How many times are we faced with a situation that seems so overwhelming that all we have to offer is fear? Perhaps a friend is making decisions that seem strange or unfamiliar to us. Or perhaps there is illness in our family. Any of life’s situations can bring us into this overwhelming state of fear.
The challenge is to sit with the fear, accept it, let it overwhelm you, but without immediate action. My guess is that the fear will turn into prayer for the person or situation.
The calm of prayer will replace the anxiety of the fear.


14 January 2020
The killing of Gen. Qassem Suleimani is not justified under international law. This attack was a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and an act of war against Iran. It has increased tension and raised the risk of conflict in an already difficult situation. The tragic unintentional downing of the Ukrainian aircraft by an Iranian missile highlights the peril that can arise at moments of intense crisis.
The American rejection of the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) has contributed to this escalating confrontation and has made it more, not less, difficult to constrain Iran’s nuclear program. Salvaging the JCPOA would help defuse this ongoing crisis while addressing nonproliferation concerns.
Pugwash appeals to all parties to avoid further escalatory steps that could lead to a disastrous conflict and calls on the international community and the UN urgently to seek a peaceful resolution of the current dangerous situation.
Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Italy Secretary General of Pugwash
Sergio Duarte, Brazil, President of Pugwash
Saideh Lotfian, Iran, Chair of Pugwash Council
Steven Miller, US, Chair of Pugwash Executive Committee


“Do you make regular visits to yourself?” RUMI
“I recently learned of the work of Les Fehmi, a psychologist and researcher who for decades has been clinically documenting the profound healing that arises from “resting in open awareness.” Experimenting with student volunteers, Fehmi tracked their EEG readings as they visualized peaceful landscapes, listened to music, watched colored lights, or inhaled various essential oils. But it was only after he posed the question, “Can you imagine the space between your eyes?” that their alpha wave levels truly soared. He posed another question, “Can you imagine the space between your ears?” The subjects alpha waves spiked again. Fehmi named this term, “Open Focused Attention.” The key was inviting attention to space (or stillness or silence in timelessness) and shifting to a non- objective focus. In contrast, open-focused attention rests the brain. With a sustained pause from processing information from memories, plans, and constant thoughts about self, our brain waves slow down into synchronous alpha. Our muscles relax, stress hormone levels are lowered, blood flow is redistributed.”
True Refuge – Tara Brach PH.D.
We can practice this effect when sitting quietly and looking at the blue sky; in the silence before a sunrise; in the pause and stillness after a snowfall, or staring at the starlit night sky; or visualizing and focusing on the space within every part of our body. When we practice this regularly, we learn to resonate with such moments because they connect us with the most intimate sense of who we are, and the infinite space within and around us.


For runners, their feet and ankles play critical roles when it comes to performing in their sport. If you’re a runner, then keep reading to discover what your podiatrist in Chicago would want you to know about your foot and ankle health.
Skin Care
Many runners overlook the importance of caring for their skin, which can lead to problems like cracked heels and blisters. If you’re prone to dry skin, then apply moisturizer to your feet each day, ideally after a shower or bath. If you frequently suffer from blisters, then invest in well-fitting socks and consider lubricating them on the outside, which may reduce the friction between your foot and the shoe. Also, opt for moisture-wicking socks, which can help prevent foot fungus.
Training Tips
Your feet and ankles are built to handle a lot, but overdoing it can put you on a fast track to injury. To prevent being sidelined, it’s important to avoid overuse, which is a common cause of chronic injuries that many runners experience, such as Achilles tendinitis and plantar fasciitis. To help keep your feet and ankles healthy and pain-free, don’t train on a sprained ankle or foot injury, avoid sudden increases in your training, stretch afterward, and replace your shoes frequently.
Footwear Advice
Speaking of shoes, the ones that you wear can have a significant impact on your foot and ankle health. Rather than focusing on models or brands, finding shoes that fit your feet properly can help prevent problems like calluses, blisters, bunions, and pinched nerves. If you have wide or narrow feet, then start with footwear brands that offer width sizing. Also, have your feet measured each time you buy new shoes and enlist the help a shoe-fitting specialist, if possible. To maintain your footwear, store them away from hot or cold temperatures, as these can affect their fit and cushion. Finally, if you’re worried that not drying them in the sun will leave you with damp shoes, then consider buying two pairs and alternating between them.


Overview Global Drone Transponder Market is anticipated to reach USD 2,998 Million by 2024 at a CAGR of 6.68% during the forecast period.
In the last few years, drones were used for various industrial applications, including aviation, construction, mining, oil & gas, telecom, and logistics. The rise in the use of drones in these industries is driven by benefits over conventional manual inspection technologies; the use of drones helps save lives, time, and costs.
Segmental Analysis
The global drone transponder market has been segmented on the basis of type, platform, fit, application, and drone weight.
By type, the market has been classified as ADS-B compatible and ADS-B non-compatible. The ADS-B compatible segment is projected to dominate the market. It was valued at
USD 1,486.1 million in 2018 and is expected to reach USD 2,262 million by 2024. Onboard sensors on drones are ineffective in ensuring collision avoidance. Thus, transponders, such as the ADS-B compatible, are being developed to ensure airspace safety and increase situational awareness, thereby reducing collision risks. ADS-B technology helps drone operators sense and avoid possible collisions. The ADS-B non-compatible segment is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 5.60% during the forecast period.
Based on platform, the global drone transponder market has been divided into fixed-wing and rotary-wing. The fixed-wing segment is expected to lead the market during the forecast period. The segment was valued at
USD 1,327.1 million in 2018 and is estimated to reach USD 1,880.9 million by 2024. Fixed-wing drones are equipped with wings as opposed to vertical lift rotors and are similar to conventional airplanes. These drones can be controlled using ailerons, elevators, and rudders, which are integrated into the wings. They can cover long distances, map large areas, and are suitable for long-duration monitoring. The rotary-wing segment is expected to register a CAGR of 8.30% during the forecast period.
On the basis of fit, the market has been classified as line-fit and retrofit. The line-fit segment accounted for a larger market share in 2018. Line-fit refers to drone transponders that are installed during the assembly of drones. Line-fit minimizes the work involved post-delivery.
In terms of application, the global drone transponder market has been bifurcated into civil and military. The civil segment is anticipated to expand at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. This segment covers the market for drone transponders used for all civilian applications such as in industrial, retail, and government. Civilian drone transponders are crucial for industries such as construction, agriculture, border monitoring, and communication. This, in turn, is driving the growth of the segment.
Based on drone weight, the market has been categorized as less than 5 kg, 5–25 kg, 25–150 kg, and more than 150 kg. The less than 5 kg segment accounted for the largest market share in 2018. The less than 5 kg drones are small and agile, hard to detect, and easy to control. Thus, the demand for transponders for these drones has been increasing over the last few years.
Regional Analysis
By region, the global drone transponder market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America.
The market in North America was valued at
USD 832.6 million in 2018. The presence of major market players, such as L3Harris Technologies, Inc., Sagetech Corporation, Google LLC, and uAvionix Corporation, is expected to drive the market growth in the region. The North American drone transponder market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 5.70% during the forecast period.
Europe is projected to be the second-largest market during the review period. The regional market is expected to reach
USD 672.5 Million by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of 7.22% during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is projected to be a key region for the market during the review period. The market in the region is expected to reach USD 646.1 million by 2024 at a CAGR of 8.69% during the forecast period. Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/drone-transponders-market-7118 Competitive Analysis
Key players in the global drone transponder market are
, Inc. (US), Micro Systems, Inc. (US), Microair Avionics Pty Ltd (Australia), Sagetech Corporation (US), Sandia Aerospace Corporation (US), Trig Avionics Limited (UK), and uAvionix Corporation (US). Key Developments In October 2018, Aerobits Sp. z.o.o. collaborated with FLARM Technology Ltd, a company specializing in the production of anti-collision systems for general aviation, to miniaturize its ADS-B devices.


Ready, Douglas D., Socioeconomic Disadvantage, School Attendance, and Early Cognitive Development, The Differential Effects of School Exposure, Sociology of Education, October 2010.
Despite the substantial body of research documenting strong relationships between social class and children’s cognitive abilities, researchers have generally neglected the extent to which school absenteeism exacerbates social class differences in academic development among young children. This study suggests that missing school in the early grades has a more powerful influence on literacy development for low-income students than it does for their more affluent peers. Put another way, school matters more to children from low-income families.


Denso Corporation has developed a refrigeration cycle system for passenger vehicles that uses an ejector.
The system is used for both an air conditioner and cooler box (vehicle refrigerator) and is installed on Toyota Motor Corporation’s Land Cruiser, launched in Japan in September.
This system will also be installed in the Land Cruiser launched in October in North, Central and South America, Asia, and other regions throughout the world.
The car air conditioner and cooler box use the same refrigeration cycle. In a conventional refrigeration cycle, a solenoid valve switches between refrigerant flow for cooling in the air conditioner and refrigeration in the cooler box, which effects air conditioning performance when the cooler box is used.
In contrast, the new system eliminates the solenoid valve and uses a small refrigerant injector called an ejector instead of an expansion valve, which allows cooling via the car air conditioner and refrigeration through the cooler box simultaneously.
By using an ejector that rapidly injects and expands high-pressure refrigerant, the energy that previously was lost in the expansion valve is converted to pressure energy and reused, thus boosting energy efficiency. As a result, high cooling and refrigeration performances are both achieved even when the cooler box is used.


WETLAND RESTORATION & ATLANTIC WHITE CEDAR RECOVERY PROJECT
The Howard's Branch Wetland Enhancement Project was implemented to comprehend the economic, aesthetic, and environmental benefits of a constructed wetland environment. The project site was a degraded stream bed that had experienced considerable stormwater flow, legacy sediments, and erosion. The deeply incised channel extended approximately 822 linear feet.
Design and construction of a curvilinear flow path for the stream and an attendant wetland resulted in a less erosive path for the stream and provided superb habitat for native Atlantic white cedar, cranberry, and low-bush blueberry. These plants not only assist with sediment control, but also help to reduce nitrate and phosphate quantities in stormwater exiting the wetland. This project successfully mimics the historical floodplain function of a braided stream system, which utilizes the entire floodplain to safely pass 100-year storms along the 900 linear feet of the new channel.
Howards Branch, built in 2001, is considered to be the best example of the restoration that can be achieved when Regenerative Stream Channel (RSC) techniques are fully applied. The planting effort at Howards Branch was listed by the Environmental News Network as the 11th most significant Earth Day project worldwide in 2001. Today the site supports a vibrant, healthy, and sustainable population of the globally threatened Atlantic white cedar. In fact, it is the only known reproducing stand of Atlantic white cedar in the state of Maryland. It also supports a thriving community of fish, including yellow perch.


The African political landscape is likely to be dominated by election rhetoric during 2015, with several national, parliamentary and presidential elections due to take place across the continent. At the date of writing, there are no less than 15 elections scheduled for 2015, including; Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Mauritius, Nigeria, Somaliland, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia.
Some, including those in Zambia and Tanzania are expected to be relatively peaceful and democratic, despite increasingly assertive opposition parties in both countries. However, in states plagued by violent insurgencies, elections could be catalysts for attacks by groups eager to capture media attention or pursue localised grievances. Elsewhere on the continent, elections could lead to the escalation of simmering ethnic or post-conflict tensions. In particular the elections in Nigeria, the Central African Republic, and both Sudan and South Sudan could encounter serious overarching challenges which could have repercussions for internal and regional stability.
One of the major challenges facing African ‘good governance’ is presidents’ adherence to electoral term limitations. In some countries, including Mozambique, Namibia and Ghana, the precedent for adhering to constitutional term limit is cemented in political institutionalism. However, in several others there is an alarming trend towards leaders seeking to extend constitutional term limits; one notable example is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where talk of changing the constitution to allow Joseph Kabila a third term has sparked civil society and opposition party outrage, resulting in minor protests in major cities. Central Africa in particular is seeing growth in the trend to extend presidential terms, with both Burundi and Rwanda seeking to amend their constitutions.
It has long been a dominant narrative that the two term limit placed on presidents in Africa, often in accordance with western norms, does not give leaders enough time to cement change or fully realise policy directives. Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano in August 2014 said the two-term model is not ideal for Africa as most leaders leave office before implementing their ideas. In addition, various leaders on the continent have cited the poorly organised and incompetent opposition as a justification for extending their presidential terms, rationalising that an extended term would be in the best interest of the country. The counter argument entails that extending presidential terms in the name of vague national ‘best interests’ in reality sees leaders suppressing any form of opposition or political dissent. A case in point is Burkino Faso, which saw a significant increase in civil unrest and opposition dissent in 2014 that ultimately led to the ousting of long-term President Blaise Compaore.
Sometime after the Arab Spring the spirit of revolution is still in the air, and as such governments have to be cautious in their political rhetoric to avert the escalation of widespread latent discontent into violent unrest or even coup attempts. The election calendar will inevitably yield variable levels of political volatility and countries heading for the polls warrant close scrutiny in pre- and post-election periods. Political and security instability will have rolling repercussions for policy continuity, economic growth and investor confidence
African Election Timeline – 2015
January
Burkina Faso – Presidential
Zambia – Presidential
February
Nigeria – Legislative and Presidential
March
Togo – Presidential
Burundi – Legislative
April
Sudan – Legislative and Presidential
Mali – Municipal
May
Ethiopia – General
October
Ivory Coast – Presidential
Tanzania – General
Awaiting date to be announced
Burkina Faso – Presidential
Guinea – Presidential
Mauritius – Presidential


Missed Opportunities: National Estimates highlights results from a national survey on unaccompanied youth homelessness in America. The study captures youth homelessness broadly, including sleeping on the streets, in shelters, running away, being kicked out, and couch surfing. Overall, findings show one in 10 young adults ages 18-25, and at least one in 30 adolescents ages 13-17, experience some form of homelessness unaccompanied by a parent or guardian over the course of a year. As a nation, we are missing opportunities to ensure that all young people can reach their full potential and contribute to stronger communities and economies across the country.
Source: Voices of Youth Count


Thanks in part to screening technologies like colonoscopy; colon cancer is often detected in its earliest stages. However, the procedure can be expensive and unpleasant. Patients must drink large quantities of laxatives the night before and undergo sedation or anaesthesia during the procedure itself. Current health guidelines in the USA say that adults should have a colonoscopy every ten years beginning at age 50—and sooner or more frequently if other risk factors exist—but US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics say that only 65% of American adults actually follow these guidelines. That is why many researchers are searching for less invasive alternatives to the colonoscopy that could induce encourage more people to get tested.
In a step towards this goal, researchers from the BC Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia have identified differences in the blood of people with precancerous polyps compared to people without such polyps. Their results could eventually lead to a cheaper and less invasive initial screening test for colon cancer. The team collected blood plasma samples from three groups of people: 23 who had adenomatous (precancerous) polyps, 21 who had verified colon cancer and 25 healthy volunteers. They mixed each plasma sample with silver nanoparticles and then analysed the mixtures with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Their results are published in
Biomedical Optics Express.
In previous work, the team’s collaborators at Fujian Normal University had shown a difference in the Raman spectra of the blood plasma of people with colon cancer compared to individuals who were cancer-free. This new study demonstrated that the test can also be used to identify people with precancerous polyps—a finding that makes it potentially more useful for a screening test, since it may be able to identify cancer risk before the disease actually develops.
A blood test that could detect precancerous polyps would be an improvement over other non-invasive colon cancer screening mechanisms currently available. For instance, the faecal occult blood test is an at-home kit that looks for evidence of microscopic traces of blood in stool samples, a potential sign of cancer. However, many early-stage colon cancers are asymptomatic and do not bleed, leaving them undetectable by this measure.
The initial results are promising, but the procedure is still in the research phase and must go through additional lab tests and clinical trials before actually being implemented. For instance, although the team identified significant spectral differences between the blood samples, they have not yet determined the exact biomolecular sources for these differences. “We are planning new research to identify these responsible molecules,” said Zeng.
A blood test for colon cancer will never replace colonoscopy: once polyps are identified, a colonoscopy is still the best way to locate them so that they can be removed. However, a blood test could be used as a first line of defence to identify patients with warning signs of cancer; these high-risk patients could then be referred for a colonoscopy for further investigation.


New York-based artist and architect
Michael Wang is not only one of the most interesting artists of our times, but he is also an outstanding expert on the IUCN Red List! His ongoing project, Extinct in the Wild, brings together flora and fauna that are no longer found naturally, but are cultivated and continue to flourish exclusively in captivity. Designated “Extinct in the Wild,” on the IUCN Red List, these homeless species have left nature behind to fully enter the circuits of human culture. Specimens include the axolotl, a fascinating species of Salamander, which can breathe through its skin. Its IUCN Red List status is Critically Endangered. Its extinction is due to urbanization, hunting, invasive species, pollution, climate change and droughts. It now survives solely under artificial conditions in aquariums, in scientific facilities, and in homes as exotic pets. In 2017, Michael Wang gave the axolotl a main role at Fondazione Prada in Milan, where he exhibited his project. Later in 2019, with Extinct in New York, he introduced a series of plants that had been eradicated from New York City’s landscape. During his exhibitions, each included species is displayed within a life-support system tailored to the organism’s unique needs. Exhibition staff are trained to tend these fragile living organisms. Returning curation to its ancient roots in cura, meaning “care,” the curator becomes a caretaker.
For the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseilles in January 2021, Michael Wang is invited to exhibit his work by Art of Change 21 and the French Office for Biodiversity. He will be focusing on a key location for extinction in the wild for species of plants: South Africa. He (hopefully if he can travel) will document the last known locations of each species in nature as well exhibiting the cultivated species.
Photo: Prada Foundation Archive
Find all the articles from Impact Art News n°18 – April 2020


A reliable refrigerator is worth its weight in gold. On top of keeping your food safe to eat, a reliable fridge from a top-notch brand can save you a fortune in costly repairs.
The only problem is that finding a dependable fridge is much harder than it sounds. While a high-end refrigerator may be well-made and have all the sophisticated features you want, this is no guarantee that it will stand the test of time.
Often, it comes down to placing your trust in the reputation of the brand itself. So, which brands make the most reliable refrigerators?
That partly depends on the person you're asking. However, these brands have been consistently earned high marks for making reliable refrigerators in 2019.
1.
Whirlpool
Whirlpool has long had a reputation for building reliable home appliances that are engineered to last. While they've been making their signature washing machines for more than 100 years, it's their top-notch refrigerators that are now grabbing headlines.
Puls, an appliance repair company, surveyed hundreds of repair technicians to gauge the most reliable brands. According to the results, Whirlpool was considered the most reliable brand for refrigerators and the most recommended home appliance brand overall.
From finger-print resistant stainless-steel to sophisticated french door refrigerators, Whirlpool offers a wide selection of refrigerators in various colors and configurations. No matter which fridge style you choose, you can rest easy knowing you've chosen one of the most reliable brands on the market.
2.
KitchenAid
KitchenAid is an American brand that is well-known for making high-quality kitchen appliances-and, no, we're not just referring to the brand's iconic stand mixers that have become revered by chefs and bakers everywhere. In the Puls survey, KitchenAid was recommended as the best choice for refrigerators after Whirlpool.
KitchenAid is owned by Whirlpool, so it's no surprise that the Puls survey rates this brand so highly for refrigerators. The brand is known for placing emphasis on functionality and attention to detail, which you'll likely pick up on once you start perusing KitchenAid refrigerators and making note of their impressive features.
Speaking of features, be sure to check out their innovative five-door configuration fridge. It offers five doors, including two self-closing drawers to optimize organization and freshness!
3.
Samsung
If tech features are your second priority (after reliability, of course) in a refrigerator, check out Samsung. The Korean-based brand has brought its cutting-edge technology over into the world of refrigeration, and the results are spectacular.
Samsung is perhaps most notable for its award-winning Family Hub refrigerator, which has taken connected home technology to a new level. With personalized food management and enhanced organization, the Samsung Family Hub has revolutionized how people use their kitchens.
To top it off, the Puls survey recommended Samsung just behind Whirlpool and KitchenAid, making it a reliable choice for homeowners. Whether you're getting a Samsung smart fridge or one of its standard models, you can count on unbeatable performance and reliability.
4.
LG
Like Samsung, LG is a tech-savvy brand based in South Korea. Known for its stylish designs and innovative technology, LG was one of the first home appliance brands to export its products to the United States.
LG offers a vast collection of high-quality refrigerators, including side-by-side, top-freezer, bottom-freezer, door-in-door, and counter depth styles. And, if you're worried about reliability, rest assured that LG was ranked as #1 in product quality and service quality in 2018 American Customer Satisfaction Index ratings
5.
GE Appliance
Cutting-edge and modern, GE Appliance has long been one of America's most trusted home appliance brands. Known for combining timeless design with ingenious features, GE Appliance offers a wide collection of refrigerators that are as reliable as they are stylish.
One important thing to note is that GE Appliance (GE's appliance division) was sold to Chinese company Haier in 2016. While some initially worried that the acquisition would lead to a decrease in the brand's quality and reliability, no such decline has been noted.
In fact, GE Appliances has been doing incredibly well in the last few years and is now quietly working toward becoming America's #1 home appliance brand. From compact refrigerators in black stainless steel to their innovative GE Profile Series with ENERGY STAR ratings, the GE Appliance brand remains a reliable and trustworthy brand in 2019.
Final Thoughts
While these brands are noted for their reliable refrigerators, this is still no guarantee that your refrigerator will be long-lasting and hassle-free. It largely depends on how well you take care of your refrigerator and which type of configuration you choose.


Food is a fundamental human need. Despite this fact the recent reports of the World Health Organization, provides that approximately 2 million people die due to unsafe food annually. As for this every human being must be awakened about the issue of food safety to ensure that the food on their plate is safe to […]


Activation is the bridge between value and ROI.
Assessing and validating activation of rights on a key property by key property basis is important for ensuring your brand is leveraging the full value from these sponsorships. This practice also enables your brand to better optimize and refine future activations, including the extrapolation of learnings across properties or property types.
Lumency’s approach to activation design is based on a set of tested and proven
First Principles that best leverage a brand’s sponsorship investments and the associated value to drive stronger ROI.
The principles ensure activations are holistically planned, taking into consideration brand touchpoints across the connections mix.
These principles are used to evaluate and recommend optimization of existing partner activations as part of our scorecarding process.
LUMENCY’S 8 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ACTIVATION DESIGN
Consumer first. Property out front. Brand aligned.
Enhance the fan experience, don’t interrupt it.
Be of service to the fan. Address pain points.
Create ownable ‘space’— physical, social & digital.
Be a super fan, demonstrating that the brand believes what fans believe.
Build/own relevant and attractive/magnetic content— the brand won’t win if it doesn’t win ‘outside the building/outside the event’.
The opportunity audience is the content audience, not the live audience
Provide a compelling opportunity for the consumer to make the brand part of their story. Don’t force, ask, expect, bribe, or cajole the consumer/fan into becoming part of the brand’s story.
Build and deliver omnichannel 360° (210°/140°) activation plans that leverage the sponsorship across multiple consumers/stakeholders—trade, social, digital, mass, CSR, employees, live & regulators.
OUR ACTIVATION SCORECARD DELIVERS:
We evaluate the effectiveness of your brand’s activation across channels including on-site, traditional media, digital, CRM, trade/retail, social, and more.
We audit all property sponsor activation efforts to assess which brands are ‘winning’ and in which channels, and to determine where your brand is landing in overall share-of-voice.
We identify whitespace within the property’s orbit where your brand can differentiate against other property sponsors in connecting with fans/attendees/followers.
Incorporating all intel gathered from the activation analysis, competitive overview, and investigation into new opportunities, we provide holistic recommendations for how to optimize activations to be truly best-in-class across all channels.
The
360º Activation Wheel Analysis evaluates brand activation, for your brand and the other brands sponsoring the property and competing with you for share-of-voice, across connections channels.
By leveraging Lumency’s Activation Scorecard and First Principles, brands can gain a holistic understanding
new strategies and tactics and identifying new opportunities. Looking to understand and improve the effectiveness of your activations?We can help you assess, validate and optimize activations.


I’ve had cancer. Twice. These are a couple of things I learned:
1. Someday Jesus and I will be face to face; He is here, with me, right now.
2. All the ambitions I have, and all the fears I harbour, are insignificant in view of those two facts.
I learned those lessons as I lay on a cruciform table in an operating room, reflecting as the anesthesia took hold. I could wake up in heaven, I thought. The idea excited me, but it also made me realize I didn’t want to die. There were things I still wanted to do and see, people I wanted to continue to love and some things I needed to set right. But I knew the possibility of dying that day, or in the not too distant future, was very real. The fact that it would happen, some day, was undeniably clear.
That made my writer’s heart beat a little faster. There were articles and books I still wanted to write, plays I wanted to see on the stage. The idea of dying in the middle of it all made me squirm a bit on that cold table.
So I prayed and that wonderful peace that passes all understanding flooded through me. I realized if I was about to meet Jesus none of my fears and suddenly rather silly ambitions would matter. If He was about to take me home, that meant the purpose for my life, and my work, had been accomplished. If He chose to allow me to continue on this earth, I could trust that he would be there beside me, guiding me all the way. It was a “win, win” situation.
Then I woke up in an ICU on a respirator with my hands tied down. My first thought was, Well, I don’t think this is heaven. As my brain struggled to register the words the nurse was saying, telling me I had had an allergic reaction to the blue dye they had injected into my body, I tried not to panic. What did that mean, exactly? I was relieved when she told me they were going to remove the tube down my throat and untie my hands. Yes, I thought, that would be very nice.
Then I saw my husband’s face. Then I had a moment. It was brief, but quite powerful. What if it had been the face of Jesus? I thought of Isaiah’s reaction when he saw the Lord and cried out, “Woe to me, for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Understatement of the century, in relation to myself, I knew. But then there is the rest of the story, in which the angel tells the prophet he has been cleansed and The Lord presents him with his life’s purpose.
I too have been cleansed and presented with mine. So I will continue to write, to live my life, remembering those two things I learned on that operating table. Until He takes me home.


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Free keywords: Face house discrimination task; fMRI; Perceptual decision-making; Task preparation; Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Abstract: The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (ldlPFC) has been highlighted as a key actor in human perceptual decision-making (PDM): It is theorized to support decision-formation independently of stimulus type or motor response. PDM studies however generally confound stimulus onset and task onset; when the to-be-recognized stimulus is presented, subjects know that a stimulus is shown and can set up processing resources—even when they do not know which stimulus is shown. We hypothesized that the ldlPFC might be involved in task preparation rather than decision-formation. To test this, we asked participants to report whether sequences of noisy images contained a face or a house within an experimental design that decorrelates stimulus and task onset. Decision-related processes should yield a sustained response during the task, whereas preparation-related areas should yield transient responses at its beginning. The results show that the brain activation pattern at task onset is strikingly similar to that observed in previous PDM studies. In particular, they contradict the idea that ldlPFC forms an abstract decision and suggest instead that its activation reflects preparation for the upcoming task. We further investigated the role of the fusiform face areas and parahippocampal place areas which are thought to be face and house detectors, respectively, that feed their signals to higher-level decision areas. The response patterns within these areas suggest that this interpretation is unlikely and that the decisions about the presence of a face or a house in a noisy image might instead already be computed within these areas without requiring higher-order areas.


7. Damaged or broken shaft
Appearance: The shaft is bent or broken. A clean break indicates an “instantaneous” fracture caused by sudden overload or imbalance. If the broken shaft is discoloured (usually blue), the damage was gradual, indicating excessive heat build-up before the shaft broke.
Cause: A misaligned belt causes excessive wear. An over-tensioned belt imposes a powerful bending force on the shaft resulting in shaft bending or early shaft fracture. Excessive vibrations due to lack of maintenance.
Solution: Replace the water pump and make sure to inspect the belt drive system: belt, tensioner, pulleys, belt tension and alignment. If equipped with a water pump mounted fan, inspect the fan/fan clutch assembly. The fan may not be squarely mounted on the shaft. A bent or damaged fan, a worn spacer, or a worn or damaged fan clutch could also be factors contributing to the break.


The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $3.25 million for the American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing Prize (Geothermal Prize). A first of its kind for geothermal technology, this prize is designed to spur innovation and address manufacturing challenges fundamental to operating in harsh geothermal environments.
Department of Energy
The Department of Energy (DOE) mission is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. This includes catalyzing the timely, material and efficient transformation of the nation’s energy system and securing U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing technologies, as well as, maintaining a vibrant U.S. effort in science and engineering as a cornerstone of our economic prosperity. To accomplish these goals, the DOE has established multiple manufacturing initiatives as cross-cutting innovative programs within the department to strengthen U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness across the board by boosting energy productivity and leveraging low-cost domestic energy resources and feedstocks.
Advanced manufacturing involves the minimization of the energy of the production, use, and disposal of manufactured goods, which range from fundamental commodities such as metals and chemicals to sophisticated final-use products such as automobiles and wind turbine blades. The manufacturing sector, a subset of the industrial sector, consumes 25 exajoules (24 quads) of primary energy annually in the United States — about 79% of total industrial energy use. The DOE partners with private and public stakeholders to support the research and development of innovative technologies that can improve U.S. competitiveness, save energy, and ensure global leadership in advanced manufacturing technologies.
The DOE uses manufacturing innovation institutes to develop advanced manufacturing technologies to support these initiatives. At the end of the fiscal year 2016, the DOE has awarded two institutes. The first, PowerAmerica, is focused on wide bandgap semiconductor technologies for next generation power electronics. The second, the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, is focused on composite technologies for vehicles, wind turbine blades, and compressed gas storage tanks. Since the beginning of the latest fiscal year, i.e. FY 2017, three additional institutes have been solicited, selected and awarded. These additional institutes include; Smart Manufacturing: Advanced Sensors, Controls, Platforms and Modelling for Manufacturing, Process Intensification: Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) and Reducing Embodied Energy and Decreasing Emission (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing.
Energy Department Selects Four Projects for High Performance Computing for Manufacturing in Steel and Aluminum Production
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), announced nearly $1.2 million for four new projects to support American steel and aluminum manufacturers in improving energy efficiency, increasing productivity, and accelerating manufacturing innovation.
The High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) Program, designed to spur the use of national lab supercomputing resources and expertise to advance innovation in energy-efficient manufacturing, is seeking concept papers for a fourth solicitation. Concept proposals from U.S.


As we age there is a predictable decline in our immune function. Compromised immunity begins in early adulthood and accelerates rapidly after 40 years of age. Scientist call this Immunosenescence. Immunosenescence explains why older people are at greater risk of infections and diseases. As we age, our immune system does not respond as robustly to allergens and other challenges.
A recent study from England suggests that we can slow the loss of immune function that comes with aging. The investigators analyzed immune function in individuals 55-79 years old who had maintained a high level of physical activity for much of their adult life and compared this to an age group match of healthy individuals who were not involved in regular exercise, the sedentary group. The researchers measured multiple biological markers of immune competence in both groups. They found older adults who consistently exercised throughout their life had a stronger and better functioning immune system compared to the sedentary adults. Surprisingly the researchers found that some of the markers of immune function in the master athletes (55-79) compared favorably with the levels found in healthy young individuals aged 20-36. The bottom line – physical inactivity may be a profound driver for age associated loss of immune function.


Select a SchoolSchool of Design Select a ProgrammeDesign Products Select a StudentKenny Arnold Kenny Arnold Major project: Anthropocene Organisms: The Waterside Gobbler The Waterside Gobbler
(Rubbish Eatus Rex)
Whether intentional or accidental, discarded single use plastic items frequently enter the ecosystem via the waterways of cities with canals. Once in the water, these items flow along towards natural gathering points in certain areas, where they are ripe for collection. However while they remain in the water, birds, fish, and other animals mistake the pollution for food. In response to the problem, new activities, such as plastic fishing, have emerged to encourage citizens to take action, become informed, and shift their behaviour towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
During this period of change, a hybrid life form has emerged. Half bin, half creature,
Waterside Gobblerslive near the water and seek to pick out and collect passing plastic debris with the aid of a helpful human.
Gobblers like to adapt to their neighbourhoods with colour and form to promote a sense of locality. They seek to encourage city dwellers who visit the waterside to take action about cleaning their environment; educate the wider public about the impact that pollution has on the ecosytems we are part of, and encourage thoughtful actions that benefit all species.
School
School of Design
Programme
MA Design Products
Contact
I like to use play as a design approach for exploring possibilities that can promote positive change in society.
Much of my work is centered around sustainability and social engagement. Projects I have worked on during my time at the Royal College of Art have explored a wide range of topics including – our relationship with the environment, the future of food, tools to promote creative thinking, the circular economy, and engaging people through play. I prefer a hands on approach in my practice, and I enjoy thinking through making. Previous degrees BFA, Industrial Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, 2011 Experiences Associate researcher, Brand Genetics, London, 2018–present; Industrial designer, KA Design, London, 2011–present; Design instructor, Publicolor, New York, 2015–2016; Toy inventor, JMP Creative, Santa Ana, USA, 2015; Innovation intern, Fahrenheit 212, New York, 2014; Toy designer, Techno Source, New York, 2012–2013 Exhibitions Milan Design Fair, 2019 Awards Circular Case Award, 2017


For a company strategy to be effective, your employees need to be aware of it. This ensures everyone is aligned with the same goals, focusing their efforts appropriately to make reaching critical objectives possible and shaping a portion of the organization’s culture. To make sure that all employees are on the same page, communication is vital.
Communicating Company Strategy to Your Team
Effective communication often features specific hallmarks. By focusing on the facets of strong communication, you increase the odds that your message will be genuinely received. Here are three tips to get started.
Related Content: Your Company Success Depends on Effective Employee Communication 1. Focus on Clarity
For a strategy to be communicated effectively, it needs to be clearly defined. Employees should be able to easily see how it aligns with the company’s mission, vision, and core values, as well as how they can play a role in implementing the strategy. If the points are too ambiguous or do not seem to coincide with larger goals, confusion is inevitable. Take the time to truly hash out what the new strategy means in advance and then strive to articulate it in a manner that is digestible by the masses.
2. Never Underestimate Engagement
In many cases, a company’s strategy is a dry subject. Often, it involves highly technical concepts, so it is not going to be a naturally exciting topic for many of your employees. However, if you deliver the message in an engaging way, you can improve how the information is received.
When you discuss the company strategy, try to find a way to make the information enticing. Often, this means going beyond standard communication methods, like email, and embracing options that are more stimulating, such as images and video.
Similarly, giving employees a chance to chime in on the topic can increase engagement, particularly if you frame it as an invitation for open dialog. This allows them to get involved more directly. Plus, it creates an opportunity for questions to be asked, enabling those who need more clarity a method for getting what they require.
3. Utilize a Reinforcement Cycle
After the initial message is delivered, there is still more work to be done. Reinforcing the concept repeatedly ensures that the company strategy remains at the forefront of everyone’s mind, making it a critical step in the communication process. Work various points into a variety of paradigms, such as company meetings, newsletters, or social media posts. Over time, this helps ingrain the strategy into your culture.
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Potato chips are a common trigger food for many people who are trying to lose weight. In this video, Dr. Oz shares a guilt-free alternative that's much healthier for you but just as tasty.
Continue Learning about Eating Habits and Nutrition
Important: This content reflects information from various individuals and organizations and may offer alternative or opposing points of view. It should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs.


After receiving backlash due to their initial algorithm, the government has made a surprising u-turn with students’ A-Level results.
The government has announced that students will expect to receive different results due to a new method of grading. Initially, students were graded alongside an algorithm that took past students and their area into account, but this received backlash due to it being a hindrance for some, especially those who live in low-income areas. This led to some people receiving unfairly downgraded results, as well as being rejected from their first choice universities.
However, this sudden change that Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced has meant that A-Level students will instead receive a teacher-assessed grade. This has been welcomed by some, as it is believed that this is the most accurate prediction of their performance. However, others have found that they are scrambling to find a place for their preferred universities, due to their grades either increasing or decreasing. For instance, the University of Oxford has noted ‘
significant capacity constraints’, with an increase in students receiving the required grades for their preferred universities. The amount of worry has been amplified, due to students not meeting the expected grades with the initial algorithm, but now meeting the requirements through their newly received predicted grades. This has caused pressure on universities to find spaces, both on the courses and in accommodation.
The lack of space in universities is emphasised by Durham University offering students money to defer their offers to 2021. With a guarantee of a bursary and accommodation, the university is aiming to relieve pressure on their services for the upcoming academic year.
When speaking on this shift from the initial algorithm to using predicted grades for A-Level results, Gavin Williamson stated how he ‘
now believe[s]it is better’, as well as noting how his ‘ focus is making sure youngsters get the grades that they deserve.’
Wessex Scene contacted the University of Southampton admissions team for their take on the recent news. In an automated reply they stated the following:
‘
If your reissued A level grades meet or exceed the conditions of your offer, then we will confirm your place at the University of Southampton for September 2020 entry.’ […] ‘In a few cases, where courses have very strict capacity constraints, including Medicine, we may have to ask you to defer your place until September 2021.’ […] ‘If your reissued grades are marginally below the conditions of your offer, we may be unable to confirm your place until September 2021. If there were non-academic conditions attached to your offer, we would expect you to meet them by 7 September 2020.’ […] ‘In a small number of cases, the course you applied for in 2020 may not be running in 2021. In this case, we will not be able to offer you a guarantee of an offer but would encourage you to speak to the admissions team to discuss your options.’


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A children’s psychology lab at UNC Greensboro is seeking participants aged 5 to 10 to join two virtual studies.
The projects focus on children’s perceptions of people who are smart, wealthy or powerful, and are conducted by doctoral students in UNCG’s Development and Understanding of Children’s Knowledge (DUCK) Lab.
These projects provide fun, safe activities for children, help deepen the researchers’ understanding of social and cognitive development, and are critical training elements for doctoral students completing their degrees.
All projects have shifted online during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include:
Project 1:PhD candidate Kimmy Marble, supervised by Dr. Janet Boseovski, is leading a study focused on children aged 5 to 8. She is interested in whether children expect smart or wealthy people to assist others, a concept known as prosocial behavior. Do children think these people are more accountable to help someone in need relative to other adults?
Children who participate in this study will listen to stories via screen share and respond to a few questions about the story characters. The study is interested in whether children’s responses indicate that they associate knowledge and wealth with power and how this view might impact children’s perceptions of adults’ morality and trustworthiness.
Project 2:PhD candidate Andrea Yuly, supervised by Dr. Janet Boseovski, is using a story-telling method to investigate 5- to 10-year-olds’ understanding of social rank. What kind of information is relevant for obtaining respect, admiration, and value in the eyes of others? This study will examine whether children distinguish between prestige-based status and social rank that is derived from control over others.


Raddeanin A suppresses lung cancer cell proliferation via induction of apoptosis and increased production of ROS Abstract
At present, in vitro cell experiments have confirmed that RaddeaninA can effectively inhibit the proliferation of some tumor cells, but the effect of RaddeaninA on lung cancer cells has not been observed. Therefore, this study explored its effect on lung cancer cells and its mechanism of action. Human lung cancer cell lines were treated with serum-free medium and varied concentrations of Raddeanin A. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were determined using MTT, and flow cytometric assays, respectively. The intracellular level of ROS was determined using DCFH-DA assay. Protein and mRNA expressions of bax, bcl-2 and cyt c were measured using Western blotting and qRT-PCR. RaddeaninA treatment can promote PC-9 cell apoptosis in a time and dose-dependent manner (p<0.05). Treatment of PC-9 cells with Raddeanin significantly and dose-dependently increased the activities of caspase-9 and caspase-3 (p<0.05), and led to significant and dose-dependent increases in ROS levels (p<0.05). Treatment of PC-9 cells with Raddeanin A led to significant and dose-dependent decreases in mitochondrial membrane potential (p<0.05). It significantly and dose-dependently upregulated bax mRNA and protein expressions, but down-regulated bcl-2 mRNA and protein expressions significantly and dose-dependently (p<0.05). On the other hand, Raddeanin significantly and dose-dependently down-regulated cytoplasmic bax protein expression, while upregulating cyt c expression (p<0.05). Similarly, bax protein expression was significantly and dose-dependently upregulated in mitochondria, but the corresponding cyt c expression was significantly and dose-dependently down-regulated (p<0.05). Raddeanin A is a potential and effective lung cancer chemotherapy drug, which can induce lung cancer cell apoptosis and inhibit proliferation.
Keywords
Lung cancer; Proliferation; Apoptosis; Raddeanin A.


Three of the most heavily invested players in the pharmaceutical industry are at odds.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers have to recoup R&D costs and demonstrate accountability to their leadership and shareholders.
PBMs are responsible for driving down costs for their plan sponsors. Frequently, this is achieved by hard negotiations with manufacturers.
Pharmacists, the healthcare providers best positioned to influence patient outcomes and maximize the value delivered by high-cost medication therapies, are often afterthoughts to the conversation on healthcare cost reduction.
What is the secret to reduce healthcare costs, align strategic objectives, and delivering healthcare value? Refocus on the core concept that patients who are adherent to their medication regimens are healthier, less costly and help players in all three categories achieve their core objectives.
Pharmacists are already in the prime position to facilitate this exercise in placing the patient at the center. Read why and understand steps that can be taken today to align the patient care business in this recent Drug Topics article by Curant COO, Marc O’Connor.


This discussion forum offers an opportunity to discuss the transformational changes needed to develop over-arching frameworks such as agro-ecosystems that integrate landscape level approaches for both forest and farm livelihoods and food security. The forum will explore how current landscape management and restoration efforts could be expanded to include opportunities for maintaining, enhancing and restoring the sustainable productivity of crop and range lands, integrated with current efforts focused on forest ecosystems. Food producers, family farmers, forest and farm producer organizations, and indigenous peoples are already key actors and potentially major drivers of this integrated approach to sustainable landscape management. This requires better engagement with these producer groups, especially with agriculture and other relevant ministries, and establishing actual cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination mechanisms to make things happen. Even achieving the significant targets for forest restoration may also be more likely when combined with this perspective. Using an agro-ecosystems lens involves maintaining intact landscapes, improving management practices and technology to increase productivity and avoid degradation, and applying a more integrated approach when restoration is needed. This integrated approach enhances the possibility of transformational change for food systems, climate resilience and the SDGs.
In the months preceding the GLF, participating organizations and individuals will connect, share, learn and act around five themes:
Events
View the action-packed calendar of GLF online and in-person gatherings, as well as those of our partners.
Community
Connect, share, learn, act. Search jobs, join community groups, post an event, or share an article with our community.


A global shortage of condoms is looming, the world’s biggest producer said, after a coronavirus lockdown forced it to shut down production.
Malaysia’s Karex Bhd makes one in every five condoms globally. It has not produced a single condom from its three Malaysian factories for more than a week due to a lockdown imposed by the government to halt the spread of the virus.
That’s already a shortfall of 100 million condoms, normally marketed internationally by brands such as Durex, supplied to state healthcare systems such as Britain’s NHS or distributed by aid programmes such as the UN Population Fund.
The company was given permission to restart production on Friday, but with only 50% of its workforce, under a special exemption for critical industries.
“It will take time to jumpstart factories and we will struggle to keep up with demand at half capacity,” Chief Executive Goh Miah Kiat told Reuters.
“We are going to see a global shortage of condoms everywhere, which is going to be scary,” he said.
Malaysia is Southeast Asia’s worst affected country, with 2,161 coronavirus infections and 26 deaths. The lockdown is due to remain in place at least until April 14.


Hoenig M. and Ferguson D.C.
Intravenous glucose tolerance tests were performed in eight adult cats before and after a 4-week treatment with thyroxine. The untreated cats had a mean fasting blood glucose concentration of 7.7 +/- 0.3 mmol/l and a mean fasting insulin concentration of 88 +/- 31 pmol/l which were not significantly different from mean fasting glucose and insulin concentrations after 4 weeks of thyroxine administration (6.9 +/- 0.2 mmol/l and 101 +/- 28 pmol/l respectively). At 120 min after glucose injection, the glucose concentration in untreated cats returned to baseline concentrations as did the insulin concentration. However, in the hyperthyroid cats both glucose and insulin concentrations were significantly (P less than 0.001) higher (13.6 +/- 0.8 mmol/l and 245 +/- 17 pmol/l respectively) in comparison with the baseline and untreated cats. The t1/2 for glucose disappearance was significantly higher in the cats rendered hyperthyroid, and the glucose disposal rate constant (K) was significantly lower in this group. It is concluded that hyperthyroidism in cats leads to impairment of glucose tolerance possibly due to peripheral insulin resistance.


Abstract Purpose
Teacher education in many countries is under reform with growing differences in its form and function. This is indicative of the ongoing negotiations around the place of theory, research and practice in teachers’ professional learning. However, the demand for mentoring of trainee teachers during often extended and multiple school-based placements is a relative constant. Indeed, with the trend towards greater school-based professional experience mentoring practices become ever more critical. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper written from the perspective of an experienced teacher educator in England, drawing on both practical experience and a body of associated research. It can be conceptualised as related to cases of practice, linked to episodes of practitioner research grounded in the ethics of the improvability of practice, the desire to meet the needs of the professional communities and a deep understanding of the demands and cultures of their workplaces.
Findings
Mentoring can be re-imagined as a dynamic hub within a practice development-led model for individual professional learning and institutional growth. Acting on this conceptualisation would allow mentors, trainees and other supporting teacher educators to contribute to the transformation of professional learning practices and educational contexts.
Originality/value
This paper goes beyond offering merely helpful guidance to participants and stakeholders in mentoring, or stipulating standards to be achieved, to considering what might be described as a hopeful or transformational stance in relation to mentoring. Teacher educators can continue to bring value to the transformation of teacher education through a focus on mentoring as an educative process.
Keywords Citation
Lofthouse, R.M. (2018), "Re-imagining mentoring as a dynamic hub in the transformation of initial teacher education: The role of mentors and teacher educators",
International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 248-260. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-04-2017-0033 Publisher:
Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited


Guardianships can help families plan for the care of disabled and aging loved ones who have become incapacitated. A guardianship is a legal tool that allows one person to make decisions for another person.
The guardian is able to make important personal, financial and healthcare decisions for the the disabled or incapacitated individual referred to as a ward. Typically, the guardian must be 18 years of age or older. If the guardian is named by the ward as a trusted individual to care for their financial and medical affairs in circumstances of incapacity, then they will generally be appointed by the court. If the ward has not expressed their wishes for a guardian, the court will examine documents that may express their wishes for a guardian.
It is helpful to be familiar with the laws for appointing a guardian in the state where the ward lives. The powers of the guardian typically include ensuring the availability of care for the ward; making financial decisions for the ward; making medical decisions for the ward; ensuring the educational and medical services for the ward are maintained and adequate; and updating the court concerning the ward’s condition.
All of the powers of a guardian are important which is why it is beneficial to understand how guardianships work when a loved one has become incapacitated or is disabled and how a guardianship can help in those situations. Guardianships can be a valuable part of the overall estate planning process that estate planners and families should be familiar with.


Abstract
Kinesin translocation is thought to occur by a conformational change in a region of the motor domain called the neck linker. However, most evidence supporting this hypothesis comes from monomeric constructs unable to move processively. To address this issue, we investigated the neck-linker configuration on microtubule-bound monomeric and dimeric kinesin constructs using single-molecule fluorescence polarization microscopy. We found that the neck-linker region (i) is very mobile in the absence of nucleotides and during steady walking, (ii) decreases mobility and aligns along the microtubule axis in the presence of AMPPNP or ADP+AlF
- 4, (iii) is mostly ordered in the monomeric constructs in the presence of ADP+AlF - 4, and (iv) is closer to parallel to the microtubule axis in the dimeric constructs. These results support the proposed role of the neck linker and suggest a coordination mechanism between the two motor domains in the dimer. ASJC Scopus subject areas Structural Biology Molecular Biology


Teachers play a leading role in the students’ development in school. For instance, they assist students in developing independent critical thinking skills and become more advanced. They do this by aiding them in discovering their skills and certain abilities, as well as...
24 September, 2020 in Writing an EssayContinue reading


Articles for the World Space Week Call for Contributions is now CLOSED!
Deadline: 23 September, 2020
In 1999, the UN General Assembly declared 4 to 10 October “World Space Week” to highlight the contributions of space, science, and technology to the betterment of the human condition. Since then, space has become a crucial factor in enabling a more sustainable future for Europe. In 2019, the EU focused on using our understanding of outer space to find solutions to climate change, create sustainable ecosystems and Arctic environments, and encourage the next generations to explore our solar system.
The theme this year is “Satellites Improve Life”, which focuses on the impact of satellites in our daily lives. To mark this occasion, the European Student Think Tank welcomes articles investigating correlations between the European Union and Space.
We suggest the following
topics to explore: The EU’s space sector and space policy The EU and Space & Satellites technology Role of EU youths in space research and applications EU Academia and Industry initiatives related to Space Any other relevant topic
Suggested length of contributions: 500 to 1000 words. You are encouraged to follow our writing format.
Send your submission to editorinchief@esthinktank.com by 23rd September 2020.
Do not hesitate to contact us for any further inquiries!


One drink is equivalent to: Beer: 12 fluid ounces milliliters Wine: 5 fluid ounces milliliters Distilled spirits 80 proof : 1. This effect can include nearly all zero calorie sweeteners, including stevia. During the fasting state the energy is taken from deposits and the fat burning hormones tend to go up. However, black coffee, calorie-free sweeteners, diet soda and sugar-free gum are permitted. It contains caffeine, which increases alertness and helps curb appetite. Autumn Elle Nutrition. But adding in sugar, cream, or milk is best avoided, as it can add calories to the drink that can take you out of a fasted state.
You might be surprised how much of an impact a “calorie-free” drink has on halting your weight loss progress. Stevia is a zero-calorie sweetener. However, artificial sweeteners in diet soda can trigger sugar cravings. HGH is known for its burning fat, building muscle, improving skin texture. We explore how. Thus, fasting can potentially delay aging and can hamper diseases while minimizing the struggles of intense dietary interventions. These benefits can be quickly canceled out if you consume too many liquid calories during a period of what should be a fasted state.
Updated: Oct 8. Affiliate Disclosure. Diet soda typically contains zero calories, so does that mean you can have it during your fast and still achieve your weight loss and wellness goals? Not necessarily. Today I’m breaking down the deets of diet soda and Intermittent Fasting! Diet soda is the soda industry’s answer to sugar. Instead of using the typical sweeteners such as sucrose table sugar or high fructose corn syrup – both of which contain calories – they opt for the no-calorie options. These sweeteners include acesulfame potassium and aspartame. You may even see more natural ingredients to this zero calorie approach with options like stevia and monk fruit.


Article summary
Previous studies have pointed the need for more research, which explores how peer provision brings about change associated with recovery. This study aims to test Leamy’s framework, which consists of five recovery processes: connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment (also known as the CHIME framework) within the peer provision context.
By Grace Zeng, Donna Chung
The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice


Neocallimastix californiae G1 is an isolatedstrain of anaerobic gut fungi from the phylumNeocallimastigomycota, the earliest diverging branch of free-livingfungi. Members of this class are obligate anaerobes, lackmitochondria (harboring hydrogenosomes instead), and reproduceasexually through the production of flagellated zoospores. Theirlife cycle resembles that of the members of the Chytridiomycotaphylum. Gut fungi (Neocallimastigomycetes) are members of the gutmicrobial community within large herbivores, such as ruminants andhindgut fermenters, where they are the primary microbes to colonizeplant material and initiate its degradation. Gut fungi can beisolated from the feces of these animals and sustained in anaerobiclab cultures where they are capable of degrading biomass withoutpretreatment (Haitjema et al., 2014), and are of key biotechnologyinterest due to the biomass-degrading enzymes that theyproduce. Neocallimastix californiae G1 was isolated fromthe feces of a goat at the SantaBarabara Zoo. This fungal isolate is of particular interest forboth fungal evolutionary and application based studies. The genomewill aid in the discovery of novel biomass degrading enzymes thatmay be engineered or heterologously expressed for the production oflignocellulosic biofuels and other value added chemicals.Furthermore, the genomes will enable future –OMICs basedcharacterization of these organisms, including insight into theirunique organelles and biomass-degrading enzyme complexes. References Haitjema CH, Solomon KV, Henske JK, Theodorou MK, O’Malley MA. 2014. Anaerobic gut fungi: Advances in isolation, culture, and cellulolytic enzyme discovery for biofuel production. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 111:1471–1482.


When I was a kid, my grandparents used to take me to the state’s fish hatchery in New Gloucester, Maine to look at the fish. Even though they took me several times, I never tired of watching the brown trout swim in schools from pool to pool. Later when I was a teen-ager, I belonged to the Water Quality Monitoring Team in high school. My teammates and I sampled water from area lakes and ponds, including Damariscotta Lake, where I had fished for brown trout with my brother and grandfather years before. I loved to cast and once caught two fish on the same hook! This made my younger brother envious. I should take up fly-fishing again.
Trouts Unlimited started a program for school kids called Trout in the Classroom over 20 years ago. Students in grades K-12 get to raise trout from eggs to fry in a classroom tank; monitor the tank water quality; engage in a stream habitat study; learn to appreciate water resources; begin to foster a conservation ethic; and grow to understand ecosystems. Each program is unique depending on the school’s curriculum. At the end of the year, students release the trout into a nearby stream that has been approved by the state.http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/home This program is run in 20 states so far. For state-specific resources, visit:http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/teachers/
state-specific-resources There are many opportunities for local residents outside the school to volunteer with the Trout in the Classroom program:http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/volunteers


Abstract
Further analysis has revealed that the signal reported in Extended Data Fig. 1c of this Letter is attributed to phosphorylethanolamine, not carbamoyl phosphate. A newly developed derivatization method revealed that the level of carbamoyl phosphate in these NSCLC extracts is below the detection threshold of approximately 10 nanomoles. These findings do not alter the overall conclusions of the Letter; see associated Amendment for full details. The Letter has not been corrected online.
ASJC Scopus subject areas General


North America: New NSF protocol published
NSF International has published a new protocol as part of its commitment to improve building water health:
NSF P453: Cooling Towers – Treatment, Operation, and Maintenance to Prevent Legionellosis. This protocol outlines proper maintenance and safety practices associated with evaporative cooling systems. It also addresses health concerns associated with commercial buildings, including healthcare facilities, whose residents may experience health issues, such as Legionellosis from improperly maintained water systems. The new protocol uses the water safety plan approach recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assemble a team, identify potential hazards and establish control measures to prevent the growth of Legionella bacteria. The protocol can be used by facilities to establish a management plan for the treatment, operation and maintenance of cooling-tower water systems.


While Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have new flexibility to target and cover supplemental benefits that address health-related social needs, few plans provided these types of benefits in 2019. Multiple factors may impede the ability of plans to comprehensively address these social needs.
MA plan representatives cited multiple factors that may limit the expansion of these supplemental benefits. First, insurers must rely on limited and varied funding from plan rebates to cover these benefits. These supplemental benefits are funded by rebates for MA plans that bid below the county-level benchmark set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and rebates averaged $107 per member for month across all MA plans with wide variation across states and counties.
Additionally, MA plan representatives perceived challenges in key areas, including contracting with community-based organizations, identifying benefits with a potential return on investment, and dedicating resources to new types of benefits such as housing supports. Since available benefits will vary based on county as well as by enrollee health conditions, plans anticipate challenges with enrollee communication and marketing. Plan representatives suggested opportunities to improve benefit flexibility policies, including the provision of additional funding from CMS to MA plans.
What resources can Medicare Advantage plans use to address enrollees’ health-related social needs? How are Medicare Advantage plans making decisions around new flexibilities for benefits to address health-related social needs?


If you own a pool, you know the challenges and rewards of maintaining it year round. Why limit the beauty of your pool only to the daytime? Lighting your pool not only highlights this beautiful feature, but adds security by brightening the area to protect children and guests that may be unfamiliar with your yard.
A lighting professional will be able to showcase the strong points of your pool, whether this is in the water or in the architecture around it. A warm, well placed beam can exhibit a waterfall or hot tub, transforming a backyard space by drawing attention to its beauty and serenity. Or if your yard is often the backdrop of a party, you can opt for modern, upbeat lighting that highlights your pool in fun colors!
Pool lighting is also a security measure. You can never be too careful with children around water – a lit pool will help them avoid falling in. It will protect your guests by adding a gentle glow to outline your pool and help them navigate your yard and avoid falling in. Lighting the features around your pool will also deter burglars by eradicating dark places for them to take cover.
DFW Pool Lighting
If you are ready to explore pool lighting and other lights for your outdoor property, call us today at 817-345-3696!


Defensible, Strategic and Informed Pricing – Deliver on Transparency and Grow Your Margin
Almost weekly, the news features healthcare pricing in a negative light. While these stories are often twisted into attention-grabbing headlines, healthcare leaders are still left to wonder if their pricing is as accessible, defensible and strategic as it could be.
To read more about the challenges facing healthcare organizations, including CMS requirements and heightened consumerism, download this Strategic Pricing Whitepaper.
Fill out this form to download the whitepaper:


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Full-Text Articles in Education “So, That’S Sort Of Wonderful”: The Ideology Of Commitment And The Labor Of Contingency, Sarah V. Seeley The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning
This article explores the emotional outcomes related to language commodification within an organizational context: the first-year writing program at Binghamton University, which is a public research university in upstate New York. In this setting, the meanings of effective writing instruction are discursively constructed in terms of a multi-faceted commitment to ‘the process.’ This entails an ideological commitment to both recursive process writing and the process of collaboratively evaluating the product that derives from it. I first offer an overview of the Binghamton context, including the details of collaborative portfolio assessment. I then analyze a specific sociolinguistic strategy: pep talking. I ...


AFRICA: Despite improved harvests in parts, the food supply situation in eastern Africa remains precarious, with about 18 million people still in need of food assistance. The number of refugees and internally displaced people due to civil strife continues to increase, particularly in Central and Western Africa. The situation of Sierra Leone and refugees in Guinea gives cause for serious concern. Localized food shortages have emerged in Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger, while a prolonged dry spell and floods in several locations in southern Africa could adversely affect the current season's food production.


Water-quality sensors are exposed to changing environments and extreme weather conditions and thus are prone to errors, including failure. These technical errors make data unreliable and untrustworthy and affect performance of any subsequent data analysis. ACEMS researchers, led by Priyanga Dilini Talagala, have proposed a feature based procedure, named oddwater, for detecting technical outliers in water-quality data derived from in situ sensors.


Understanding the decline of regional party power in the 2019 national election and beyond
In this piece, we argue that the electoral performance of the BJP, and the popularity of Narendra Modi, has significantly altered the dynamic of regional party politics in India. The BJP’s undiluted power at the Centre has created the political context for greater centralization of power. This in turn has generated greater distinctions between regional and national politics. The popularity of Prime Minister Modi combined with his party’s ideological project generates a deeply centralized national politics that can be easily distinguished from regional politics for the voter. This increasingly distinct form of national politics weakens the role of regional parties in national politics, both in electoral terms and in bargaining power, as regional parties rarely have well-defined, credible national policy platforms in India. However, it does, for the moment, appear to strengthen the electoral position of regional parties at the state level.


I provide engaging and interactive workshops including:
1.
Trauma-informed schools
This training focuses on engaging educators in discussions and reflections about social emotional learning and challenges and best practice within schools. It includes the following:
Defining trauma Affects of trauma on the brain, behaviours, and emotional regulation What trauma-informed classrooms look like Trauma-informed de-escalation strategies
2.
Teacher self-care
This workshop looks at the importance of teacher self-care and emotional awareness in order to avoid burnout. This course includes:
Signs of burnout What self-care can look like within the context of schools and classrooms How teacher self-care can be incorporated into daily practices How positive teacher mental health affects the classroom environment Self-reflective teaching practices to avoid burnout
3.
Playtime: putting play in the school day
This highly interactive workshop explores the importance of play in child development and for promotion of positive mental health. This workshop includes:
The ‘function’ of play Play in childhood development Play in empathy development and emotional regulation Further incorporating play into the school day
4.
Emotionally literate classrooms
This workshop focuses on creative and engaging ways to assist students in understanding their experiences and emotions. This workshop includes:
Understanding the physical nature of emotional regulation Including emotional literacy and understanding in daily classroom interactions Creative interventions which can be used in classrooms to promote emotional literacy and discussions
5.
Tailor-made workshops:
I have experience crafting unique programs for institutions with vastly different needs. To explore how I can help your business or team, click the button!


Last week, the Government announced that the range of businesses eligible for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme had been extended.
Under the new eligibility, agencies classed as undertakings in difficulty, with fewer than 50 employees and turnover of less than £9m, can now apply for a loan under the CBILS.
David Clasen, Finance Director, IPA added: "The IPA continues to prompt the Government, pointing to potential initiatives which would allow more agencies to support its growth agenda. This enhancement could be a life-saver for smaller agencies with high levels of debt and accumulated losses."


Real Estate Law in Oklahoma
Choctaw's real estate industry is controlled by a huge body of laws. This is because almost any real estate transaction invokes laws regarding civil rights, consumer protection, land use, and contracts.
The wide volume of laws regulating real estate in Choctaw might seem overwhelming to the uninitiated. Indeed, they can get very complicated, especially when issues about title defects or construction disputes are involved.
Therefore, it's a good idea to learn some of the basics of Choctaw's real estate laws.
Having at least some knowledge of real estate law will be to your advantage in practically any real estate transaction. Knowing the law can give you a bargaining advantage and prevent you from being saddled with obligations that you don't have to assume.
Common Real Estate Law Issues in Choctaw
Financing: Most persons, families, and small businesses in Choctaw cannot afford to buy a large piece of real estate with the money they have on hand. However, they typically can afford to pay for it over a long period of time, in installments, with interest. Thus, most real estate is purchased using a mortgage - a loan for a specific purchase, using the item purchased as collateral.
Zoning: Zoning regulations govern what types of structures are allowed on various parcels, based on their location in a municipality. For example, some areas in a city might be zoned only for residential use. Another area might authorize industrial use. These rules are meant to keep property values up, and promote harmony among neighbors by preventing conflicts.
Duty to Disclose: If you're buying a house in Choctaw, you have particular legal protections. The seller has a duty to tell the buyer about any defects that the property has. All defects which the seller knows about, and which the buyer can't be expected to discover through an ordinary inspection, must be disclosed. If the seller fails to disclose a defect, and the buyer later discovers it, the seller can be sued for any diminution in the property's value caused by the defect, the cost of repairing it, and any injuries the buyers suffers as a result.
Implied Warranties: In Choctaw, every residential lease agreement, whether it's clearly stated or not, has an "implied warranty of habitability." This is a legally-imposed promise by the landlord that the rented dwelling (whether it's a house or apartment) is fit for habitation by humans. While there are many requirements for a place to be considered habitable, some of the most crucial ones are electricity, running water, heating, and protection from the elements.
Can a Choctaw Real Estate Lawyer Help?
These issues, along with many others, can sometimes be fairly difficult. Therefore, you should never hesitate to consult with a Choctaw real estate attorney if you have any questions.


In an effort to help reduce stress and building resilience for essential healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) partnered with Lumos Transforms to make The Resilience Toolkit available to the union’s 97,000 members and leaders.
Healthcare workers are facing unprecedented levels of stress as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace and in their personal lives. The Resilience Toolkit utilizes promising stress reduction practices that reconnect people to a sense of relaxation and hope, even during difficult circumstances. By giving SEIU-UHW members self-care practices that are truly effective, within an accessible and sustainable framework, The Resilience Toolkit aims to help them grow resilience over time.
The partnership between Lumos and SEIU-West included a series of live kick off events for members, conducted on Facebook. Members then opted in to The Resilience Toolkit training – a self-paced, six module video series facilitated by Nkem Ndefo, creator of The Resilience Toolkit and founder of Lumos Transforms. To further support workers on their journey, participants can attend 25-minute live video sessions, where they can ask questions, receive guidance, and connect with others who are using The Toolkit to help them through this difficult time.
In the Coronavirus era, frontline healthcare workers are expected to operate at increased capacity, under a sustained level of high stress. Now more than ever, it’s important for these workers to have accessible frameworks that not only get them through the work day, but help them rest and recover when they return home.


A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values in the United States You are here
This report summarizes a new analysis, building on previously published research, about wind energy’s effects on residential property values. This study helps fill research gaps by collecting and analyzing data from 27 counties across nine U.S. states, related to 67 different wind facilities, and constructs a pooled model that investigates average effects near the turbines across the sample while controlling for local variables, such as sale prices of nearby homes.


Primary care is often the weakest link in many health systems. It is also the most important. This article describes a framework for the design of primary care systems that are responsive to local needs. It serves as a guide to understand and navigate the complex issues of primary care delivery.


NEUROLOGICAL, ORTHOPEDIC &
PAIN MANAGEMENT
Temporomandibular joint pain
Temporomandibular Joint Pain is a widespread condition that affects roughly 12% of US population, yet there is little help offered by Western conventional medicine. Dentists dislike treating TMJ as they are unable to deliver consistent results. This is not a surprise as TMJ is not a dental problem, it is more often caused by muscle inhibition in a cervical spine and shoulder girdle muscle groups. Research supports the relationship between the two. At Mulberry Leaf we go through a detailed assessment to find the muscle imbalance and pinpoint the root of the problem. We successfully treat TMJ by restoring motor inhibition and joint function, addressing muscle tension, reducing inflammation and pain. We utilize intraoral massage, acupuncture and a functional motor point therapy to ensure long-lasting results.


Intrusive memories to traumatic footage: the neural basis of their encoding and involuntary recall Clark IA., Holmes EA., Woolrich MW., Mackay CE.
<jats:sec id="S0033291715002007_sec_a1"><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>A hallmark symptom after psychological trauma is the presence of intrusive memories. It is unclear why only some moments of trauma become intrusive, and how these memories involuntarily return to mind. Understanding the neural mechanisms involved in the encoding and involuntary recall of intrusive memories may elucidate these questions.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0033291715002007_sec_a2" sec-type="methods"><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>Participants (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 35) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while being exposed to traumatic film footage. After film viewing, participants indicated within the scanner, while undergoing fMRI, if they experienced an intrusive memory of the film. Further intrusive memories in daily life were recorded for 7 days. After 7 days, participants completed a recognition memory test. Intrusive memory encoding was captured by comparing activity at the time of viewing ‘Intrusive scenes’ (scenes recalled involuntarily), ‘Control scenes’ (scenes never recalled involuntarily) and ‘Potential scenes’ (scenes recalled involuntarily by others but not that individual). Signal change associated with intrusive memory involuntary recall was modelled using finite impulse response basis functions.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0033291715002007_sec_a3" sec-type="results"><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>We found a widespread pattern of increased activation for Intrusive <jats:italic>v</jats:italic>. both Potential and Control scenes at encoding. The left inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus showed increased activity in Intrusive scenes compared with Potential scenes, but not in Intrusive scenes compared with Control scenes. This pattern of activation persisted when taking recognition memory performance into account. Intrusive memory involuntary recall was characterized by activity in frontal regions, notably the left inferior frontal gyrus.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0033291715002007_sec_a4" sec-type="conclusion"><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The left inferior frontal gyrus may be implicated in both the encoding and involuntary recall of intrusive memories.</jats:p></jats:sec>


This bill clearly violates the first amendment, people should be able to share ideas, and communicate with others without having to register with the government.
Simply put: Even if you never talk to an elected official but spend as little as $500 merely to communicate with your neighbors and friends about state policies, you must register with, and provide information to, the government, which then proceeds to disseminate the information on the Internet. Failure to register can lead to an investigation, significant penalties (including treble damages, the costs of the investigation and the government’s attorney’s fees), and a revocation of the ability to engage in any political activity that might qualify as “grassroots lobbying.”


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Hike, trek, drive, paddle or ride, any adventure requires a good map, it ensures you reach your destination and take in all the side trips along the way, and are particularly useful in an emergency. Different adventures require different types of maps, you may need a combination of these to make sure you safely navigate your way through the activities you have planned.
These are the most detailed maps an usually show smaller parcels on land with contour lines and features that are particularly relevant to non-vehicle based activities such as hiking, bicycle touring and kayak adventures. If you like to explore every crevice, escarpment, valley or point of interest on a map that doesn't have a defined path leading to it, then you need a topographic map along with a reliable compass and some map reading skills.
These are often topographic like maps that are produced to cater for hikers and trekkers sticking to a defined walking trail such as the Larapinta or Heysen Trails or the Bibblemum Track. The benefit of these over a topographic map is that they will have track/trail-specific information such as shelters & campsites, rainwater tank locations, food drop points & vehicle access tracks as well as some information on surrounding areas. If your adventure involves sticking to a defined track or trail, then a map guide if what you need.
The faster pace of a vehicle means you don't need all the topographic detail of a hiking map. 4wd touring maps feature significant routes, points of interest along the way and important information such as fuel locations, mechanical repair points and often local contact details for roadhouses and station owners. A 4wd touring map will feature both sealed and unsealed roads but their focus is to help you get off the sealed road. They will also often mark the locations of significant campsites and historical stops along the way.
Not everyone has a vehicle that can handle the rigours outback travel, and a lot of people just like the idea of a good old-fashioned road trip that follows sealed roads from town to town across the country. These maps are a great guide to help you find the road less travelled between major points of interest. They will help you plan fuel stops, accommodation such as campsites, caravan parks, national parks as well as stops at tourist attractions.
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Contentious contract negotiations, like those involving the School District and the teachers’ union, are usually at heart a battle of narratives – between management, which is often in financial crisis, and labor, whose narrative is about protecting beleaguered workers from being exploited. They are rarely a celebration of hard data and facts about hiring, compensation and policies.
That’s presumably why Jerry Jordan, head of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, has questioned the timing and the funding behind a new report investigating policies covering teacher tenure, performance and pay at the School District.


By Oluwamurewa Fashoro
Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures. Job is constantly evolving.
Architects are not artists – they have to address building technology and programming. There are constantly evolving materials and construction methods out there and we are required as a profession to address the demands of the public at large (building performance, energy consumption, incorporating recycled materials, etc.).
They can positively impact peoples lives.
It is rewarding to develop a personal relationship with your client, particularly when you know that the process will yield a more fruitful end product.
To Become a Brilliant Problem Solver.
Architecture school teaches you to take a pile of data and information and interpret it to inform how to design a building or solve a problem.


Abstract
BACKGROUND: Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a common long-term health condition. Patient involvement in treating and monitoring hypertension is essential. Control of hypertension improves population cardiovascular outcomes. However, for an individual, potential benefits and harms of treatment are finely balanced. Shared decision making has the potential to align decisions with the preferences and values of patients.
OBJECTIVE: Determine the effectiveness of interventions to support shared decision making in hypertension.
SEARCH STRATEGY: Searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science and PsycINFO up to 30 September 2017.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Controlled studies evaluating the effects of shared decision-making interventions for adults with hypertension compared with any comparator in any setting and reporting any outcome measures.
RESULTS: Six studies (five randomized controlled trials) in European primary care were included. Main intervention components were as follows: training for health-care professionals, decision aids, patient coaching and a patient leaflet. Four studies, none at low risk of bias, reported a measure of shared decision making; the intervention increased shared decision making in one study. Four studies reported blood pressure between 6 months and 3 years after the intervention; there was no difference in blood pressure between intervention and control groups in any study. Lack of comparability between studies prevented meta-analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite widespread calls for shared decision making to be embedded in health care, there is little evidence to inform shared decision making for hypertension, one of the most common conditions managed in primary care.