratic Nurses and the Austro-Hungarian POW Relief” demonstrates that women administrative nurses did not enjoy the positive reception of nurses who served in purely medical capacities. These women were not in auxiliary medical positions subordinate to male personnel, but rather in positions of authority assigned with the task of reporting on the conditions of the POWs within the camps and ensuring their loyalty to the Austro-Hungarian government. Rachamimov reveals the considerable gendered tension between male POWs and female administrative nurses. The men often found it difficult to accept women in positions of power over them and reacted to their presence with indifference, sullenness, and even hostility. This stands in stark contrast to the views male POWs had of women serving in purely nursing capacities, who were seen as a source of solace and comfort in their more traditional roles of caregivers and nurturers, and who held little to no authority over male personnel. Continue Reading »


A wide-reaching piece of legislation aims to rework the way educators across the state are evaluated, hired and retained — a comprehensive reform effort that has divided many in the state’s K-12 education system, The Greeley Tribune reports.
The legislation, Senate Bill 191, comes as increased pressure is placed on states to reform teacher accountability measures related to effectiveness and evaluation — a key component of the federal Race to the Top competition, which pits states against each other for billions in education funding.
The legislation calls for the creation of a system to evaluate both teachers and principals based, in part, on their students’ academic achievement.


A project of the Economic Opportunity Institute
From 1999 to 2009, the percentage of people in Washington covered by private health insurance plans declined by 5%.
Over the same period, the percentage covered by government insurance, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Basic Health Plan, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, rose to cover one third of all people in the state.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License from the Economic Opportunity Institute. Liquid layout thanks to Matthew James Taylor.


Stainless Steel and Glass-Lined Reactors are typically found in API and Specialty Chemical production. The size of SS and Glass Lined reactors can vary from 50 gallons to over 5,000 gallons, and often agitators, dip tubes, coils and baffles are encountered, which can make effective cleaning even more of a challenge. This would also mean that it is important to choose the right tank cleaning nozzle which can effectively clean your reactor, yet do so efficiently so that it minimizes cycle time, chemical usage (e.g., caustic solvent) and effluent discharge. It is also clear that choosing the right tank cleaning nozzle can have a big impact on the financial bottom line, and this is where Lechler, with our engineering team, can help you.
Click for Cleaning of glass and reactors


There are numerous threats facing honey bee populations and the recent losses of honey bee colonies in the United States, Canada, and Europe is alarming. In the U.S., annual honey bee colony losses increased from 17–20% to 32% during the winter of 2006/07 with some operations losing 90% of their hives. Average annual losses have remained high, averaging 32% from 2007–2010. One factor contributing to increased losses is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), an unexplained loss of honey bee colonies fitting a defined set of criteria. While factors such as pesticide exposure, transportation stress, genetic diversity, and nutrition affect colony health, the most significant CCD-associated variable characterized to date is increased pathogen incidence. Although greater pathogen incidence correlates with CCD, the cause is unknown in part due to insufficient knowledge of the pathogenic and commensal organisms associated with honey bees.
To gain a more complete understanding of the spectrum of infectious agents and potential threats found in commercially managed migratory honey bee colonies, researchers conducted a 10-month investigation. Analysis incorporated a suite of molecular tools (custom microarray, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), quantitative PCR (qPCR) and deep sequencing) enabling rapid detection of the presence (or absence) of all previously identified honey bee pathogens as well as facilitating the detection of novel pathogens. This study provides a comprehensive temporal characterization of honey bee pathogens and offers a baseline for understanding current and emerging threats to this critical component of U.S. agriculture.
Discovery and characterization of four new viruses will facilitate future monitoring of bee colones. Temporal characterization of these and other microbes offers a more complete view of the possible microbe-microbe and microbe-environment interactions. Further studies examining any subtle or combinatorial effects of these novel microbes are required to understand their role in colony health.
Temporal Analysis of the Honey Bee Microbiome Reveals Four Novel Viruses and Seasonal Prevalence of Known Viruses, Nosema, and Crithidia. (2011) PLoS ONE 6(6): e20656. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020656 Honey bees (Apis mellifera ) play a critical role in global food production as pollinators of numerous crops. Recently, honey bee populations in the United States, Canada, and Europe have suffered an unexplained increase in annual losses due to a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Epidemiological analysis of CCD is confounded by a relative dearth of bee pathogen field studies. To identify what constitutes an abnormal pathophysiological condition in a honey bee colony, it is critical to have characterized the spectrum of exogenous infectious agents in healthy hives over time. We conducted a prospective study of a large scale migratory bee keeping operation using high-frequency sampling paired with comprehensive molecular detection methods, including a custom microarray, qPCR, and ultra deep sequencing. We established seasonal incidence and abundance of known viruses, Nosema sp., Crithidia mellificae , and bacteria. Ultra deep sequence analysis further identified four novel RNA viruses, two of which were the most abundant observed components of the honey bee microbiome (~10^11 viruses per honey bee). Our results demonstrate episodic viral incidence and distinct pathogen patterns between summer and winter time-points. Peak infection of common honey bee viruses and Nosema occurred in the summer, whereas levels of the trypanosomatid Crithidia mellificae and Lake Sinai virus 2, a novel virus, peaked in January.


Resilient carers and caregivers This chapter examines the resilience of family carers and caregivers in the palliative care setting. It analyses the impact of caring on caregivers using available data from relevant literature and from the personal accounts of caregivers. It highlights the discrepancies between how caregiving is construed by health and social care practitioners and the representation of the lived experience of caring reported by family members and others concerned.
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.


Background: The Presque Isle Bay Watershed Restoration, Protection, and Monitoring Plan (http://pib.psu.edu) serves as the framework for restoring and protecting water resources within the Presque Isle Bay watershed and provides a model that can be adapted to other urban watersheds.The Presque Isle Bay watershed drains a highly urbanized area of approximately 26.22 square miles, including portions of Millcreek Township, City of Erie, Harborcreek Township, Summit Township, and Greene Township in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Tributaries of the bay include, from west to east, Scott Run, Unnamed Tributary One, Unnamed Tributary Two, Cascade Creek, Mill Creek, and its tributary Garrison Run. These tributaries comprise 90% of the bay’s watershed; the remainder of the watershed (10%) is comprised of direct runoff to the bay.Geospatial data collected as part of the watershed characterization of the Plan were used to prioritize restoration needs in the watershed. The 18 watershed characterization parameters were analyzed using geospatial technology and scored on a scale of 0 to 5, based on criteria developed by the watershed planning committee, in each of 78 sub- watersheds.Total restoration scores were then calculated in each of the sub-watersheds by summing each individual parameter score. Higher total restoration scores indicated a higher priority for restoration actions. This Map includes the watershed characterization data that was used to prioritize restoration needs within the Presque Isle Bay watershed.
Contacts: Sean Rafferty sdr138@psu.edu 814-217-9013


Explore your resources Piezoelectrics are widely used in the oil and gas industries to perform many valuable functions from low-frequency seismic surveys to design of logging-while-drilling (LWD) ultrasound tools and pressure sensors. PZFlex aids in developing the tools, positioning transducers, and analyzing the data they record during performance. Downhole tools, for example, are inserted inside the hole to check casings for corrosion or damage and aid in remedial work that prevents their rupture. Downhole tools are also used to assess the quality of the cement in the cased hole, measure its porosity, determine the targeted rock’s mechanical properties and lithology, and detect fractures. PZFlex is also used for designing transducers used in ultrasonic oil prospecting. In this application, air guns are positioned so that their shock waves rebound off targeted rock strata on the ocean floor. Arrays of sensitive acoustic receivers are either towed behind seismic survey vessels or positioned in pre-bored inspection wells on LWD wireline tools.
PZFlex supports the design and operation of a particularly useful LWD tool that employs surface air guns to perform real-time checkshots. They are minimally disruptive to drilling despite the addition of a 90-foot stand of drill pipe. Seismic waves emitted by the guns are aimed at downhole receivers that transmit their arrival time back to the surface. Knowing the correct time-to-depth conversion for the seismic section helps the driller plan a targeted trajectory through the well and avoid high-pressure zones. The alternative of leaving the well and running a wireline checkshot would add significant rig time and expense.


Higher education institutions are facing numerous data security challenges in the form of tight budgets, the need for unrestricted connections, online learning resources, mobile devices, and through increased regulations. One of the most insidious types of attacks today is Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs.) This whitepaper describes the APT threat to higher education and offers strategies for forming defensive strategies to address the risks.


Garner, P. (2011) Forging ahead in special education. Invited Keynote presented to: Irish Association of Teachers in Special Education (IATSE) Conference, St Patrick's College, Dublin, 09-11 June 2011.
This presentation will examine the current agenda for change in special education as it applies across a range of national settings. It will do so by considering lessons from history and by reflecting on examples of what has been viewed as 'effective practice' in more recent times. A coda will highlight the contemporary challenges facing those involved in supporting children and young people with learning difficulties in forging new approaches to their learning.


About Snoring. What Causes Snoring? Snoring Remedies. Snoring occurs when there is restricted airflow while you sleep. Whether in your nose or in your throat, any obstruction can lead to snoring.
What Causes Snoring? Snoring can be caused by various factors including:
Sinus infections - create inflammation blocking airways Colds/Flu - create mucous blocking airways Drugs - alcohol, muscle relaxers, sleeping aids can cause muscles to collapse and block airflow Deformities of the nasal cavity - reduce the airflow Weak throat or tongue muscles - can shift back and pinch the throat Obesity and/or excessive throat tissue - obstructed airways Snoring and Sleep Apnea. Snoring is sometimes a sign of sleep apnea. Snorers who suffer from excessive fatigue during the day my be suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
Snoring Remedies A Snoring mouthpiece is one of the most effective snoring remedies. The snoring mouthpiece is commonly used by habitual snorers.
Snoring surgery - is an excellent option for snorers who suffer from severe snoring that cannot be treated with a snoring mouthpiece. Snoring surgeries typically consist of removing excess tissues to open up airways.
Light snorers may benefit from over the counter snoring remedies including:
anti snoring pillow - adjusts the position of your head to improve airflow nasal strips - open the nasal cavity to improve airflow throat sprays - lubricate the throat to minimize vibrations Additionally, snorers may benefit from various exercise that help strengthen throat and tongue muscles. Practicing these exercises during the day can help snorers at night.
Sausalito Dentistry has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years.


A Brief History FareStart is a culinary and barista job training and placement program for homeless and disadvantaged individuals. Over the past 19 years, FareStart has provided opportunities for over 5,000 people to transform their lives, while also serving over 4.5 million meals to disadvantaged men, women, and children in Seattle, Washington.
In 2006, FareStart’s board took a first and decisive step toward building our network. With the goal of growing impact beyond Seattle, FareStart lent staff who raised start-up capital to provide technical assistance for foodservice training programs nationwide.
Called Kitchens With Mission, this pilot project was given an unusual charge. Instead of teaching a specific, existing model, it was to identify the best of existing models and demonstrate how these could be effectively used together. Over the ensuing five years, Kitchens With Mission (KWM) became a resource to over 100 organizations. Of these, 50 partnered with KWM to expand their operations, including launching 25 new programs. Together these programs graduated over 500 people who entered training with significant barriers to employment—individuals who were homeless or on the verge, who had only a limited formal education, had served time in prison or had no place to turn. Of these, over 70% are now working in living-wage jobs. Together, these trainees have produced over two million fresh, nutritious meals for their communities.
With the success of the pilot, FareStart invited ten like-minded organizations to a summit in Seattle to discuss the next phase of the project. All participants agreed the time was right for the loose association of programs to become more impactful through the establishment of a collaborative national network. And together, we set a framework for sharing experience and documenting best practices – to the benefit of member organizations and new organizations looking to replicate this model in their community.


The 500-hPa circulation during May featured above average heights across the North Pacific from Japan to Alaska, over the southern United States, the eastern North Atlantic, and central Russia, and below-average heights over the central subtropical North Pacific, Canada, Europe, and northern China (Fig. E9 ). The circulation anomalies over the North Pacific and North America were especially persistent during the month (Fig. E11 ), and contributed to a near-record negative value (-3.5) of the Pacific/ North American (PNA) teleconnection index (Table E1, Fig. E7 ).
Prominent temperature departures during May included warmer than average conditions across the southern U.S. and central Russia, and well below-average temperatures across Canada (Fig. E1 ). The prominent precipitation anomalies during May includeded above-average rainfall across the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States, and below-average totals over the extreme southeastern U.S. and western North Atlantic (Figs. E3, E5 ).
a. Pacific/North America
The circulation over the Pacific/North American sector reflected a near-record amplitude (-3.5) for the negative phase of the PNA teleconnection pattern (Table E1, Fig. E7 ). Key aspects of this pattern included above-average 500-hPa heights over the Gulf of Alaska and southern U.S., and below-average heights over the central subtropical North Pacific and Canada (Fig. E9 ). Associated with this anomaly pattern the mean upper-level ridge and trough axes were located over Alaska and western Canada, approximately 30° west of their climatological positions over the Rocky Mountains and eastern Canada, respectively.
In the middle latitudes the negative PNA pattern was associated with a pronounced weakening and westward retraction of the East Asian jet in the vicinity of the date line, and with increased diffluence throughout the jet exit region (Figs. T21, T22 ). It was also associated with an anomalous jet core across the northern U.S. and southeastern Canada (Fig. E10 ).
Over North America this anomalous jet stream is consistent with an enhanced north-south surface temperature gradient, as indicated by near-record cold surface temperatures (2°-5° below average) across most of Canada and anomalously warm temperatures (1.0°-1.5°C above average) across the southern and central U.S. (Fig. E1 ). In Canada surface temperatures were generally in the lowest 10th percentile of occurrences. These unusually cold temperatures are related to the northwesterly flow of arctic air from Alaska and the Beaufort Sea into western Canada in the area downstream of the mean upper-level ridge axis (Figs. E8, E10 ).
The anomalous circulation across North America also contributed to above-average rainfall across the northern United States. The largest surpluses were observed in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions where area-averaged totals reached the 90th percentile of occurrences (Fig. E3 ). These regions were situated downstream of the mean upper-level trough axis within the region of enhanced surface temperature contrast.
b. North Atlantic
North Atlantic SSTs have been considerably above average during the past year. During May they remained above the 90th percentile across the high latitudes of the North Atlantic (Fig. E1 ), which contributed to ongoing warmth across Iceland and parts of Great Britian. This anomalous warmth is likely associated with the ongoing warm phase of the Atlantic multi-decadal mode that began in approximately 1995.
2. Southern Hemisphere
In the Southern Hemisphere the 500-hPa circulation during May featured above-average heights over the central South Pacific, southern South America, and southern Africa, and below-average heights over southern Australia, at high latitudes over the eastern South Pacific and the central South Atlantic, and over the central Indian Ocean (Fig. E15 ).
Over Australia the circulation reflected a strengthening and equatorward shift of the jet stream (Fig. T21 ). Southeastern Australia experienced upper-level convergence (Fig. T23 ) and descending motion within the right entrance region of the jet, which resulted in below-average precipitation during the month (Fig. E3 ). An anomalous inland penetration of cold air at 850-hPa from the Great Australian Bight was also evident (Fig. T20 ), which resulted in anomalously cool surface temperatures across southeastern Australia (Fig. E1 ).
Much of central extratropical South America experienced significantly below-average surface temperatures during May, with temperatures in many regions east of the Andes Mountains falling within the lowest 10th percentile of occurrences. These cool temperatures appear to be related to the significant weakening of the westerly winds and associated downslope flow equatorward of the strong upper-level ridge (Figs. T20, T21, E15 ). The below-normal temperatures in this region and over parts of Australia contributed to the lowest value of the Southern Hemisphere land-only temperature time series since 1992 (Fig. E2, bottom ).


A Matter of Life and Death Q: I am a freight forwarder providing a service in which I deliver ISO tanks to my customer, who fills them with hazardous liquids and gas. Once the tanks are filled, I arrange to have them transported from my customer's facility to their destination, usually in a foreign country. I recently read about a case where a tank filled with odorless, colorless argon gas had been delivered to a port for ocean shipment. The tank developed a leak at the port, and three dock workers were overcome by the fumes and died. I am concerned that I might one day face a case like this one. What should I do? A: Tragic as this case is, the unfortunate reality is that such situations are becoming more common. A recent case addressed a similar situation with less dire consequences.An operator arranged to have a tank of ammonia gas delivered to Panama. While at the port, the valve on the tank sprang a leak, and a port worker was overcome by the fumes. The dock worker's illness in that incident was not fatal, but his exposure to the ammonia was severe enough to require medical treatment.
The severity of these cases raises fundamental questions about the handling and storage of dangerous substances. Existing guidelines require that qualified personnel handle this cargo and owners periodically inspect their tank containers.
In spite of the rules, accidents still occur because service providers fail to perform these actions. The greater your involvement in handling dangerous substances, the greater your risk of exposure.
Complications arise when you perform transportation services for one or more segments of the shipment, while relying on third parties to provide others.
Although your responsibility is related to the extent of your involvement in handling the material, bear in mind that the extent to which you are responsible for the acts of third parties will also affect your liability. The protections you secure for yourself when choosing those providers will therefore be significant.
In a recent case, a ship operator leased a chassis from a leasing company and arranged for a trucker to transport a tank container containing a corrosive colorant. During transit, an accident occurred and the corrosive material leaked onto the road, creating a dangerous condition.
In a vicarious liability jurisdiction, the steamship line and trucker would be held equally responsible for injuries resulting from the road accident, even though the ocean carrier did not actually handle the unit.
Forwarders who have no involvement in the actual handling or transportation of goods are nevertheless often accused of breaching their professional responsibility by failing in their duty to hire qualified third-party providers.
If you own tanks and make them available for customer use, you must comply with mandatory equipment guidelines. If you lease tanks from third parties or transport goods in tanks that your customer owns, ensure that you receive the proper indemnification from the party responsible for equipment maintenance.
If you arrange with third-party providers to transport a unit, make sure they are duly qualified to perform their services, and ask them for an indemnification for any accident arising from their services.
In every case, satisfy yourself that both your shipper and your service providers are properly insured for their operations.
Finally, if you do become involved in an accident, notify your insurer immediately to have the situation assessed by a qualified surveyor. While you may be powerless to prevent a claimant from taking you to court, a properly documented transaction will help your defense.


Section 3(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) exempts from registration under the Securities Act any security issued or guaranteed by a bank. This exemption is based on the notion that, whether state or federal, banks are highly and relatively uniformly regulated, and as a result will provide adequate disclosure to investors about their finances in the absence of federal securities registration requirements. In addition, banks are also subject to various capital requirements that may increase the likelihood that holders of their debt securities will receive timely payments of principal and interest. This article provides an overview of how this exemption applies to a bank’s offering of securities, including structured notes.
What Is a Bank? Under Section 3(a)(2), a “bank” is defined broadly to mean any national bank, or any banking institution organized under the law of any state, territory, or the District of Columbia, the business of which is substantially confined to banking and is supervised by the state or territorial banking commission or similar official. To qualify as a bank under Section 3(a)(2), the institution must meet both of the following requirements: (i) it must be a national bank or any institution supervised by a state banking commission or similar authority and (ii) its business must be substantially confined to banking. Therefore, securities issued by bank holding companies, finance companies, investment banks, and loan companies are not exempt from registration under Section 3(a)(2); even though many investors may think of these institutions as “banks,” their businesses are not substantially confined to banking. An offering of securities by any of these institutions must be registered under the Securities Act unless the offering comes within another exemption from registration.
Securities Guaranteed by a Bank As noted above, the Section 3(a)(2) exemption is also available for securities “guaranteed” by a bank. Whether an offering is guaranteed by a bank is interpreted broadly by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The staff of the SEC has taken the position in no-action letters that the term “guarantee” is not limited to a guaranty in a legal sense, but also includes arrangements in which the bank agrees to ensure the payment of a security. However, in a typical guaranteed offering, a bank’s affiliate will serve as issuer of the relevant securities, and the entity that is a bank will execute a written guarantee of the payment obligations on those securities.
Non-U.S. Banks U.S. branches of foreign banks are entitled to rely on the Section 3(a)(2) exemption. In 1986, the SEC announced its decision to cease granting no-action letters regarding securities issued or guaranteed by foreign bank branches and agencies, and formalized its position that a foreign branch will be deemed to be a “national bank” or a “banking institution organized under the laws of any state” if “the nature and extent of federal and/or state regulation and supervision of that particular branch or agency is substantially equivalent to that applicable to federal or state chartered domestic banks doing business in the same jurisdiction.”1 As a result, several U.S. branches of non-U.S. banks are currently frequent issuers of structured products and other debt securities in the U.S.
Types of Securities The exemption under Section 3(a)(2) applies not only to securities issued or guaranteed by a bank but also, to the extent they are considered securities (instead of bank deposits), certificates of deposit issued or guaranteed by a bank. Additionally, structured notes linked to the performance of an index or another underlying asset are also commonly issued by banks in reliance on the Section 3(a)(2) exemption.2 In these instances, even though the return of the note is linked to an underlying asset, the investor is buying debt of the issuer and must rely on the credit of the issuer for repayment of the note, no matter how the underlying asset performs. This strengthens the argument that the structured instrument is covered under the Section 3(a)(2) exemption.
Because bank notes are not subject to the SEC’s registration requirements, structured bank notes sometimes are linked to different types of assets than registered structured notes, particularly when the investor is sufficiently sophisticated to understand the relevant risks. For example, because bank notes are not subject to the “strict liability” provisions of Sections 11 and 12 of the Securities Act, an issuer may be more comfortable linking the bank note to a complex underlying asset or investment strategy, which may be difficult to describe adequately in the context of a registered offering. In addition, registered offerings of equity-linked structured notes are typically linked only to large-cap U.S. stocks due to the “Morgan Stanley no-action letter.”3 However, some bank notes may be linked to debt securities (credit-linked notes), small-cap stocks, or securities that are traded only on non-U.S. exchanges. Of course, due to the liability and other concerns described in this article, issuers and underwriters must carefully craft the offering documents for these types of offerings, and broker-dealers must carefully determine the suitability of the relevant investors.
FINRA Requirements Even though securities offerings under Section 3(a)(2) are exempt from registration under the Securities Act, public securities offerings conducted by banks must be filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) for review under Rule 5110(b)(9), unless an exemption is available. Additionally, transactions under Section 3(a)(2) must be reported through the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (“TRACE”).4 All brokers and dealers who are FINRA members have an obligation to report Section 3(a)(2) transactions to TRACE.
OCC Registration For national banks or federally licensed U.S. branches of foreign banks regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”), an additional layer of federal regulation applies to securities offerings. Part 16 of OCC regulations provides that these banks may not offer and sell their securities until a registration statement has been filed and declared effective with the OCC, unless an exemption applies. An OCC registration statement has a detailed scope that is comparable to an SEC registration statement; as a result, most bank issuers prefer to rely upon an exemption from the OCC’s registration requirements. Section 16.5 provides a list of exemptions, which includes:
Regulation D offerings to accredited investors Rule 144A offerings to qualified institutional buyers Securities guaranteed by the federal government, such as the 2008 “Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program” Regulation S offerings effected outside of the U.S. In addition, Part 16.6 of the OCC regulations provides an exemption for offerings of “non-convertible debt” to accredited investors in denominations of $250,000 or more. Due to these rules, banks subject to OCC regulation will need to tailor their offerings to meet the Part 16 requirements if they intend to seek an exemption from the requirement to file a registration statement with the OCC. However, in light of these limitations, banks regulated by the OCC tend to have somewhat less flexibility in selling structured products and other types of securities compared to bank holding companies that have an SEC shelf registration statement, particularly with respect to sales to retail investors.
FDIC Guidance Additionally, for federally-insured state banks and state-licensed branches of foreign banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) adopted a Statement of Policy Regarding the Use of Offering Circulars in Connection with Public Distribution of Bank Securities for state non-member banks.5 This policy requires that an offering circular include prominent statements that the securities are not deposits, are not insured by the FDIC or any other agency, and are subject to investment risk. The policy states that the offering circular should include detailed prospectus-like disclosure, similar to the type contemplated by Regulation A or 12 CFR 563g. The policy further states that the goals of the policy will be met if the securities are offered and sold in a transaction that, among other options, satisfied (i) the requirements of Regulation D of the Securities Act relating to private offers and/or sales to accredited investors or (ii) the information and disclosure requirements of the Office of Thrift Supervision’s (“OTS”) regulations regarding securities offerings, which require that debt securities be issued in denominations of $100,000 or more. To the extent an offering meets these requirements, it will be deemed to satisfy the FDIC requirements. Nonetheless, an issuer may still want to include more detailed disclosure, as the policy emphasizes the applicability of the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act and Exchange Act to offerings by banks.
Blue Sky Laws Securities issued under Section 3(a)(2) are considered “covered securities” under Section 18 of the Securities Act; as a result, blue sky filings are not need in any state in which the securities are offered. Additionally, for intrastate offerings made by state banks, many states have their own exemptions.
Exchange Act Reporting Securities issued by banks under Section 3(a)(2) are also not subject to the reporting requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Section 12(g)(2)(C) and 12(i) of the Exchange Act provide that the enforcement of Sections 12, 13, 14(a), 14(c), 14(d), 14(f), and 16 of the Exchange Act is vested in the Comptroller of the Currency with respect to national banks, the Federal Reserve Board as to member banks of the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC as to all other insured banks, and the OTS as to savings associations. Therefore, a bank which would be subject to the Exchange Act reporting requirements would submit its financial reports to the appropriate banking authority, and not to the SEC.
Securities Liability Securities offerings by a bank or guaranteed by a bank under Section 3(a)(2) are not subject to the civil liability provisions under Section 11 and Section 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act. However, the anti-fraud provisions of Section 17 of the Securities Act are applicable to offerings under Section 3(a)(2). Additionally, offerings under Section 3(a)(2) are also subject to Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and the anti-fraud provisions of Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act. Therefore, when considering an offering under Section 3(a)(2), a bank must take into consideration what disclosure is necessary to avoid liability under the anti-fraud provisions, even if the document does not need to comply with the specific form requirements of the SEC or another regulator. As a result, the form and content of structured note offering documents issued under Section 3(a)(2) are similar in many respects to that used for a registered offering.
Offering Documents As a result of these various rules and regulations, the offering documentation for structured bank notes is somewhat similar to that of a registered offering. An issuer typically has a base offering document, usually called an “offering memorandum” or an “offering circular” (instead of a “prospectus”). That base document is supplemented for a particular offering by one or more “pricing supplements” and/or “product supplements.” The form of these documents is not subject to the relevant SEC form rules, and may vary somewhat from those used in a registered offering. However, the content (as well as the types of documents incorporated by reference) tends to be somewhat similar.
These offering documents may be supplemented by additional offering materials, including term sheets and brochures. Because these offerings are not registered with the SEC, these additional documents are not subject to the SEC’s “free writing prospectus” rules that apply to registered offerings. However, in order to ensure that the disclosure is adequate, the issuers and underwriters that use these documents are careful about their content.
Conclusion Section 3(a)(2) provides bank issuers with the ability to issue securities, including structured notes, without registering the offering with the SEC. When relying on Section 3(a)(2), an issuer must carefully consider the disclosure included in its offering document, so as not to subject itself to liability under the anti-fraud provisions of the securities laws and to comply with the regulations and other guidance adopted by the various banking regulators. Banks and underwriters seeking to employ industry best practices typically utilize disclosures and suitability determinations that are very similar to those used in the context of registered offerings.


Request for Nullification: law 78 On May 25th at around 11:30 a lawsuit was submitted to the Superior Court by the FEUQ and the FECQ to enable students to receive instruction from the institutions they attend, or the special law, deemed null and void immediately. This action is a temporary measure to avoid irreperable damages while the case is brought through the standard legal venues.
Below is a brief summary and overview of the request for relief that was submitted earlier today, with the ultimate goal of having certain sections of “An Act to enable students to receive instruction from the postecondary institutions they attend,” or the special law, deemed null and void immediately. This action is a temporary measure to avoid irreperable damages while the case is brought through the standard legal venues, which take significantly more time.
Please note that this document is a summary meant to explain the request, is not legal advice, and does not hold any “legal weight.”
Procedures
The claimants (comprised of the FEUQ, FECQ, and dozens of individuals and associations), wish to have certain provisions within the special law deemed void. These provisions represent for their respective members a violation of guaranteed rights, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and personal dignity.
General Considerations
Summarizes the broad outcry of the legal community against Law 78, including the Bar Association of Quebec, M. John Gomery (a retired Quebec Superior Court Judge).
Applicable Criteria for the request for relief:
In short, the claimants argue that the special law is unconstitutional, as it is in contradiction with Section 2 of the Canadian Charter, to Sections 3 and 4 of the Quebec Charter, and cannot be justified under Section 1 of the Canadian Charter nor Section 9.1 of the Quebec Charter.
Section 2 of the Canadian charter guarantees the right to “[...] (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association.” but is limited by Section 1, which suggests all rights are subject to “reasonable limits…. as can be demonstrably justified…”
Similarly, Section 3 of the Quebec Charter guarantee the right to liberty, opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association, Section 4 guarantees the right to dignity, honour and reputation. Section 9.1 requires that these (an all freedoms) are exercised with respect to democratic values, public order, and the general well-being of Quebecers.
This sort of request for relief requires that three standards are met before the law is voided:
1. There must be a serious legal question at the basis to judge. 2. The claimants must be subject to irreparable damage if the request is denied. 3. It must be determined who will suffer greater damages with the approval or denial of the request, and the effects of the granting or denial of the request on the public interest.
Seriousness of the legal question
The criteria of a “serious question” is only that the question is judged neither futile nor vicious, and then the second and third criteria must be evaluated. In summary these are:
- Sections 16 and 17 contains restraints that are unnecessary, vague, impossible to implement, and accord troubling discretionary power to the police.
- Due to deficiencies in the Accreditation Act (which accords certain rights to student associations, not including mediation, negotiation, etc.), the only real medium of expression and advocacy are demonstrations.
- The provisions to stop the collection of student fees are contrary to the Accreditation Act, and threaten the ability of these organizations and their members to express themselves.
- This law is valid only until July 1st, 2013, an election year. Most provisions apply to students and non-students alike.
- As such, this law violates the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression, and constitutes a “serious [legal] question.”
Irreparable Damage
The claimants submit that irreparable damage includes the grave violation of fundamental rights.
- The damage caused by the cancellation or displacement of a demonstration cannot be undone or compensated for. In other words, the ultimate reversal of the Special Law does not account for and cannot compensate for the period the law was in effect.
- Similarly, excessive fines and prison time cannot be compensated for.
-This law is designed to bankrupt student associations and national student associations. This, also, cannot be undone.
Public Interest and the Balance of Harm
In the context of a constitutional challenge to a law, the court must analyze the “balance of harm,” in this instance the claimants must detail the harm done by the refusal of this injunction (eg the maintenance of the law), and the defendants (the MELS and Ministry of Public Security) must prove the harm done by the granting of an injunction.
- It is unnecessary to limit or qualify the freedom of expression and right to protest to achieve the (nominal) goal of allowing students to receive instruction at their post-secondary institutions.
- The Criminal Code already contains provisions for illegal gatherings and riots.
- Many provisions of this law, including particularly those to fine and (ultimately) destroy student associations are completely unrelated to the ostensible goal of allowing students to return to class.
- The claimants are subject to far more substantial harm by the maintenance of this law than the respondents, who still have legal avenues of recourse.
source: http://1625wontpass.ca/2012/05/request-nullification-information/


Cornea Treatment The cornea is the clear, protective outer layer of the eye that plays a key role in vision by refracting light as it enters the eye. The curvature of the cornea helps determine how well your eye can focus on objects that are near or far. Vision can be distorted if the cornea becomes damaged from disease, infection or injury.
Symptoms Following infection or injury, the cornea will often heal well with no long-term problem. However, if there is significant tissue damage, a variety of symptoms may occur, including pain, blurred vision, redness, tearing, and light sensitivity.
In severe cases, there is actual visual loss due to scarring and distortion of the cornea.
Treatment Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics in eyedrop form. However, there are viral and fungal infections of the cornea which do not respond well to medications.
In cases of severe scarring, whatever the cause, a corneal transplant may be necessary to restore vision.


In high school, I grew increasingly reliant on Adderall; I lost weight while gaining confidence; my grades improved, which gave me leeway to smoke weed on my parents’ property. At that time, my Adderall use wasn’t extreme, but week-long stretches of “one pill here, one pill there” left me agitated, paranoid, and physically exhausted. I had decided to leave the Adderall alone for a while; I’d take the day off of school to sleep away my discomfort. I was usually out of weed by this time, just looking for an excuse to lash out. My parents would confront me, and I’d attack verbally, sometimes physically. I had always struggled academically, and the pressure of the “college prep” environment began to mount by my sophomore year. The Adderall hadn’t even been my idea; I didn’t enjoy it. I only took it to meet social and academic expectations. And while there was no physical detox from the Adderall abuse, my emotional state had corroded: I would punch walls, weep, and pass out.
Before entering AA, I made several attempts to quit alcohol using the white knuckle approach. I was a binge drinker, usually finishing a handle of cheap vodka in about 36 hours. I would generally plan to conserve enough alcohol to last me through the week; however, I’d often down nearly half of the handle in the first evening. Upon awakening, it was obvious that my condition necessitated early morning shots: The alcohol would ease my debilitating shakes, allowing me to roll a blunt; the weed would in turn soothe the painful cramps in my stomach. I would rarely leave my constricting apartment during these indulgent stretches; my impaired mobility and destructive streak often led to broken possessions. I had a good-hearted weed dealer from a family grow-op; he’d buy me liquor despite his concerns over my sallow skin and sunken eyes.
A friend from the East Coast came to visit me in Boulder for a long weekend; he funded 3 days of potent back-to-back blunts, absinthe Jello shots, and tequila straight from the bottle. During the visit, several staff from my outpatient stopped by my apartment. They informed me I was kicked out of the program: I had used cocaine and filled my Ativan prescription without their permission, resulting in a memory lapse of nearly 2 days. They had alerted me that my lease was up in two weeks, and my parents would only support me if I went to rehab. I was scared and embarrassed, but I laughed them away.
When my friend left, so did the substances. I had left my apartment in ruins, and the sudden cessation of marijuana and alcohol left me highly paranoid and physically sick. My legs ached as I hobbled to the window, trying to appear casual as I peered through the blinds. I was convinced that someone would burst through the door, see my appalling living conditions (glass stuck in my toe, a cesspool in the sink, fruit flies on the wall, maggots under a trash bag) and commit me to a psych ward. I broke open my larger pipe, and scraped out the black resin to smoke in my smaller pipe. I felt nothing. Steeped in sweat, heart racing, I didn’t even want a drink. I knew it was over.
Related posts: Filed under: Addiction, Alcohol and Drugs, Featured, Latest News · Tags: adderall, Adderall Detox, Addiction, Addrerall Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, ativan, blunts, detox, marijuana, physical addiction, Powerlessness


Among countries colonized by European powers during the past 500 years, those that were relatively rich in 1500 are now relatively poor. We document this reversal using data on urbanizations patterns and population density, which we argue, proxy for economic prosperity. This reversal weighs against a view that links economic development to geographic factors. Instead, we argue that the reversal reflects changes in the institutions resulting from European colonialism. The European interventions appears to have created an "institutional reversal" among these societies, meaning that Europeans were more likely to introduce institutions encouraging investment in regions that were previously poor. This institutional reversal accounts for the reversal in relative incomes. We provide further support for this view by documenting that the reversal in relative incomes took place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and resulted from societies with good institutions taking advantage of the opportunity to industrialize. This paper documents a reversal in relative incomes among the former European colonies. For example, the Mughals in India and the Aztecs and Incas in the Americas were among the richest civilizations in 1500, while the civilizations in North America, New Zealand, and Australia were less developed. Today the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia re an order of magnitude richer than the countries not occupying the territories of the Mughal, Aztec, and Inca Empires.


Ask Your Senators to Stand up for Refugees Thirty years ago, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, a landmark bill that affirmed the United States' commitment to providing refuge to victims of religious, political, ethnic and other forms of persecution.
In recent years, however, a barrage of new laws, policies, and legal interpretations have eroded the institution of asylum in the United States, undermining the commitments the United States enshrined when passing the Refugee Act and, consequently, leading the United States to deny asylum or other protection to victims of persecution.
Refugees seeking asylum now face prolonged detention in prison-like conditions without due process safeguards, such as a custody review by an immigration court, and denials of their requests for asylum based on an arbitrary filing deadline and overly broad exclusion provisions, including those that define victims of terrorism as "terrorist."
Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Carl Levin (D-MI) introduced the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 (S.3113), a bill that corrects many of the most egregious policies towards refugees and re-establishes the United States' commitment to protecting the persecuted. The bill needs cosponsors.
Contact your senators today. Tell them to stand up for refugees, and ask them to support this much-needed bill that would help those fleeing persecution and seeking safe haven in the United States.


Title Subject Area Sociology
Description Mental health care professionals will inevitably encounter all types of “unsuccessful cases” in their line of work. Patient suicide is the extreme of these cases and can have a negative impact on their personal and professional life. This study sought to continue and expand research in this area by investigating the experiences and impact of patient suicide on all mental health professionals, the services available to them, and their opinions on best practice methods. Twenty- eight in-patient and five out-patient mental healthcare workers in Rhode Island were surveyed for this study. Analysis confirmed the impact of patient suicide on professionals and revealed that a systemic plan and/or group of support is crucial in helping them to cope with a patient suicide effectively and appropriately. These findings can serve as evidence for social workers who may need to advocate that these necessary support services be provided for all mental healthcare professionals, with their profession being included. This study also offers helpful information on methods utilized successfully by professionals, which can be used by others for guidance on how to deal with similar difficult experiences and encourages further investigation on the subject.
Publisher Providence College
Date 4-7-2009
Type Article
Format Text
Language English


This paper by Watt AD et al Jan 25.2013 (including Masters and Barnham) may change a lot of thinking or will it??
"The formation of low-order oligomers of β-amyloid (Aβ) within the brain is widely believed to be a central component of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. However, despite advances in high-throughput and high-resolution techniques such as xMAP and mass spectrometry (MS), investigations into these oligomeric species have remained reliant on low-resolution Western blots and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The current investigation compared Aβ profiles within human cortical tissue using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), xMAP and surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight MS and found that whilst there was significant correlation across the techniques regarding levels of monomeric Aβ, only SDS-PAGE was capable of detecting dimeric isoforms of Aβ. The addition of synthetic di-tyrosine cross-linked Aβ(1-40)Met(35)(O) to the AD tissue demonstrated that the MS methodology was capable of observing dimeric Aβ at femto-molar concentrations, with no noticeable effect on monomeric Aβ levels. Focus turned to the association between SDS-PAGE and levels of observable dimeric Aβ within the AD brain tissue. These investigations revealed that increased levels of dimeric Aβ were observed with increasing concentrations of SDS in the sample buffer. This finding was subsequently confirmed using synthetic Aβ(1-42) and suggests that SDS was inducing the formation of dimeric Aβ. The findings that SDS promotes Aβ dimerization have significant implications for the putative role of low-order oligomers in AD pathogenesis and draw into question the utility of oligomeric Aβ as a therapeutic target".
So at least there was correlation across the techniques regarding levels of monomeric Abeta. But PBT2 works in any case.


Published February 18, 2013
Tensions over trans-boundary water issues with Iran and Pakistan have been a major hurdle to investments in Afghanistan's water infrastructure despite significant international aid over the last decade. Donors have stayed away from major projects out of fear that they might anger the neighbors. As a result, the largely agricultural economy has not had much of a boost and the country faces a major economic crisis as the international gaze begins to shift away.


Experimentally Comparing Uncertain Inference Systems to Probability Ben Wise Abstract: This paper examines the biases and performance of several uncertain inference systems: Mycin, a variant of Mycin. and a simplified version of probability using conditional independence assumptions. We present axiomatic arguments for using Minimum Cross Entropy inference as the best way to do uncertain inference. For Mycin and its variant we found special situations where its performance was very good, but also situations where performance was worse than random guessing, or where data was interpreted as having the opposite of its true import We have found that all three of these systems usually gave accurate results, and that the conditional independence assumptions gave the most robust results. We illustrate how the Importance of biases may be quantitatively assessed and ranked. Considerations of robustness might be a critical factor is selecting UlS's for a given application. Keywords: Mycin, Axiomatic, Minimum Cross Entropy Pages: 319-332 PS Link: PDF Link: /papers/86/p319-wise.pdf BibTex: @INPROCEEDINGS{Wise86, AUTHOR = "Ben Wise", TITLE = "Experimentally Comparing Uncertain Inference Systems to Probability", BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of the Second Conference Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI-86)", PUBLISHER = "AUAI Press", ADDRESS = "Corvallis, Oregon", YEAR = "1986", PAGES = "319--332" }


The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum – Forum canadien sur l’apprentissage (CAF-FCA) is a non-profit organization that connects Canada’s apprenticeship community. Participants work collaboratively to support vibrant and innovative apprenticeship systems and policies with a view to developing a highly-skilled, inclusive and mobile skilled trades workforce. Employers, unions, equity-seeking groups, educational institutions and the jurisdictions support CAF-FCA operations through membership.
As a national voice for the apprenticeship community, CAF-FCA influences pan-Canadian apprenticeship strategies through research, discussion and collaboration. Its research agenda is based on the premise that stakeholders require accurate, unbiased insights into apprenticeship challenges in order to address them. CAF-FCA is a national forum for apprenticeship dialogue, connecting stakeholders to share promising practices, identify barriers and collaborate on solutions. The organization also promotes apprenticeship as a valued post-secondary pathway to youth, parents and employers, leading to rewarding careers in high-demand professions.
Since 2000, CAF-FCA has fundamentally changed the conversation about apprenticeship in Canada. It has provided research insights, facilitated dialogue, profiled promising initiatives and promoted apprenticeship. By creating opportunities to share successes and address common issues, CAF-FCA has contributed to effective local, regional and national solutions.