We have identified the tracheal and laryngeal afferent nerves regulating cough in anaesthetized guinea-pigs. Cough was evoked by electrical or mechanical stimulation of the tracheal or laryngeal mucosa, or by citric acid applied topically to the trachea or larynx. By contrast, neither capsaicin nor bradykinin challenges to the trachea or larynx evoked cough. Bradykinin and histamine administered intravenously also failed to evoke cough. Electrophysiological studies revealed that the majority of capsaicin-sensitive afferent neurones (both Adelta- and C-fibres) innervating the rostral trachea and larynx have their cell bodies in the jugular ganglia and project to the airways via the superior laryngeal nerves. Capsaicin-insensitive afferent neurones with cell bodies in the nodose ganglia projected to the rostral trachea and larynx via the recurrent laryngeal nerves. Severing the recurrent nerves abolished coughing evoked from the trachea and larynx whereas severing the superior laryngeal nerves was without effect on coughing. The data indicate that the tracheal and laryngeal afferent neurones regulating cough are polymodal Adelta-fibres that arise from the nodose ganglia. These afferent neurones are activated by punctate mechanical stimulation and acid but are unresponsive to capsaicin, bradykinin, smooth muscle contraction, longitudinal or transverse stretching of the airways, or distension. Comparing these physiological properties with those of intrapulmonary mechanoreceptors indicates that the afferent neurones mediating cough are quite distinct from the well-defined rapidly and slowly adapting stretch receptors innervating the airways and lungs. We propose that these airway afferent neurones represent a distinct subtype and that their primary function is regulation of the cough reflex.


This thesis constitutes a comparative study of contextualised language, concerned with the recurring rhetorical form of the pre-battle harangue in Latin historical narratives. Focusing upon battle rhetoric produced in the context of the early crusadingmovement, it utilizes comparative non-crusading material from a long twelfth century. Centrally the dissertation challenges previous scholarship which understood battle rhetoric as providing a direct insight into the psychology of medieval soldiery, that was by and large generic in nature. Instead, this thesis contends that battle rhetoric was an ideal opportunity for authors to dynamically emphasise particular themes, present didactic lessons and explore ideas of virtue, justice and faith through direct speech at climactic moments. Chapter One explores the classical and scriptural underpinnings of the teaching and use of rhetoric in medieval western Europe and contextualizes the Roman tradition of rhetoric as it came down to the twelfth century. It displays how the rhetorical tradition which influenced medieval authors presented the ‘invention’ of orations as more than ornamentation, and that the aims of rhetoric to teach, move and please involved a commitment to truth, ethics and moral worthiness. The remainder of the thesis applies this understanding of rhetoric to orations from accounts detailing crusading expeditions of the twelfth century. Chapter Two examines one of the earliest accounts of the First Crusade, the Gesta Francoum, identifying the most significant themes and tropes of its orations. These themes and motivational appeals serve to structure a wider exploration of First Crusade sources in Chapter Three. Chapter Four and Five each focus on a
single text, concerned with the Second Crusade and the Third Crusade respectively. Alongside comparative material, these chapters chart the development or disappearance of particular ideas in battle rhetoric, and account for the shifting priorities and aims of oration authors into the early thirteenth century.


Abstract
Various forms of cobalt catalysts have been studied extensively for selective aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons. However, it remains unclear whether cobalt can directly activate molecular oxygen under mild reaction conditions. Here we investigated the catalytic roles of cobalt in ethylbenzene oxidation with and without a hydroperoxide initiator. The contribution of different cobalt species was studied by varying the metal loading on Co-impregnated ZSM-5 samples. Quantitative EPR was used to determine the impact of cobalt catalysts on the free radical concentrations. This work provided strong evidence that cobalt, in several different forms, catalyzes hydrocarbon oxidation by facilitating peroxy bond cleavage, instead of direct oxygen activation.
Keywords Cobalt Ethylbenzene Hydroperoxide Oxidation ZSM-5 ASJC Scopus subject areas Catalysis Chemistry(all)


The historical development of Hòa Hảo Buddhism is the nexus around which this study is built. The history of Hòa Hảo Buddhism includes two distinct but closely interrelated stages, namely the age of Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương and the era of Hòa Hảo Buddhism.
The
Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương
movement emerged in mid-19
th century, just before the French colonial
conquest of the South. Therefore this movement might be viewed as a product of
the antecedent historical phenomena, notably the Southward Movement, or Nam Tiến. It should be pointed out that
the rise of Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương coincided with a process of subsequent
colonization of the South by Vietnamese settlers.
In the wake of military conquest and colonization by Vietnamese settlers, the social institutions of the south soon began functioning in a way similar to other parts of Vietnam. It happened despite the continued presence of a considerable Khmer population with their distinct traditional way of life, religious and social customs and practices. However, in the course of its adaptation, the traditional Vietnamese culture was enriched by new characteristics of the Mekong Delta, eventually described as the local characteristics of southern Vietnam.
It might be argued that due to the differences mentioned above, popular and revolutionary organizations in the south typically emerged as religious movements and not in the guise of political parties, as it was the case in north and central Vietnam. Two reformist religions, Hòa Hảo Buddhism and Caodaism, later gained mass followers and were often cited.
Hòa
Hảo Buddhism emerged in the mid-20
th century as a direct continuation
of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương
tradition. However, the rise of Hòa Hảo Buddhism took place within the
background of French colonial domination.
The Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương movement was initiated in 1849 by Đoàn Minh Huyên. Subsequently, he was venerated as Phật Thầy Tây An, or Buddha Preceptor of the Western Peace. From a socio-cultural point of view, the emergence of this religious movement might be viewed as the Vietnamese settlers’ cultural reaction to the new conditions of life. Pioneers, who were colonizing new areas, arguably needed a sort of ideological footing. This is why the founder of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương movement opted to rely on two main principles, Faith and Patriotism. Therefore, the people who lived under unstable social circumstances were given positive social and religious ideas. Correspondingly, their way of life, which had previously lacked any concrete direction, could have been driven towards religious and national values. The emergence of Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương movement arguably indicated that the considerable potential of Vietnamese culture, though weakened by frontier conditions in the South, was nonetheless sustained and developed within the framework of the new faith.
In doctrinal terms, the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương was not a new religious teaching, as it was a largely a Buddhist movement. Moreover, since Phật Thầy Tây An relied upon the principles of Faith and Patriotism, the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương emerged as a Buddhist movement with strong patriotic overtones.


Systematic Trend Following Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Tactical trend trading can be done on either a discretionary or a systematic basis, and the trader can apply these methods to stocks, bonds, commodities, and other traded liquid markets. As the title of this chapter makes clear, however, my focus is on systematic trend following, which entails gathering the best practices and rules of successful traders, incorporating them into a computer-coded trading system, and then following ...


Background: The most part of Iran become malaria - free region and fall in prevention of re-introduction stage. These regions however are struggling with imported of malaria cases where malaria vectors exist. Therefore, understanding the situation of mosquito vectors is crucial. This study was carried out to find out the present situation of malaria vectors and malaria transmission potential in a malaria-free area.
Methods: The study was conducted in a malaria free area, Izeh County, Khuzestan Province during 12 months in 2011–2012. Five villages, including 2 in highlands and 3 in plain area, were selected randomly. The mosquito sampling methods were conducted using spray sheet and hand catch collection methods from indoor/outdoors, window trap and larvae collections. Results: In total, 3352 female Anopheles were captured, 1826 mosquito from highland and 1526 from plain areas. Five species, An. stephensi, An. fluviatilis s.l., An. dthali, An. superpictus and An. pulcherrimus were identified. The seasonal activities were started from April to March. The abdominal conditions of collected mosquitoes from indoor/ outdoor places pointed to exophilic propensity of An. fluviatilis.l. s.l. and endophilic behaviour for rest of the vectors. The results of window trap also confirmed these behaviors. The larval habitats of four species were widely dispersed and included spring, margin of rivers, irrigation channels, stagnant water and rice filed. Conclusion: Understanding the present situation of malaria vectors in free-malaria area is crucial particularly where is struggling with imported cases. The results of present study can be expanded to other area of northern Khuzestan for malaria vector control planning in reintroduction prevention stage.


Public and commercial buses provide the residents of Kenneth City with a convenient, affordable mode of transportation. Whether it is to get to work or attend an appointment, these buses are generally reliable and inexpensive to use. However, when buses are involved in a collision with other motorists or pedestrians, the potential for injury is high. This includes not only the other motorists but the bus passengers as well.
If you sustained injuries a bus crash, you may need help from an aggressive personal injury attorney. If a negligent bus driver is responsible for your injuries, you could have a potential claim for monetary compensation. A Kenneth City bus accident lawyer could help you fight for damages against the responsible parties.
Factors in a Bus Crash
Careless and reckless actions by a bus driver are a common cause in these types of collisions. The circumstances that led an operator to cause a bus crash can vary. Examples include:
Intoxicated driving Following traffic too closely Running a red light Fatigue Aggressive driving Failure to yield
Any of these factors commonly cause bus operators to strike a nearby vehicle or even a pedestrian, but there are other potential causes of a bus collision outside of driver error. Bus accidents may also occur due to mechanical defects or poor road maintenance or if the vehicle was not maintained properly.
Other motorists are not the only ones that could potentially suffer injuries in a bus accident claim. The passengers on a bus are also at risk for injury. Most busses lack seatbelts which could result in a crash throwing passengers around the cabin or out of the vehicle. These passengers also risk injury from luggage or other items falling in a bus crash.
Any of these factors could result in a viable claim for monetary compensation. A Kenneth City attorney could advise a bus accident victim on how to best recover the money they need to cover their damages.
Identifying Defendants in a Bus Accident Lawsuit
Bus accidents are often chaotic. Given their size, it is not unusual for busses to collide with multiple vehicles at the time of a crash. A bus accident attorney in Kenneth City could carefully investigate a crash scene to identify all of the responsible parties. In many cases, a variety of factors will cause an accident by occurring at the same time. Often, one of these factors alone might not be enough to cause the crash. When the two come together, they could result in a large claim for compensation.
Who the potential defendants are in a bus crash lawsuit depends entirely on the facts surrounding the specific accident. While the driver of the bus is a common defendant, there are other people or entities that could also face responsibility for the accident. Some examples include:
Bus companies State or local government Bus manufacturers Maintenance companies Work with a Kenneth City Bus Accident Attorney
Identifying the cause of an accident or the potential defendants is only the first step in a bus accident claim. Your attorney must review the evidence and build a strong claim before you have the opportunity to recover compensation.
The earlier you select your Kenneth City bus accident lawyer, the sooner compensation could become a reality in your case. Reach out to set up a consultation and get started on your claim immediately.


Will Ammonia Kill Mold on Wood Furniture?
Mold and mildew are types of fungi that accumulate on damp surfaces, including wood furniture. Both of these unwanted fungi can be treated and removed with ammonia, which is typically combined with water and other household substances that aid in killing the spores.
Wash, Scrub and Rinse
Mold and mildew most often accumulate on outdoor furniture that is exposed to moisture in the air. However, indoor furniture is also susceptible due to spores that enter through windows, open doors and ventilation systems. Mildew, a specific type of mold, is typically the culprit on hard surfaces, so ammonia is a good choice for removing it. Unfinished, painted and glazed wood furniture can all be treated with a mixture of 1-cup ammonia, 1/2-cup vinegar, 1/4-cup baking soda and 1 gallon of water. Wash the entire piece of furniture with the solution, scrubbing as necessary in sections with visible accumulation of mildew. Rinse thoroughly and allow the piece to dry in fresh air, preferably outdoors.
Take Care
Ammonia should never be mixed with bleach; the combination produces dangerous toxic fumes. Always use ammonia, or any other cleaning solutions, in well-ventilated areas. Protect your skin with rubber gloves, and use protective eyewear if you anticipate long exposure to fumes from ammonia solutions.
References
Resources
Writer Bio
Wendy K. Leigh is a travel writer and photojournalist from Seattle. She is the Editor of Islands America, a travel website for visiting islands within the United States. She also writes about home design, food and historical architecture. Leigh holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Washington.


Abstract
Copolyamides, based on 1,12-dodecanedicarboxylic acid and different ratios of 1,2-ethylenediamine and piperazine, i.e., PA2,14-co-pip,14 as well as the homopolymers PA2,14 and PApip,14 are studied. Incorporation of the piperazine component in the homopolymer PA2,14 reduces the number of hydrogen bonds. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate the influence of hydrogen bonding on the origin of the Brill transition and chain mobility within polymer crystals. Time-resolved conformational, structural, and morphological changes during heating are followed by FTIR spectroscopy, WAXD, and SAXS. The findings are that from 0 to 62 mol % of piperazine the Brill transition occurs in the same temperature region. The transformation is triggered by the conformational changes in the methylene sequences of the main chain, followed by twisting in the methylene sequences next to the amide group. This results in enhanced chain mobility along the c-axis, causing lamellar thickening. For 80 mol % of piperazine and higher, no Brill transition is observed. However, conformational changes in the methylene sequences of the main chain occurs, triggering lamellar thickening.


The ACT government's rent reduction scheme will be extended until the end of the year.
It will mean landlords who reduce tenants' rent by at least 25 per cent can continue to receive rebates on land tax of up to $100 a week.
Only tenants who have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic are eligible for the reduction.
The scheme was implemented in April as part of the government's coronavirus economic response. It was intended to go for six months.
As of August 13, 759 landlords had applied for the rebate. They will have to apply again to extend the rebate.
ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said he was pleased at the number of landlords who had applied for the scheme.
"We understand this is a difficult time for many Canberrans, particularly those who have suffered a significant reduction in their income," he said.
"However, I want to remind people that this isn't a license for tenants to completely forgo their rental obligations. If you are not impacted by COVID-19 and can pay your rent then you are required to do so."


Heroes of the pandemic: School teacher SOME people are still required to go to work during this national shutdown. We're speaking with essential workers to hear how their jobs have changed and how they're keeping things turning in the Central Highlands. We'll bring you their stories.
DAVID Carter always wanted to be a teacher. The 32-year-old father followed his dream two years ago and has since been teaching science and modern history to high school students at Emerald Christian College.
"I like sparking the curiosity in their minds about the world, especially being science, understanding how things happen," he said.
"When they figure it out for themselves, that's what every teacher loves. That 'ah-ha' moment is probably the gold mine."
One of the challenges of home-based learning was that it had limited the hands-on aspects of teaching.
"With science you deal with things in the abstract, you talk about a force but what does that mean?
"When you visually show them and do experiments, that's what science is.
"And that's been the hardest thing, trying to embed experiments they can do at home, without the equipment."
Unlike many other essential workers, Mr Carter has also faced the challenge of having a young daughter with a weak immune system, putting her in the high-risk category during the pandemic.
Although he and his wife weren't too worried initially, it "started to hit home" when the first coronavirus case was reported at the Brisbane hospital where his daughter was born.
"You start hearing rumours there's a case around Blackwater, Moranbah, Gracemere, and we have family there so you're more concerned for them," Mr Carter said.
He was told to stay home during the first week of Term 2 for his family's safety, but he jumped at the chance to head back to the classroom when the time came.
"I was climbing the walls at home, so I think my wife fully supported the decision," Mr Carter said with a laugh.
"Don't get sick, that's the only thing she said to me."
While some students have thrived in the home environment, others haven't done so well, and Mr Carter expects it to be a difficult transition back to the norm.
"We are continually assessing the students so we have an idea of where they're at but we have to take into consideration everything that's happened," he said.
"Some students have got all the resources and can engage properly and others not so much, so it's an unfair advantage.
"It will be more of a day by day basis."


Jost Wübbeke
Energy Security Discourses and Strategies in China and the EU – A Comparison
Betreuer / supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Miranda Schreurs
Description:
China’s rare earth industry is currently undergoing a profound transformation. The central government is pushing forward the reorganization of the industry, tightening standards for environmental protection and resource conservation, and controlling exports. The current debate revolves very much around the Chinese export controls while underemphasizing the dimension of the domestic policies. The leading research question of this dissertation is: why, how and how should the Chinese central government carry out a profound transformation of the rare earth industry? The research focus of this dissertation is threefold: first, I seek to examine the motives of the central government in pushing forward this transformation. In a second step, I analyze the concrete measures and their efficacy. Thirdly, I assess to what degree the government efforts can be associated with the concept of post-extractivism. The analysis relies on actor-network theory as a conceptual framework.
Grants:
PhD Scholarship by Heinrich-Böll Foundation
Publications:


The Perfect BAC is a project aimed at reducing the share of students that drink too much alcohol. The goal is to contribute to a safe and inclusive environment for all students.
To achieve this goal, we assist student associations that want to work on their alcohol policy. We contribute with information and competence, so that they can implement measures suitable for their organization. These measures can be better guidelines for alcohol consumption, enforcement of rules, and alcohol free events.
We offer «The Perfect BAC» material for your organization Workshop in alcohol policy Help and guidance if you are concerned about your or others alcohol/drug use How to reach the Perfect BAC
To reach the Perfect BAC, women can drink 2 alcohol units, while men can drink 3–4. Then, drink 1 unit per hour, and alternate with water to keep hydrated. That way you reduce the chance of a hangover.
You can test your alcohol habits anonymously.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our project leader, Maren Kronlund: maren.kronlund@sit.no


Execute Savings Initiatives That Have the Highest Likelihood of Success Inability to Prioritize Initiatives
As healthcare organizations continue to brace for the shift toward value-based care, the focus on achieving real cost reduction is growing. Organizations typically have hundreds of opportunities to reduce cost, increase efficiency, and improve. It is overwhelming to determine exactly where to start. Healthcare providers need a way to identify which initiatives should be prioritized and resourced.


May 2018 Workplace Mental Health
Employee mental health is one of the most significant challenges faced by employers today. The immense costs of mental health are due to the high prevalence of mental health conditions as well as insufficient or ineffective treatment. This issue of
@Work magazine features a variety of program models and approaches to address mental health conditions in the workplace.


Netaly Ophir-Flint Netaly Ophir Flint is a Partner at KONU - an international consultancy for leadership development and change management that specializes in the art of Adaptive Leadership. At KONU, she works with mission-driven individuals, executives, and organizations to help them adapt and thrive as they tackle complex challenges in a rapidly changing world. Until recently, Netaly served as the CEO of the Reut Institute Group - a 21st Century think tank and leadership group designed to address the most pressing issues facing Israel and the Jewish people. In the past, Netaly led Reut’s groundbreaking work on the changing relations between Israel and world Jewry, specifically focusing on the Israeli Diaspora as a catalyst for Jewish Peoplehood. Netaly holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Wexner Israel Fellow and a dual MA in International Relations and Conflict Management and Resolution from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is also a certified mediator and facilitator.
Sunday 22nd Nov
Leadership for Turbulent Times We are currently living In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and adaptive world. The need for progress and change on difficult systemic issues is all around us: digitalization, political uncertainty, race and inclusion, financial upheaval, and the list goes on. In this context, people are increasingly called on to lead their teams and communities through significant operational and cultural reforms. However, the attributes that served our management well in the past - technical expertise, respect for functional and industry boundaries, and deference to hierarchy - are no longer sufficient. To survive and thrive in this environment, more adaptive approaches are needed. In this session, we will draw on the Adaptive Leadership Framework – developed at Harvard’s Kennedy School – to gain insights into how to navigate these turbulent times. Join us to deepen your leadership practice for this crucial moment in history.


Occupational Adaptation Model (OAM) is proposed as a frame of reference that aims to integrate the two main domains (occupation and adaptation) for occupational therapy. It defines occupation as self-perceived meaningful activities that require active participation and lead to a product. Adaptation is one’s adaptive response to meet an occupational challenge, when ordinary response is insufficient to master the activity, and is evaluated in relation to the concept “relative mastery” (i.e., evaluating occupational performance from the client’s viewpoint). The increase and maintenance of competence in activities are described as an interaction between a person and his/her environment. Occupational adaptation process begins with the environmental demands for mastery in activities. This OAM assumes that individuals have the desire to master activity and gain the environmental control. It emphasizes on the person’s interaction with the natural setting for occupational performance. With this frame of reference, the patient should actively participate and engage in goal setting, treatment planning, and evaluation. In the assessment, questions based on the OAM are asked to identify the person’s occupation environments, roles, and meaningful activities. During treatment planning, the client chooses meaningful activities that he/she would like to master. Treatment focuses on the self-chosen activities and the client’s environment and roles. The evaluation will be based on the concept of relative mastery.
Summarized by
Macey Cho
Type
Frame of reference
Population
Child
Adolescent
Adult
Elderly
Disability
All
Domain of occupation
Unspecified
Application Note
Client’s active participation is required during the entire intervention process.
Key Reference
Schkade, J. K., & Schultz, S. (1992). Occupational adaptation: Toward a holistic approach for contemporary practice: I. American Journal of Occupational Therapy,46(9), 829-837.
The occupational adaptation frame of reference (FOR) focuses on the adaptation process when a person encounters occupational challenges. Three basic elements of this FOR are the person (including sensorimotor, cognitive, psychosocial system), the occupational environment (including work, play and leisure, and self-maintenance) and the interaction between these two elements. Each of the elements is consistently influenced by a constant, respectively.
Occupational adaptation theory describes a process of internal adaptation. It aims to guide occupational therapy practitioners to facilitate clients’ ability to make adaptations to engage in meaningful activities. This theory emphasizes the interaction between the person and the environment. It states that the person consists of three systems (sensorimotor, cognitive, and psychosocial) that interact with occupational environment (physical, social, and cultural).
The Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement (CMOP-E) is an occupational performance model, which is evolved from the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance (CMOP). The CMOP-E includes three main components: person, environment, and occupation. In this model, the inner part represents “Person”, and its center is the spirituality of a person. The other components surrounding a person’s spirituality are affective, physical, and cognitive abilities.
The Model of Playfulness suggests that playfulness can be determined within any transaction of the evaluation of three elements, each of which can be represented as a continuum. The three elements are (1) source of motivation (from intrinsic to extrinsic), (2) perception of control (from internal to external), and (3) the suspension of reality (from free to not free). Intrinsic motivation, such as mastery or pure sensation of movement, is the aspect(s) of activity itself that provides motivation for the individual to involve in an activity.
This model is based on the concepts of metacognition and awareness to view the relationship between the metacognition and awareness as a dynamic process. This model differentiates between one’s self knowledge and awareness that are pre-existing or stored within long-term memory (or called metacognitive knowledge) and the knowledge and awareness that is activated during a task (or called on-line awareness).


Each year, Radius’ team of psychologists and social workers provide help to over 430 local children and youth. The stories we hear are often heartbreaking and difficult. They are also filled with hope, resiliency and strength.
Approximately 50% of the clients at Radius are between 12 and 18 years old. Teens like Damion receive counselling and services to help them heal from the trauma of sexual abuse.
Radius engages non-offending parents and caregivers in our clinical assessments and counselling. This helps us better understand the needs, strengths and goals of each child, and supports parents to continue the healing journey at home.


Evenflo Recalls Over 56,000 Child Booster Car Seats Due to Design Defect
Evenflo will recall approximately 56,247 Transitions 3-in-1 Combination Booster Seats due to a design defect involving the central front adjuster button. The central front adjuster (CFA) controls the seat’s internal harness to loosen the restrains on the child. It was discovered recently that the position of the CFA is in reach for the child to activate the CFA and subsequently loosen the harness that is restraining the occupant. If the internal harness is not tightened snugly around the child, this increases the risk of injury for the child in the event of a crash.
Click here to read the full Evenflo recall: Transitions 3-in-1 Car Seat
The model numbers affected in this recall include 34411686, 34411695, and 34411029. These car seats were manufactured from December 18, 2014 through January 29, 2016.
Evenflo will notify owners and provide a remedy kit that includes a replacement seat pad and CFA assembly, free of charge. This will eliminate a child’s access to activate the CFA button. The recall is expected to begin during February 2016. Owners may contact Evenflo at www.transitions.evenflo.com or 1-800-233-5921. Note: This safety issue only affects the use of the seat in the forward-facing harnessed booster (22-65 lbs. and 28-50 in.) configuration.
Recently, Britax recalled 49,000 B-Ready strollers and replacement top seats due to an arm bar defect.
Americans rely on manufacturers to provide a safe well-designed product. Sadly, that is not often the case. The Auto Defect Attorneys at The Brandi Law Firm have successfully represented many people injured from defective autos such as Toyotas, Fords, Chryslers, Hondas, GM, and their component parts. Additionally, we have successfully represented people injured by defective helmets, bicycles, motorcycles, fuel pumps, brakes, car seats, seat belts, air bags, table saws, pumps, industrial machinery used in the workplace, barbeques, heating systems, and numerous other household and industrial products.
Often times, people involved in accidents do not examine the issues of defective product design, the risks inherent in the design, feasible alternatives, and appropriate warnings. In a car accident, we examine whether the car was truly crashworthy – does it contain the appropriate crash protection. In accidents where someone strikes a guardrail, people often do not consider the guardrail may be unsafe, installed improperly, or whether there is a contributing factor in the roadway design leading to a dangerous condition. We have represented a number of people seriously injured in these types of accidents involving dangerous conditions of roads and crashworthy vehicles. If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto crash, our attorneys at The Brandi Law Firm are available to consult with you. Please contact our office at 800-481-1615 or email us.
Trademark Notice
Evenflo is a registered trademark of Evenflo Company, Inc. The use of this trademark is solely for product identification and informational purposes. Evenflo Company, Inc. is not affiliated with this website, and Evenflo Company, Inc. has no affiliation with The Brandi Law Firm. Nothing on this site has been authorized or approved by Evenflo Company, Inc.


Stronger Churches is a process to strengthen the local church. These evaluative tools help assess the church's health and vitality, leading to strategic planning to enter into a preferred future. Then, the daughter church is encouraged to plant another congregation.
Step 1: The Introduction to Stronger Churches is a one-day workshop that enables church leaders to keep a congregation focused on its task as God's agent in a particular place. It prepares leaders to guide their congregation into a self-designed path towards greater ministry effectiveness according to the ten characteristics of healthy congregational life and mission.
Step 2: Take Your Church's Pulse is a tool that enables leaders to assess the level of health in the congregation and evaluate key areas of ministry. It serves as a tool for self-evaluation and planning for the local church, addressing both quantitative and qualitative factors. A dynamic online version of the tool is available at pulse.tycp.online.
Step 3: The Strategic Planning Process workshop helps church leaders determine what actions the church will do, why the church will do them, and how the church will accomplish these action. With the strategic plan, leaders can be confident that biblical, sensible, and reliable details are communicated well. The result is a church with personnel focused together on accomplishing God’s Kingdom work to have a larger impact on their community.
Step 4: We offer a Toolbox of strategies designed to help a church target the specific areas of ministry they wish to develop.
Step 5: As a church meets its self-determined goals, it celebrates what it is becoming by God's grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is then challenged to consider planting a daughter church.


A negative mental habit that is often a struggle for me is ruminating. My thoughts often dwell too long on what has happened. In other words, I play events over and over in my mind and relive the emotions and regret over and over again.
Before this became a struggle, it was something that defeated me. It continually wore me down and lived at the root of many depressive episodes and sleepless nights.
Then God’s word got a hold of me. Specifically, two portions of scripture.
“I am focusing all my energies on this one thing. Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
“But forget all that – it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do a brand new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers for them in the desert!” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
As I have revisited these verses over the years, I gradually moved from being defeated by ruminating and dwelling to struggling toward victory. These verses regularly pull me out of a downward spiral that threatens like a storm on the horizon whenever life comes at me in full force.
Together, these verses provide a formula of sorts for helping me to “strain to reach” and to find the “pathway through the wilderness” instead of returning to defeating and depression.
Forget: Don’t let failures and disappointments weigh you down. Don’t be held back by past success, either, by thinking the best is behind you. Look Forward: Look for what God has planned. Seek the newness he has in store. Be thankful for what he has done, then focus on what lies ahead. Receive: Keep making progress as you aim for the perfection of Heaven. Follow the way that seems impossible, but that God makes clear with every step you take toward him.
God ministers to me in new and increasing ways through these verses. He never fails to lead me in the path of his will through them. Now, as I enter the mid-life, empty-nest season, he once again is encouraging me through them, and I am grateful.


This book explores the interplay of childhood and the fairy tale as they both changed character in accordance with the historical transformations of the mid-nineteenth century. While the fairy tale was instrumental in the social construction of childhood, the latter for its part played an equally crucial role in altering the narrative structure of the fairy tale. So viewed, the story of childhood is closely intertwined with the fairy tale, and both with modernity as it changed its focus with the changing direction of the civilizing process. The liberating potential of modernity emerges when a broad spectrum of the marginalized, including children, begin to assert themselves and gain recognition as independent subjects of historical inquiry.


UCL School of Management’s Associate Professor Chia-Jung Tsay’s latest research examines the three fundamental responses to moral conflict; utilitarian, action and intention.
Moral judgments are a part of daily life and decisions, especially within organisations, where differing individual’s natural instinct and moral judgments can affect the outcome of key organisational decisions.
Managers and employees are often confronted and conflicted in the pursuit of profit or growth-oriented outcomes versus the means of achieving the outcomes, which may entail confusion and even harm to various stakeholders.
Working in collaboration with Harvard University, Harvard Business School and the Hebrew University of Jeresulum, Professor Tsay suggests those in managerial roles should be aware of the different individual responses to moral conflict, ensure they provide key decision makers within their organisation with all the information required and make a decision that will benefit the organisation as a whole, and consider asking the individual to set aside their inaction preference.


Case Scenario:
JQ, a 58-year-old patient, has been recently diagnosed with hypertension. His resting blood pressure is 158/92. He is prescribed hydrochlorothiazide 50 mg/day and told to eat foods rich in potassium.
After 1 month on hydrochlorothiazide therapy, JQ becomes weak and complains of nausea and vomiting. His muscles are “soft.” His serum potassium level is 3.3 mEq/L.
Questions:
Why is it necessary for JQ to eat foods rich in potassium when taking hydrochlorothiazide? Explain your answer. Should JQ receive a potassium supplement? Explain your answer.


You have a Hydra: a grand, ambitious project you’ve always wanted to tackle. It feels overwhelming, unconquerable. Chop off one of a Hydra’s heads, and two more grow in its place.
How will you ever defeat such a terrifying monstrosity – and live to tell the tale?
In this illuminating fable, productivity expert Josh Kaufman explores the uncertainty and fear inherent in facing down any ambitious challenge, from starting a new business to completing a work of art.
The risks involved can never be eliminated, but they can be understood, anticipated, and mitigated. Armed with an adventurer’s insights into tackling unknown and fearsome challenges, you can tame a project of epic proportions.
How to Fight a Hydra is an essential handbook for artists, creative professionals, and entrepreneurs tired of ignoring the call to adventure.
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Link dead/Question/Request? Please touch me at ebook4expert@gmail.com
This free ebook is meant only for those who want to broaden their knowledge, but due to limited economic condition, cannot afford to buy on official selling channels (bookstores, Amazon, etc.). If you have money, please buy it to support the author, thank you!


One of the most concerning aspects of global warming is the potential for rising seas to damage infrastructure and property and displace a large proportion of our planet’s population. Since 1993, sea level has increased an average of 3.4 millimeters per year—more than twice as fast as the rate over the first 9 decades of the 20th century.
When projecting future sea levels, scientists have traditionally relied upon physical models and expert assessments to project the polar ice sheets’ response to various emission scenarios. These approaches, however, haven’t taken into account some physical processes that can quickly increase ice sheet discharge, such as the collapse of terminal ice cliffs and the breakup of floating ice shelves caused by a process known as hydrofracturing.
Now
Kopp et al. have integrated both of these processes into a probability-based modeling framework to explore how they could affect future projections of global and local sea level changes. The results indicate that these mechanisms could significantly raise sea level forecasts for high-emission scenarios, including nearly doubling the median projections of 21st century global mean sea level rise by 2100.
Moreover, these mechanisms don’t fully kick in until the second half of the century, meaning that a global scenario leading to 50 centimeters of sea level rise over a century and one leading to 2 meters of rise won’t be distinguishable from continental-scale observations for decades to come. Reducing uncertainty will require developing a better, fine-scale understanding of ocean–ice sheet interactions. However, cutting emissions significantly affects the role these processes play: Sea level rise projections for a low-emissions scenario, consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement, are close to unchanged by the inclusion of these mechanisms.
Because the researchers have not yet incorporated other important physical processes that could affect sea level into this model, such as the capacity of firn to buffer meltwater, they caution that this study does not provide unique statistical probabilities of future sea levels. Rather, it both offers a tool for exploring the sea level implications of polar ice sheets’ complex physical responses to global warming and highlights the deep uncertainty that characterizes sea level change in a high-emissions future. (
Earth’s Future, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000663, 2017)
—Terri Cook, Freelance Writer


Aims: Sacubitril/valsartan (SV) reduced heart failure hospitalization and cardiovascular mortality compared with enalapril in the Prospective Comparison of ARNI with ACE-I to Determine Impact on Global Mortality and Morbidity in Heart Failure trial. However, this trial excluded patients with end stage of renal disease (ESRD); thus, the efficacy and safety of SV in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) with ESRD remains uncertain.Methods and results: We retrospectively analysed the clinical and laboratory data of 501 HFrEF patients who administered with SV from March 2017 to April 2019 in a single tertiary university hospital. A total of 23 HFrEF patients with ESRD on dialysis [58.3% non-ischaemic heart failure; left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF): 29.7 ± 4.4%] were included in this study. At baseline and follow-up visit, we evaluated cardiovascular biomarkers such as high-sensitive troponin T (hsTnT), soluble ST2 (sST2), echocardiographic parameters, and clinical and adverse events. The mean dose of SV was 90 ± 43 mg/day at baseline and 123 ± 62 mg/day at last follow-up (follow-up duration: median 132 days). The level of hsTnT was significantly reduced from 236.2 ± 355.3 to 97.0 ± 14.0 pg/mL (P = 0.002), and the sST2 level was significantly reduced from 40.4 ± 44.0 to 19.6 ± 14.1 ng/mL (P = 0.005). LVEF was significantly improved from 29.7 ± 4.4% to 40.8 ± 10.4% (P = 0.002). During the follow-up, up-titration, down-titration, and maintenance of SV dosing were observed in 7 (30%), 5 (21.7%), and 11 patients (47.8%), respectively. SV down-titration group had adverse events including symptomatic hypotension (systolic blood pressure <100 mmHg) (n = 4) and dizziness (n = 1), but they did not discontinue SV therapy.Conclusions: We found that SV could safely reduce the hsTnT and sST2 levels and improve LVEF in HFrEF patients with ESRD. As far as we know, this is the first study to show the efficacy and safety of SV in HFrEF with ESRD on dialysis. Larger prospective, long-term follow-up study should be warranted.


Empirically based analysis of households coping with unexpected shocks in the central Himalayas
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Climate change may significantly impact the large number of households in developing countries depending on agricultural production, not least through changes in the frequency and/or magnitude of climatic hazards resulting in household income shocks. This paper analyses rural households’ responses to past experiences of and future expectations to substantial and unexpected negative and positive agricultural income shocks. Empirical data is derived from an environmentally-augmented structured household (n = 112) survey in the high mountains of central Nepal. Multinomial logit regression, using data on rural household demographics, assets (agricultural land, livestock), value of other assets such as furniture, bicycles, and agricultural implements, and income sources showed that household coping choices are determined by opportunities to generate cash. We argue that public policies should enhance the ability of rural household to generate cash income, including through environmental products.
Originalsprog Engelsk Tidsskrift Climate and Development Vol/bind 11 Udgave nummer 7 Sider (fra-til) 597-606 Antal sider 10 ISSN 1756-5529 DOI Status Udgivet - 2019 Det tidligere LIFE Forskningsområder
ID: 208571419


Different work facilities require varied interpersonal attitudes. Some workplaces need team players who constantly interact with one another and collaborate for the good of the organization. Others include offices that let employees concentrate on their work without interruptions.
Cultivating the right kind of work atmosphere can be difficult, so it might be necessary to turn to solutions such as custom software development. When webinars or training programs instruct employees on how to communicate with coworkers, there is no excuse for ignoring those guidelines. This is particularly useful for workers who have not become accustomed to certain types of workplaces and might be uncomfortable with their new cultures.
For instance, a stressful environment where employees have large individual daily workloads may emphasize civility and respect. If new hires aren't accustomed to this kind of setting, they can take a brief interpersonal relationship course. This use of application software development is a great example of how eLearning can be tailored to meet a company's specific training needs.Develop specialized approaches to workforce education to alleviate problems among workers before they begin to avoid employee disputes.
Contact Christy Beiermann at cbeiermann@csesoftware.com or 309.670.7595 and ask for an eLearning demo today!


Governance QualityScore global coverage comprises of approximately 6,000+ companies in 30 markets, aligning with local market indices, including constituents of the U.S. Russell 3000, Canadian S&P/TSX Composite, STOXX600, S&P/NZX 50, S&P/ASX 300, JPX-Nikkei 400, and the main European local market indices including the UK FTSE All-Share (ex-investment trusts.)
Governance QualityScore also includes widely held companies in ISS ESG’s coverage universe for Brazil, China, Hong Kong, and India. The term “widely held” refers to companies that ISS ESG designates as such based on their membership in a major index and/or the number of ISS ESG clients holding the securities.
ISS ESG conducts an annual review to determine opportunities to expand our global coverage to meet the needs of investors globally.
Governance QualityScore uses a numeric, decile-based score that indicates a company’s governance risk relative to their index or region. A score in the 1st decile (QS:1) indicates relatively higher quality governance practices and relatively lower governance risk, and, conversely, a score in the 10th decile (QS:10) indicates relatively higher governance risk. Companies receive an overall QualityScore and a score for each of four categories: Board Structure, Compensation/ Remuneration, Shareholder Rights, and Audit & Risk Oversight.
The Governance QualityScore methodology focuses on the qualitative aspects of governance, including global governance standards and alignment with ISS voting policy in each region.
ISS ESG’s annual methodology review ensures that the methodology remains in step with the ISS benchmark policies as they adapt to reflect developments in regulatory and market practice.
Use ISS ESG’s proprietary DataDesk platform for insight into a company’s corporate governance structures, quick drill-downs into particular areas of concern, and deep dives into underlying governance data.
Connect your internal platform to the Governance QualityScore API to directly access Profiles and drill into the key risks, to easily bring governance insight into investment decisions and proxy voting processes.
Easily ingest the files through your own internal processes and highlight scores within internal workflow platforms.
Governance QualityScore company profiles are available through Open:FactSet and FactSet’s research manager, while the pillar score and the category scores are accessible in the universal screener and MS Excel add-in.
Access to the search function is temporarily unavailable as ISS begins the QualityScore launch process. Updated scores will be available beginning November 21st.


Rituals are symbolic actions. In the context of LessWrong, it's significant that many rituals have some impact on your cognition, which makes them appropriate to be careful with. Nonetheless, some LessWrongers have worked to explore the space of ritual through a rationalist lens.
It's a bit tricky to define. The book Secular Wholeness notes:
... There’s a hazy boundary between the words “ritual,” “habit,” and “custom.” I think the difference between a ritual act and a habitual one lies inawareness and assent. An act becomes a ritual for you when you perform it with conscious awareness of its symbolic and emotional meaning, and with willing assent to those meanings. Unless you act with both awareness and assent, your act is merely a habit (if it is unique to you) or a custom (if you share it with others).


Abstract
Biliary strictures are frequently encountered in clinical practice. The determination of their nature is often difficult. This study aims to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of the second generation of digital single-operator cholangioscopy (SpyGlass DS, DSOC) in indeterminate biliary strictures (IBDS) through biopsies. All relative studies published in Medline, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and EMBASE were included. The diagnostic tests for IBDS were compared to the surgical histology, autopsy, or long-term clinical follow-up. The methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated by the Quality Assessment of Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy Included in Systematic Reviews (QUADAS-2). A total of 11 studies, which involved 356 patients diagnosed through biopsies, were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio were 0.74 (95% CI: 0.67-0.80), 0.98 (95% CI: 0.95-1.00), 10.52 (95% CI: 5.45-20.32), 0.31 (95% CI: 0.23-0.41), and 65.18 (95% CI: 26.79-158.61), respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.9479, and the pooled adverse event rate was 7%. The sensitivity and specificity in the heterogeneity analysis were I2 = 48.1% and I2 = 25.4%, respectively. SpyGlass DS is a safe and effective technique for IBDS. However, future randomized trials are needed to determine optimal number of biopsies.


Unfortunately, canceling out of fear due to political unrest is not a covered reason to cancel a trip under Trip Cancellation policies.
While the ongoing unrest between the U.S. and Iran may raise concerns of retaliation against U.S. residents traveling in Europe, fear of traveling is never a covered reason to cancel a trip. Only travelers who purchased the Cancel For Any Reason upgrade can be partially reimbursed to cancel their trip because they don’t want to travel.
In order to be eligible for Cancel For Any Reason, a traveler must purchase their policy within 14-21 days of making their initial trip payment, and must insure 100% of their prepaid and non-refundable trip costs. This benefit allows travelers to cancel for a reason not otherwise covered by their policy, such as fear, however it will typically increase a policy’s premium by roughly 40%, and only reimburses up to 75% of their trip cost.
This information is time sensitive and may vary by policy. If you have questions about a specific policy. please contact us directly at 800-240-0369. Our customer service representatives are available from 8am to 10pm ET, seven days a week, and are delighted to help!


The toxicology minor at Nazareth College is designed for students who are interested in learning more about how the chemicals we're exposed to through our air, water, food, and other sources affect our health. It is one of only a dozen toxicology minors in the U.S. The toxicology minor suits students interested in many fields, such as the life and health sciences, public health, sociology, anthropology, public policy, economics, and law.
Anne Pysnik '15 researched phytoremediation — using plants to remove toxins — with professors at Nazareth, while studying environmental science and toxicology. She secured a competitive internship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, looking into titanium dioxide and tracking tasks for work on the Ebola virus.


Abstract
Synchronicity experiences (SEs) are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (e.g. thought, dream or vision) and one or more external events occurring simultaneously or at a future point in time. There has been limited systematic research that has investigated the phenomenology of SEs in therapy. This study aimed to redress this by exploring the process and nature of such experiences from the perspective of the practitioner. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of nine practitioners who reported SEs in their therapeutic sessions (three counsellors, three psychologists and three psychotherapists), and focused on how participants make sense of their experiences of synchronicity in therapy. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify three superordinate themes: sense of connectedness, therapeutic process, and professional issues. Findings suggest that SEs can serve to strengthen the therapeutic relationship and are perceived as useful harbingers of information about the therapeutic process, as well as being a means of overcoming communication difficulties, as they are seen to provide insights into the client’s experiencing of themselves and others, regardless of whether or not the SE is acknowledged by the client or disclosed by the therapist.
Keywords Interpretative phenomenological analysis meaningfulcoincidence practitioner synchronicity therapeutic process therapeutic relationship


Approximately 100 Swiss banks have agreed to participate in the Department of Justice’s
Program for Non-Prosecution or Non-Target Letters for Swiss Banks (the “Program”), which requires participant banks to provide specific information concerning foreign bank accounts held by U.S. taxpayers. As a result, U.S. taxpayers who have not disclosed foreign accounts in such banks could have their information provided to the IRS. These taxpayers are at risk of criminal prosecution, or at a minimum, risk being subject to significant civil penalties for failure to disclose such offshore accounts.
To gain immunity from prosecution under the Program, the banks participating in the Program generally must pay penalties to the U.S. government based on the value of the undisclosed accounts of U.S. taxpayers. Generally, these penalties will be reduced for accounts that are reported by their accountholders under the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (“OVDP”). As a result, Swiss banks participating in the Program have been contacting their current and former U.S. account holders and urging them to enter the OVDP in an effort to reduce their own monetary exposure. The disclosure by the banks of U.S. accountholder information increases the risk accountholders face because they will be unable to enter the OVDP once their information has been disclosed to the IRS. Note that the failure to disclose foreign accounts in any offshore bank, even in those banks that are not covered by the Program, produces a significant risk to the U.S. taxpayer of civil and potentially criminal action by the U.S. government.
Taxpayers can participate in the OVDP by requesting entry into the program from the IRS. Only in limited circumstances will entry be denied. The OVDP provides a way to comply with U.S. tax laws and bring finality to the taxpayer’s noncompliance, including the taxpayer’s ultimate liability, without risk of criminal prosecution. Taxpayers who are accepted into the OVDP are required to amend their income tax returns for the prior eight years and pay taxes, interest and potential penalties on any previously unreported income from the foreign accounts. Taxpayers must also report certain information on their foreign bank accounts held at any time during the prior eight years and pay a penalty of 27.5% on the highest balance in those accounts.
Taxpayers who continue to fail to report foreign bank accounts and choose not to participate in the OVDP may face criminal prosecution for tax evasion as well as substantial penalties well in excess of those imposed in the OVDP. As indicated, if the taxpayer’s foreign bank accounts are disclosed by any offshore bank, the taxpayer will be unable to participate in the OVDP and the risk of U.S. government action against such taxpayer should increase.
Individuals with questions about the reporting requirements for foreign bank accounts, assets or entities, or who are considering using the OVDP, should consult experienced tax counsel to understand the benefits and risks. Unlike communications with an attorney, communications with accountants and other financial advisors are not privileged and may have to be disclosed to the IRS. Therefore, any individual considering the ODVP should consult a tax lawyer prior to making any disclosures to their accountants or other financial advisors. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Damian Hovancik at 404.873.8518.
To review the entire document and formatting for this alert (e.g., footnotes), please access the original below:


Press briefing highlighted two successful projects — one K12 school and one university — where Danfoss technologies helped to address existing challenges and improve energy efficiency.
Danfoss recently hosted its 23rd annual press conference during the 2018 AHR Expo in Chicago. The briefing focused on how the company is “Engineering Tomorrow” — specifically, how Danfoss is helping the industry to address the common challenges of building owners through engineering strategies and innovative solutions.
“Innovation remains a cornerstone of our brand,” emphasized John Galyen, president, Danfoss North America. “Around the world, we continue to invest heavily in research and development each year. In North America alone last year, we opened a new Application Development Center in Tallahassee, Florida, to support the development of next-generation chillers and rooftop units, expanded our production of plate and frame heat exchanger capabilities, and established a new production facility in Utica, New York, to package silicon carbide power modules that will help meet the demand for smaller, faster, and more efficient devices like those used in utility-scale solar inverters and data centers.”
“These investments enable us to prepare today for the trends of tomorrow,” he said. “We believe it is through innovation that we can be successful in meeting the industry’s and our customers’ challenges.”
Engineering Tomorrow: Solutions for commercial buildings
For building owners, these challenges include achieving design efficiency, degradation of efficiency, system reliability, and occupant comfort.
“The solutions to these challenges can be summarized under a lifecycle systems approach,” said Jonathan Holloway, strategic marketing manager for Danfoss North America, in his presentation.
He explained that:
To address the performance gap between design efficiency and installed efficiency, industry needs to start by designing for system interdependencies; apply smart, connected products; and ensure quality installation by skilled technicians — and coordinate all aspects through modern construction techniques like Building Information Modeling (BIM). Solutions to address degradation include proactive and adaptive systems to correct issues immediately. Sustaining efficiency should also be part of the design process, where a proactive approach to eliminate potential efficiency detractors and adaptive systems that reduce manual maintenance can deliver lifecycle results. Downtime costs are rising, but deferred maintenance with limited system data is the norm. High quality, reliable components — built into smart systems with continuous monitoring — can strengthen the chain and ensure reliable operations. Ensuring occupant comfort is critical for job performance; tight temperature and humidity control are vital and variable speed systems can help to achieve these objectives.
“There are many technologies, products, and processes that come into play to address these challenges,” he said, “but it requires a business ecosystem and modern construction methods to move forward.”
To emphasize the opportunity for commercial buildings to address challenges through existing technologies, the press conference showcased two successful projects where Danfoss solutions were deployed to achieve notable results.
In Pensacola, Florida, where the weather is warm and extremely humid, recently-rebuilt A.K. Suter Elementary School has become Escambia County School District’s — which is home to 31 elementary schools alone — most energy-efficient school. Roger McGraw, ECSD’s mechanical engineer, emphasized the importance of the role Danfoss AB-QM™ pressure independent control valves and Danfoss Turbocor® compressors played in the construction of school’s high-efficiency HVAC plant, citing truly balanced flows throughout the entire operating range of the system, high efficiency at part-load conditions, and other benefits like reduced maintenance and sound as critical factors. The efficiency contribution has been so significant, in fact, that ECSD has seen a reduction in energy costs of 24 percent, or more than $2 million annually.
In Wilmington, North Carolina, the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science is located only 100 yards from the Intracoastal Waterway, causing heat and humidity challenges for its MARBIONC research laboratory. Steve Sharpe, UNCW’s energy manager, noted that key challenges included reliability — especially considering the millions of dollars invested in research and experiments — and a campus-wide initiative to reduce energy consumption. But, thanks in part to two 750-ton SMARDT water-cooled chillers utilizing 10 total Danfoss Turbocor® compressors, the lab’s chiller plant has been able to achieve outstanding part-load efficiencies and remarkable reliability. Over three years, the plant ran for more than 20,000 hours and produced nearly 6 million tons of cooling, but its average annual plant efficiency was just 0.556 kW/ton — significantly less than a baseline ASHRAE plant’s expected efficiency of 1.038 kW/ton, resulting in a simple payback time of less than three years.
“Successful projects like these are possible through the ongoing investment Danfoss continues to make in technologies — as well as in the close collaboration with our customers to bring reliable, innovative solutions to the market to meet future challenges today. Together, we are working to Engineer Tomorrow,” Galyen concluded.


Building data-driven resilience in our agrifood supply chains.
This campaign is identifying what parts of our agrifood supply chains are most vulnerable to shocks and stresses and where R&D and data and digital interventions can deliver the greatest return on investment.
"We need to proactively invest in implementing strategies that leverage digital and data interventions to enhance the sector's underlying resilience."
The
AgriFood Supply Chain Resilience report was compiled in collaboration with KPMG Australia and Food Agility CRC. It looks across six key supply chains: grains, red meat, dairy, horticulture, wine and seafood. It identifies the inherent stresses and what happens when shocks occur, then goes further to determine which mitigation strategies could have the greatest impact.
This campaign aims to put data-driven tools in the hands of agribusinesses and communities to help them make long-term decisions for resilience, including profitability, sustainability and risk.
"If you're effective in sharing knowledge then outcomes by default are enhanced profits, business trust and stronger communities."
This campaign aims to digitally connect supply chains, creating end-to-end data flows that build trust and flexibility to manage shocks, grasp opportunities and pivot into new business models.
"It's not until all parts of the supply chain are connected with data flowing throughout, that we will see the true potential of our agrifood system."


2015 年 10 巻 2 号 p. 288-298
In the flood prone areas of Bangladesh, local people have adapted to flooding. Essentially, properties are protected against flooding by constructing villages in the highlands on natural levees, while using lowlands as agricultural fields during the dry season. It remains to spread flood inundation condition and exempts the necessity of strengthening measures against flooding. This study aims to clarify the status of self, community, and public assistance for flood disasters in flood prone areas of Northeast Bangladesh based on a questionnaire survey. We extracted similarities and differences between local people’s flood responses by comparing our findings to those of a similar study on a 2006 flood in the Sendai River Basin, Japan. The effects of preventive flood mitigation measures such as selection of house location are quantitatively confirmed. Maximum inundation depth and duration for houses is approximately 10% less than that for agricultural fields. The study reveals that both areas have evacuation activities, although factors motivating evacuation differ.
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Clinical assessment of pharyngeal airway has not prevailed in dogs. Based on the findings that the craniocervical X-rays and fluoroscopy in 89 consecutive non-brachycephalic dogs with upper airway signs indicated caudal displacement of the larynx, excessive dorsal pharyngeal wall, descent of the tongue, and soft palate unified with the dorsal pharyngeal wall, we defined pharyngeal airway obstruction syndrome (PAOS) and reviewed clinical features, treatment, and outcome of PAOS. In this study, the median age of affected dogs was 9 years. Pomeranian (odds ratio, OR=18.7) and Yorkshire Terrier (OR=3.7) were significantly predisposed. The most common symptom was chronic cough (n=32), the representative signs were obese (BCS>4/5, n=58), snoring(n=53), tachypnea(n=52), sleep disordered breathing(n=40), persistent productive cough(n=39), dry cough(n=38). The most frequent final diagnosis was tracheal collapse (n=29), while 22 percent of these 89 dogs had no conventional diagnosis. In 46 dogs, body weight loss was instructed, and any upper airway signs significantly improved until 3 months in 86.7% of these dogs. Some severely affected dogs had persistent sleep apnea (n=11) or noncardiogenic pulmonary edema(n=9) on admission. In the latter, the 60-day survival rate was 66.7 %. PAOS is distinguished by individual pharyngeal structure, despite of breeds or the skull shapes. Clinician must identify PAOS and instruct body weight loss to pet owners as early as possible if the affected dog is obese.
A 12-year-old dog with anorexia, lethargy, fever, and cough was referred to our hospital. Blood tests revealed a low platelet count and high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). The detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. phagocytophilum) DNA in the blood, the positive result for antibodies to A. phagocytophilum, and the presence of morulae within granulocytes in the peripheral blood confirmed the diagnosis of canine granulocytic anaplasmosis. Phylogenetic analysis of gltA and groEL gene revealed that the strain detected in this study and A. phagocytophilum previously reported in Japan were closely related. However this is the first report of canine granulocytic anaplasmosis in western Japan. A. phagocytophilum infection may also occur in non-epidemic regions of Japan.
The objective of this study was to assess correlation between the changes in the central venous pressure (CVP) and hematocrit (HCT) to estimate blood loss in dogs during hepatectomy. Medical records of dogs who underwent elective hepatectomy to treat hepatic mass lesion at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University from August 2017 to July 2018, were retrospectively investigated. Data of five client-owned dogs (4 females and 1 male) aged 10-13 years (average age, 12.2 years) were included in this study. The parameters recorded during hepatectomy included esophageal temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, arterial blood pressure, hemoglobin oxygen saturation, end-tidal carbon dioxide, end-tidal isoflurane, volume of lactated Ringer's solution, and CVP. Maximum, minimum, and mean values of CVP were investigated. Preoperative and postoperative HCT levels were 34.0 ± 2.4% and 20.0 ± 3.1%, respectively, suggesting that the HCT levels significantly reduced after hepatectomy (p=0.0033). Pearson’s correlation coefficient between maximum changes in CVP and HCT levels was 0.8792 (p=0.0495). No significant correlations were identified among other variables. In this study, CVP influenced changes in HCT levels associated with bleeding in dogs undergoing hepatectomy.
Oral low-dose chemotherapy using a combination of etoposide, Chlorambucil, filocoxib, and piroxicam was used to perform adjuvant chemotherapy on four dogs with grade 2 or 3 splenic hemangiosarcoma. The survival times of the four cases were 307, 248, 285, and 309 days, respectively. This study highlights an alternative adjuvant chemotherapeutic modality for canine splenic hemangiosarcoma. However, further investigations in a larger number of cases are desired.


Longitudinal four-dimensional mapping of subcortical anatomy in human development. Raznahan A., Shaw PW., Lerch JP., Clasen LS., Greenstein D., Berman R., Pipitone J., Chakravarty MM., Giedd JN.
Growing access to large-scale longitudinal structural neuroimaging data has fundamentally altered our understanding of cortical development en route to human adulthood, with consequences for basic science, medicine, and public policy. In striking contrast, basic anatomical development of subcortical structures such as the striatum, pallidum, and thalamus has remained poorly described--despite these evolutionarily ancient structures being both intimate working partners of the cortical sheet and critical to diverse developmentally emergent skills and disorders. Here, to begin addressing this disparity, we apply methods for the measurement of subcortical volume and shape to 1,171 longitudinally acquired structural magnetic resonance imaging brain scans from 618 typically developing males and females aged 5-25 y. We show that the striatum, pallidum, and thalamus each follow curvilinear trajectories of volume change, which, for the striatum and thalamus, peak after cortical volume has already begun to decline and show a relative delay in males. Four-dimensional mapping of subcortical shape reveals that (i) striatal, pallidal, and thalamic domains linked to specific fronto-parietal association cortices contract with age whereas other subcortical territories expand, and (ii) each structure harbors hotspots of sexually dimorphic change over adolescence--with relevance for sex-biased mental disorders emerging in youth. By establishing the developmental dynamism, spatial heterochonicity, and sexual dimorphism of human subcortical maturation, these data bring our spatiotemporal understanding of subcortical development closer to that of the cortex--allowing evolutionary, basic, and clinical neuroscience to be conducted within a more comprehensive developmental framework.


A Skilled Family Law Firm Guiding You In Child Support Matters
Children deserve to be loved and properly cared for during their lives. When any or both of those principles are ignored, children likely face challenges for years to come. Some of those challenges are financial ones that surface in any household, including those run by a single parent or divorced parent.
Child support payments go a long way toward helping single and divorced parents raise their families. Because the financial responsibility of raising a child falls on both parents, child support can be a crucial part of the equation in certain scenarios. My law office, Cynthia M. Pyfrom, P.A., in Boynton Beach, Florida, is an effective legal ally that understands family law.
Leading The Way And Taking Action For You
Attentive and prepared, I will discuss legal strategies with you in securing fair child support payments. Once child support is awarded, I will help you obtain it. One way is by garnishing the wages of the child’s other parent. If that other parent neglects his or her part of the agreement by failing to pay child support, I will pursue swift and legal enforcement actions against him or her.
When things change financially, I will help you in modifying child support agreements. The modification route surfaces at times when:
A parent receives a significant income boost, leading to the custodial parent receiving more money. A parent experiences a loss of income due to unemployment, leading to a temporary decrease in child support payments. A parent remarries, potentially leading to smaller child support payments A child’s needs change in areas such as increased costs education and health care.
Raising a child alone is not easy, but your love for your child will go a long way, and so will fair child support payments. Let me help you.
Schedule An Appointment Now
You are legally entitled to child support payments to help raise your children. As a skilled family law attorney, I can provide the insight and direction you need. I am Cynthia M Pyfrom, in Boynton Beach, Florida. I care about my clients and will protect them and help them reach their goals. Contact me by filling out this online form or calling 561-354-0403.


This years’ World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO-IOF-ESCEO) is set to take place virtually on 20-23 August. While it is not the ‘live’ stage many had initially anticipated, the virtual congress is a fantastic opportunity to connect with the osteoporosis community and share insights into the latest advances in bone health from around the world.
In today’s current climate, the importance of continuing to connect from afar extends beyond congresses. Recently, UCB announced a new collaboration with the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) to support its Capture the Fracture
®
program which aims to combat the global public health burden of osteoporosis by reducing the incidence of hip and vertebral fractures by 25% by 2025.
Osteoporosis is a serious chronic condition that weakens bone over time, making them thinner and more likely to break. We are fortunate though, that there are steps patients and healthcare providers can take to reduce fracture risk. Despite these resources, even after an osteoporosis-related fracture, approximately, 80% of individuals at high risk are still not identified or treated. Capture the Fracture, a global IOF initiative, now supported by UCB and Amgen and in collaboration with the University of Oxford, aims to proactively implement post-fracture care (PFC) coordination programs in hospitals and healthcare systems to help patients prevent subsequent fractures due to osteoporosis.
This partnership also welcomes collaboration from existing fracture prevention coalitions on international, regional, and national levels to drive fracture prevention policy change and prioritization. Additional aims of the partnership include developing and implementing efficiencies and best practice sharing across PFC program sites, creating digital platforms to track and share PFC effectiveness, and providing virtual and in-person mentorship and learning opportunities for healthcare providers.
By continuing to connect, partner and collaborate with organizations and experts around the world, even virtually, UCB hopes to tackle a significant healthcare issue that has been overlooked for too long, and deliver better support and outcomes for people living with the osteoporosis.
For more information about Capture the Fracture, please visit http://www.capturethefracture.org
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Schooling and wage income losses due to early-childhood growth faltering in developing countries: national, regional, and global estimates
The growth of >300 million children <5 y old was mildly, moderately, or severely stunted worldwide in 2010. However, national estimates of the human capital and financial losses due to growth faltering in early childhood are not available. The researchers quantified the economic cost of growth faltering in developing countries.


by Sahil Chopra
Language is the medium by which we interact with culture, express our ideas, and maintain our rights. Without “language access”, i.e. the ability to convey one’s thoughts effectively and understand others correctly, one is disempowered altogether. At a societal level this can lead to systemic inequality, whether intentional or not; and one of the places where this is most evident is the court system.
This Autumn, I’m one of the 25 students enrolled in Stanford’s Design for Language Access, a course initiated by the Stanford Legal Design Lab to investigate and advise how state courts may better serve Californians entering the legal system, who either do not speak or have limited proficiency with English.
As the Judicial Council of California’s Strategic Plan for Language Access in California Court details, 40% of Californians speak non-English languages at home, 200+ languages and dialects are spoken by Californians as a whole, and approximately ~20% of Californians have English language limitations. Going to court is always a stressful experience, as the impetus to seek court help is often a difficult circumstance itself. Coupling the weight of the incident with the inability to communicate and properly resolve your issue only magnifies the stress incurred by the individual. Moreover, it may be difficult to properly resolve one’s legal issue and receive the proper access to one’s legal rights if they are unable to effectively communicate with lawyers, clerks, and judges within the judicial branch. Thus, “language access”, as the Judicial Council of California titles it, is a critical issue that we must address in order to ensure and fair and equitable legal proceedings.
Personally, I have no prior background with judicial systems. I’m a computer scientist by training, completing my BS/MS with concentrations in Artificial Intelligence and Human Computer Interaction – focusing a bulk of my research in cognitive science and natural language processing. But that’s where the diverse experience of my classmates come in. We are lawyers, teachers, designers, business students, and computer scientists — all hoping to better understand this space and offer a different perspective.
Over the next nine weeks, we shall apply the fundamental principles of “Design Thinking” to first observe and interview individuals going through the court system and then hypothesize, prototype, and test potential strategies that may provide better language access to millions of Californians. Our class will culminate in a list of possible solutions and implementations which the California courts may consider as potential avenues by which the state can improve language access at scale. Additionally, we shall be evaluating a pilot program that California courts is running in San Jose, where tablets with Google Translate are being employed to help ease communication between non-English-speaking clients and English-speaking court staff.
Stay tuned to learn more week-by-week about our journey to help provide better language access to Californians!


The
New York Times opinion piece by David Brooks, titled “The Neural Buddhists,” drives a wedge between mystical and “revealed” religions by citing recent philosophical and scientific scholarship. Brooks suggests that neuroscience (including psychology) poses a considerable challenge to religions that emphasize divine law or revelation. Brooks is right to predict that neuroscience will profoundly affect our culture’s thinking. Neuroscience forces us to revise our concept of self. And I agree that the investigation into universal moral intuitions raises interesting questions about the emergence of religion. My guess is that its most significant cultural contribution will be, simply, increased happiness.
However, Brooks unadvisedly argues that neuroscience will affect metaphysics. He claims that neuroscience can validate sacred experiences and that it can show us that these experiences are the same as God. “Scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism,” Brooks writes, will be the primary challengers of revealed religions. The implication is that neuroscience has found a way to transcend the practical and philosophical boundaries within which it operates. This has not occurred. Moreover, my years of reflecting on brain and behavior have made me deeply appreciate how scientifically intractable metaphysical propositions are. While individuals should be encouraged to form their own private opinions, there is no need to adopt religious intolerance in the name of neuroscience. Below I share a few reasons why I think this is the case. Each speaks to the difficulty neuroscience has characterizing the ultimate nature of reality.
First, there is Brooks’s claim that people are equipped to “to have moments of elevated experience when they transcend boundaries and overflow with love.” At present, neuroscience is poorly positioned to evaluate this. The brain’s complexity is a tremendous practical constraint on neuroscience’s reach. New kinds of measurement bring about advances in neuroscience: the more sensitive, reliable, and physically interpretable a measure, the better. Much of the challenge in developing new measures is finding an interpretable signal buried in all the complexity. We do not have a sensitive, reliable, and physically interpretable measurement of “transcendence” or related phenomena.
The brain is active from early in development until death. It would be remarkable if there were no brain activity during a presumed mystical state. A challenge confronting neuroscientists who study mystics is determining which part of observed brain activity relates to the subjectively meaningful part of a mystical state. Brain activity may arise from performance anxiety, daydreaming, or attention to the endeavor at hand. One way to evaluate this would be to correlate brain activity with real-time ratings of subjective mysticism. We could ask someone who is attempting to cultivate such a state to adjust a knob every few seconds according to the intensity of the experience. However, doing so might interfere with the state.
Late night television comedian David Letterman occasionally does a sketch called “Is This Anything?,” where he and sidekick Paul Schaffer jokingly debate whether some bizarre stage performance is “nothing” or “something.” By analogy, neuroscience has confirmed that mystically oriented practices are “something.” However, as in the comedy sketch, “nothing” isn’t really an option.
We can currently evaluate comparatively mundane aspects of mystically oriented practices. Are practitioners subsequently less distracted or anxious? Does a given practice increase antibody titers, or decrease inflammation? Are practitioners better at spatial reasoning or math? Such things are measurable. Some such findings may prove useful to society, but will likely not take a side in the worldview debates.
There are more deeply philosophical reasons why neuroscience will stay out of metaphysics. For instance, neuroscience may never solve the age-old philosophical puzzle of how primal our subjective experience is. This is my second disagreement with Brooks. He says, “God can best be conceived as the nature one experiences at [mystical] moments, the unknowable total of all there is.” I am sure that some people have these deeply meaningful experiences. However, it is pointless for neuroscience to update a term (God) that in conventional parlance refers to the ultimate power that rules the universe.
It is true that our access to the “real” world, meaning the objective world “out there” that science purports to study, is through our subjective awareness. Some proponents of the ancient Greek school of Solipsism have maintained that the only thing that is knowable is this subjective awareness. To cite one recent popular example: how can I possibly prove that I am not part of a video game? The blockbuster movie
The Matrix portrayed a world whose inhabitants were unknowingly part of a fictitious computer-generated world, a world piped straight to their brains. A Matrix scenario challenges universality and other assumptions of physical law. Non-universality opens an infinite number of alternative options for how the universe works. It is easy to imagine a future interactive video game in which the game engine treats each player differently, with a strain of fundamentalism being “true” for some, and quantum electrodynamics being “true” for others.
Solipsism has vexed philosophers throughout history. Most have thought it unlikely. However, most also have thought it causes trouble. One critic, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer spoke of it as an irremediable evil. I, too, feel uncompelled by solipsism. Because I think about the chasm between introspective awareness and the physical world, however, I am sensitive to the trouble it causes.
The Matrix illustrates just how poorly positioned one is to see the grand design of the universe. No functional neuroimaging device, even if it is pointed at the most transcendentally devoted brain, will take us to the highest vantage point in the universe.
Nevertheless, there is promise in pointing tools at mystics’ brains. We will not find true metaphysical reality or define God. Instead, such research is an opportunity to explore something different from standard lines of inquiry, something that may cast new light on how the brain works. Resulting findings will fold into the evolving model of the nervous system. Perhaps these new understandings will benefit mental health or improve technology.
As for neuroscience as a whole, it will give society a lot of new material to work with. For both pragmatic and philosophical reasons, however, it is clear that Brooks granted neuroscience an undeserved authority over metaphysics.


As we head into prime mosquito season in North Carolina, NC State University Ph.D. student Sophia Webster outlines ways you can limit your exposure by eliminating standing water or using insect sprays.
Webster, who conducts research in the Department of Entomology, works with
Aedes aegypti, one of the mosquitoes that can transmit the Zika virus. While concern about Zika’s presence in Florida has captured news headlines, the virus has not been found in North Carolina mosquitoes.
Portions of b-roll provided courtesy of the CDC.
This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.


Please enjoy the following article from the Journal of Urban Affairs, available online.
Abstract:
This study explores the neighborhood disparities in access to street arts festivals (SAFs) based on a case study of Chicago. The city’s street closure permit database is used to identify the locations of SAFs and examine how access to SAFs is associated with the characteristics of neighborhoods. The results show that SAFs are highly spatially concentrated and are not equally accessible from different types of neighborhoods. Specifically, access to SAFs within walking distance declines significantly as the proportions of Black, Hispanic, and elderly residents increase. A comparative analysis finds that SAFs are even less accessible than museums/art galleries from Black or Hispanic neighborhoods and areas with a higher share of elderly residents. However, neighborhood income is not a significant predictor of SAF accessibility. This study’s findings have important implications for policymakers because they suggest that SAFs further disadvantage certain types of historically underserved neighborhoods, especially Black neighborhoods, regarding arts accessibility.


CFE Plans to Take Advantage of Natural Gas SurplusBy Cas Biekmann | Mon, 11/09/2020 - 16:30
Mexico’s state-owned energy utility CFE will sell surplus natural gas to private players through a new subsidiary, formed by CFE’s CFEnergía arm, reports BNAmericas. Other efforts to turn the surplus into a boon include launching bids to build new power producing plants and to allow exports after liquefaction. By taking such actions, CFE aims to benefit from the natural gas it is already contractually obligated to purchase from third parties but cannot use in its own power plants. The Mexican industry and natural gas liquefaction plants are likely candidates to purchase the gas.
The gas capacity contracts CFE signed to import its natural gas supply have faced a slew of criticism over time. President López Obrador identified seven pipeline contracts signed during the previous administration and considers them ‘unfair’ to CFE, citing its take-or-pay and force majeure clauses as problematic, reported Natural Gas Intel. By renegotiating terms with IEnova, TC Energy and Grupo Carso, CFE could save US$4.5 billion.
Nevertheless, this renegotiation is costing the state an extra US$6.84 billion over the duration of the contracts, the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) noted in a report that criticized CFE for its incapability to be profitable on its own. The terms of five out of seven contracts had been extended from 25 to 35 years and established a levelized rate over this period, meaning that CFE will incur in higher costs.
CFE rejected ASF’s general criticism in a press conference last Friday, noting that it managed to lower prices during the first 25 years of the contracts, with an even lower price during the 10-year extension. BNAmericas noted that this argument was not inconsistent with ASF’s report, which focused on a wider scope than the natural gas contracts.
El Financiero reported that Miguel Reyes, Director of CFEnergía, also plans to launch two bids to build two further natural gas-based energy generation plants to put the surplus to good use. “We are going to launch a call in the next few days or weeks, regarding the new plants that CFE is going to build. They obviously will have natural gas as their main input," said Reyes.
Further plans Reyes mentioned to benefit from the surplus include an extension of pipelines across the country, as well as allowing for the construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant to be able to export the natural gas to Asia. Sempra Energy’s Mexican subsidiary IEnova has been working on this possibility for exports, an option now confirmed by Reyes to be highly feasible.


If you are a diabetic taking insulin, Medicare’s Senior Savings Model offers a broad selection of insulins at a predictable and more affordable cost through the initial coverage stage and the coverage gap stage.
The
Farm Bureau Select Rx plan is participating in Medicare’s Senior Savings Model, which means members enrolled in this plan can access certain insulin products will be $35 copayment for a 30-day supply until you reach the catastrophic coverage stage.
Beneficiaries who qualify for Medicare’s low-income subsidy already receive help on their premium and out-of-pocket costs. If you already receive a low-income subsidy, the $35 copayment does not apply
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The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act requires non-grandfathered group health plans to cover qualifying COVID-19 preventive services, including COVID-19 immunizations, without cost sharing. A final rule was issued to implement this requirement and mandate coverage within 15 business days after approval by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC and adoption by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This coverage must be provided for both in-network and out-of-network providers during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Employers that are considering whether to encourage or require employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine can look to guidance related to the influenza vaccine, including OSHA and the EEOC’s ADA and Title VII limitations, since COVID-19 specific guidance has not been issued at this time. Additionally, employers should consult legal counsel to determine whether there are unique risks to consider for their specific organization.
Please see our bulletins below for additional information on the vaccination coverage mandate and employer considerations for whether to require vaccination.
Please contact our Employee Benefits team if you have questions or need assistance.


There are several claims that storing plastic bottled water in hot cars can lead to cancer especially breast cancer in humans. The assertion is that the heat in the car causes the plastic bottle to leach certain chemicals into the water, which is then consumed leading to inadvertent ingestion of potential carcinogens!
There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the truth to these claims. Is it really a myth or fact! To determine this there must be supporting information.
A statement from the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) dated June 8th 2007, entitled “Science proves that plastic bottled water containers are safe under a variety of conditions”, states that there are no studies that prove this theory; instead, these allegations have been perpetuated by emails and media hype that only frighten and confuse consumers.
Food plays a significant role in many celebrations. Stuffed turkey is a tradition at Christmas time and for our North American friends turkey is Thanksgiving.
It is always important to follow safe food-handling practices to prevent harmful bacteria from spreading and causing foodborne illness because cooking a home stuffed turkey can be somewhat riskier than cooking one not stuffed. If the stuffing is not cooked and handled properly, food borne illness can occur.


From award-winning author Ken Ginsburg comes this new work which explores an innovative idea in parenting: “The Lighthouse Parenting Strategy.”
Dr. Ginsburg’s previous work includes “Building Resilience in Children and Teens” which offers a comprehensive overview of strategies to build resilience and promote the kind of traits that lead to our children becoming happy, successful adults. This book offers a deeper dive into two fundamental questions over which parents struggle:
How do I give my child the unconditional love he needs to thrive, while also holding him to high expectations? How do I protect my child while also letting her learn life’s lessons? “We should be like lighthouses for our children; beacons of light on a stable shoreline from which they can safely navigate the world. We must make certain they don’t crash against the rocks, but trust they have the capacity to learn to ride the waves on their own.”
This book is rooted in proven concepts from the positive youth development and resilience frameworks and combines new research with expert opinion to help parents consider how to approach these toughest of questions.
This book is co-written by Dr. Ginsburg’s two teenage daughters, Ilana and Talia Ginsburg, and perspectives from over 500 teens are also part of this groundbreaking work.


Most of the prior design studies on compound split hybrids focused on the selection of optimal configurations through evaluating their performance within the physical design space, i.e., powertrain configurations. However, the authors revealed that using the compound lever for the performance analysis dramatically reduces the design space as redundant configurations exist for a single compound lever design, resulting in computational load reduction. Nevertheless, using the compound lever results in the loss of information required to realize the given configurations as these two configurations are represented by two different sets of variables. The powertrain configuration is defined by two physical design variables, i.e., gear ratios of the two planetary gears. However, the compound lever design is defined by two nonphysical design variables, α and β, which are the vertical bar lengths between the output node (vehicle) and the two motor/generators' (MG) nodes. Thus, if the compound lever is used as a design tool, the selected designs should be converted into powertrain configurations. This paper introduces an automatic methodology to generate feasible powertrain configurations for any given compound lever using generic conversion equations that express the relationship between the nonphysical design variables, α and β, and the physical design variables, gear ratios. Conversion maps relating the 252 powertrain configurations to the compound lever design space were generated, and the results confirmed that the compound lever removes the redundancy existing in the physical design space.