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warc	201704	1 Recommendations to Save on Student Textbook Costs Prepared by The Adhoc Senate Committee on Student Textbook Savings April 27, 2014 FINAL REPORT 1 of 47 2 Executive Summary The cost of college textbooks is an unreasonable burden on many students, and adds considerably to the expense of their education. The difficulties that many students experience in paying for course materials can significantly affect their success as students. Student surveys indicate that about 70% of students have elected to forego purchasing a required textbook during their college career; and, about 30% report they frequently do so. Student surveys have also found that 49% of students take fewer courses per semester due to high textbook costs, 27% of students drop a course because of a high-cost textbook, and 17% of students fail a course due to their inability to afford the required textbook. The cost of textbooks has gained national attention in recent years. The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), passed by the 110th U.S. Congress, includes several provisions relating to textbooks. In addition, a number of state legislatures, including that of Utah, have undertaken aggressive action to lower textbook costs. Numerous universities and colleges around the nation have initiatives in place to save students money on textbooks. In 2013, the University of Utah Academic Senate, under the leadership of Allyson Mower, established the AdHoc Senate Committee on Student Textbook Savings to explore ways of saving University of Utah students $500 per year on textbooks. The Committee examined available research, compiled institutional data, conducted a student survey, and formulated recommendations which are summarized below in order of the time and effort required to implement them. 1. Move toward using low-cost versions of existing materials. Immediate savings on student textbook costs can be realized by promoting practices that allow students to use less expensive textbook options, such as used textbooks, rental textbooks, and library copies. Raising awareness of textbook costs and alternative options is critical, and requires support by the administration and libraries. Faculty cooperation will also play a large role. 2. Encourage the adoption of available open course materials. Textbook costs can be lowered by promoting the use of free, open textbooks and other open educational resources (OER), instead of requiring students to purchase commercial textbooks. Administrative and library support is needed to assist faculty in the adoption of OER. 3. Support the development of new open course materials. Textbook costs can be lowered by creating free, open textbooks specifically written for courses offered at the University of Utah. An example of success in this regard is Open2010, an open textbook for WRTG 2010, that currently saves an estimated $500,000 per year on textbook costs. The faculty s willingness to author open textbooks coupled with administrative support is needed. 4. Create a university body to realize the long-term vision. The University should create a new administrative position or assign responsibility to an existing administrator with authority to oversee the implementation of the above recommendations. A standing committee with representation from the relevant stakeholders (students, faculty, librarians, bookstore staff, etc.) should also be created. FINAL REPORT 2 of 47 3 Contents AdHoc Senate Committee on Student Textbook Savings 1 Acknowledgments 4 2 Purpose 4 3 Introduction 4 4 Interest Local Interest National News Coverage Textbook and OER Legislation Initiatives at Other Institutions Data Textbook Costs at the University of Utah Student Behaviors and Attitudes about Textbooks U of U Student Textbook Survey U.S. PIRG Student Survey Florida Student Textbook Survey Piracy Faculty Behaviors and Attitudes about Textbooks GAO Study Florida Faculty Survey Available Resources Campus Bookstore Open Educational Resources Library Copyright Policies Recommendations Move toward using low-cost versions of existing materials Encourage the adoption of available open course materials Support the development of new open course materials Create a university body to realize long-term vision Conclusions 44 9 References Appendix 47 FINAL REPORT 3 of 47 4 1 Acknowledgments This document was prepared by the Adhoc Senate Committee on Student Textbook Savings, consisting of the following members: Kirsten Butcher (Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology), Josh Clemens (Assistant Buyer, Campus Bookstore), Hillary Dent (former Staff, Bookstore, served for one month on the Committee), Mark England (Associate Librarian, Marriott Library), Dave Heyborne (Student, Computer Science and Scholarly Resources Analyst, Library), Meredith Metzger (Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering), Patrick Panos (Associate Professor, College of Social Work), David Wiley (Scholar in Residence at the UU and Professor, Instructional Psychology and Technology at BYU), Rachel Wootton (student, Geoscience and Political Science and Director of Academic Affairs, ASUU). The Committee was chaired by Meredith Metzger. The Committee met biweekly during the Spring semester of 2014 to discuss ideas and write this report. The Committee would like to acknowledge Erika Hill (Assessment Analyst, Student Affairs) who was instrumental in helping to draft and disseminate the student survey, and Allyson Mower (Assistant Librarian, Marriott Library) who gave a presentation to the Committee on the University s Copyright policies. 2 Purpose The AdHoc Senate Committee on Student Textbook Savings was formulated in December 2013 by the Academic Senate, under the leadership of Allyson Mower, with the charge of recommending ways to save students at the University of Utah $500/year on textbooks. The Committee was asked to report back to the Academic Senate Executive Committee on April 21, The Committee met a total of nine times during the Spring semester of This report represents the outcome of those discussions. 3 Introduction The college textbook market is unique to most other markets in that the primary consumers (students) do not actually choose the product that they purchase. Textbook publishers do not market their products directly to their consumers, but rather to faculty who are responsible for deciding which materials are required by students. Publishers often provide free samples to faculty to promote their products. Because faculty do not actually purchase these products, a disconnect tends to exist between faculty and students with regard to the economics of the textbook industry. Unlike a typical market, no checks and balances exist between consumers and providers in the textbook industry. In this manner, students constitute a captive market, which has lead to a dramatic inflation of textbook prices by publishers. As shown in Figure 1, new textbook prices have risen at a rate of about 6% per year, compared to overall consumer prices that have only increased by about 2% per year (GAO, 2013). This translates into an 800% increase in textbook costs over the past 30 years, which is a faster rate than medical services at 575%, new home prices at 325%, and the consumer price index at 250%, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Perry, 2012). FINAL REPORT 4 of 47 5 Figure 1: Increase in college textbook prices relative to college tuition and the inflation of overall consumer prices. [Taken from GAO (2013)] Interestingly, five textbook companies control more than 80% of the $8.8 billion textbook publishing market, giving them near market monopoly and protecting them from serious competition (Allen, 2013b). In 2012, the top three textbook publishers, McGraw-Hill, Wiley, and Pearson, had profile margins of 25%, 15%, and 10%, respectively (Band, 2013). In the past decade, the profit margin of firms in the publishing sector has increased 2.5%. Without the ability of students to choose more affordable options, publishers are able to drive textbook prices higher without fear of repercussion. There are few other organized markets in the United States that are similar, prescription drugs being one. In order to institute cost savings on textbooks, it is important to understand several interrelated issues including: (i) the different modalities that exist for distributing curricular materials, (ii) the resources available for obtaining educational materials, (iii) the influence of technological advances on education, (iv) student behaviors and attitudes about textbooks and textbook costs, and (v) faculty behaviors and attitudes about textbooks and textbook costs. Table 1 lists common options for obtaining curricular materials. Although students may lower their costs by purchasing used textbooks, digital textbooks, or renting materials, the price of new textbooks often sets the cost of these other items. For example, college bookstores typically sell used books for about 75% of the new print price (GAO, 2005). Bookstores may acquire used textbooks either by buying used textbooks back from students FINAL REPORT 5 of 47 6 Table 1: Common Options for College Course Materials. [Taken from GAO (2013)] or from the wholesale market. In the case of the former, bookstores may offer as much as 50% of the new textbook cost (regardless of whether the student originally purchased the textbook new or used) if faculty plan to reuse the textbook in the future (University of Wisconsin, 2007). Under this scenario, it is possible then for a student to pay a net cost of 25% of the new textbook price. However, if a faculty member chooses not to reuse a textbook or fails to notify the bookstore in a timely manner regarding textbook selection, then the bookstore will pay less for that particular used textbook. In this situation, the bookstore may offer only the general wholesale price, which usually ranges from 5% to 35% of the new textbook price (GAO, 2005), or may not buy the used book at all. The approach of this Committee was to identify a number of strategies that could save students money on textbooks. These strategies are organized in Section 7 according to time and effort to implement. The final recommendations are similar to those outlined by Senack (2014) following his analysis of college student survey data obtained by the Student PIRG as discussed in Section The strategies requiring the least effort leverage available resources that could have an immediate impact on textbook cost savings to students at the University of Utah, and involve better communication of textbook pricing information to both students and faculty. Recommendations of ways to improve communication at the University of Utah are presented in Section 7.1. Strategies requiring more time and effort focus on a shift toward the development and adoption of open educational resources (OER) at the University of Utah. OER includes open FINAL REPORT 6 of 47 7 textbooks (i.e., textbooks that can be made available online and licensed under the terms that grant the public the right to freely access, customize, and distribute the material) and open courseware (i.e., educational materials that are organized as courses and freely accessible online, often including course planning, lecture notes, assessment tools, and other thematic content); see Section 6.2. The open courseware movement was spearheaded in 2002 by MIT OpenCourseWare, which is a web-based publication of virtually all course content offered at MIT. Despite a decade or more of work in the area of OER, adoption rates by faculty remain relatively low. If OER were used in more courses to supplant commercial textbooks, the cost savings to students would be tremendous. Recommendations for potentially increasing OER use at the University of Utah are presented in Sections 7.2 and Interest There has been much interest in the topic of textbook costs both on a local and national level. This section describes local interest in the present Committee, national media coverage of textbook prices, political interest in textbook and OER legislation, and initiatives at other universities to save students money on textbook costs. 4.1 Local Interest The Salt Lake Tribune published an article in December, 2013 about the Committee; quotes from two Committee members, Rachel Wooton and David Wiley, were included (Whitehurst, 2013). The Daily Utah Chronicle also published an article about the Committee in January, 2014 that described the goals of the Committee and included several quotes from Rachel Wooton and Allyson Mower, Senate President (Turner, 2014). Drs. Carol Diener, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Ed Diener, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology (Emeritus), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, contacted Allyson Mower, Senate President, about their interest in the Committee. The Dieners are founders of the Diener Education Fund (http://nobaproject.com/about-noba), a non-profit organization with the mission of reinventing higher education to serve the changing needs of students and professors. Currently, their work is focused on the Noba Project, which is an open and free online platform that provides high-quality, flexibly structured textbooks on educational materials. The Diener s met with the Committee on March 19, 2014 to share their experiences writing an open-source textbook for an introductory psychology course. The book has already been completed; but, they were struggling with low adoption rates. They are in the process of employing the following strategies to try to increase adoption rates: (i) providing active learning exercises, (ii) developing companion materials such as a test bank of questions, powerpoint slides, classroom activities, (iii) offering rewards to students who use the book and post a youtube video. They also discussed the possibility of adding quizzes at the end FINAL REPORT 7 of 47 8 of each module so students could self-assess their learning. The Committee Chair also received a personal from Jay Jordan, Associate Professor, Department of English and University Writing Program, who recently co-authored an open textbook entitled Open2010 for WRTG 2010 (the required first-year writing course). Dr. Jordan coordinated WRTG 2010 for 4 years. He graciously shared some of his personal experiences writing an open textbook. Dr. Jordan decided to write Open2010 to make the distribution of WRTG 2010 resources more efficient, and because he was aware of rising textbook costs as well as the never-ending cycle of new editions being printed by publishers (even if the new content is minimal). Dr. Jordan indicated that he was not directly compensated for his efforts, though the Director of the Writing Program was extremely supportive. Because he served as coordinator of WRTG 2010 at the time, Dr. Jordan was released from regular teaching obligations, which helped him complete the open textbook project in a timely manner. Dr. Jordan noted that when he undertook the project, he had already checked off his requirements for tenure. He advocates that faculty who are thinking about such projects should DEFINITELY consult with their directors/chairs about compensation, grad/ug assistants, release time, and RPT implications. Dr. Jordan also commented on the subsequent adoption of Open2010 and impact to students. All new instructors for WRTG 2010, must use Open2010 during their first semester. Thereafter, instructors of WRTG 2010 may choose from an approved list of textbooks, which includes Open2010. Dr. Jordan consulted with the current coordinator of WRTG 2010, Casey Boyle, and together, they estimate that about 110 sections of WRTG 2010 (out of a total of 124 sections offered during the academic year), or about 2,530 students, currently use Open2010. In the other sections of WRTG 2010, where instructors require commercial textbooks, the cost of those textbooks can range from $75 $135. Therefore, one can claim that Open2010 results in a cost savings totaling over $500,000 per year. Drs. Jordan and Boyle were asked to comment on the main reason that instructors choose not to use Open2010. They said that some instructors switch back to a commercial textbook because of familiarity and prior experience using a particular commercial textbook. However, this percentage appears to be small. Nearly all of the first-time instructors within the past two years continue to teach with Open2010. Instructors who have abandoned commercial textbooks to adopt Open 2010 do so because they are interested in drawing from shared materials generated in the colloquium. The colloquium is a semester-length, graduate course (2 credit hours) that is required of all first-time instructors in the Writing Program. The colloquium includes a weekly meeting, during which the course coordinator may cover a variety of topics ranging from general pedagogical questions to specific lessons/assignments in Open2010 to assigned readings from literature on composition pedagogy and theory. The fact that nearly 90% of the sections for WRTG 2010 are currently using Open2010 makes a strong argument that institutional investment in open resources could play a large role in solving the problem of high textbook costs over the long-run. In other words, the experience with Open2010 suggests that, if professors are supported in creating open materials needed for a course, future offerings will likely adopt them (when given that option). FINAL REPORT 8 of 47 9 4.2 National News Coverage This section provides a short review of some of the press surrounding textbook costs and online alternatives to traditional education. This, in no way constitutes an exhaustive review of the national news coverage on this issue, but simply indicates that the cost of textbooks is a hot topic in society right now. Just last month, CNN.com posted an article entitled How some colleges are offering free textbooks (Grinberg, 2014). This article describes the concept of open-source textbooks and notes several different resources for aiding in the adoption process. The article quotes a number of students who have benefited from the switch to open textbooks, as well as several faculty from various universities, including one member of this Committee (David Wiley). Scott Roberts from University of Maryland said, about the open textbook movement, that this removes a major barrier to access for students who already are at a greater risk for underperforming. A recent article from the U.S. News and World Report (Bidwell, 2014) reported on the struggle of college students with high textbook prices. This article referenced findings from a student survey that is discussed in more detail in Section An article last year from U.S.A. Today (Schick and Marklein, 2013) reports that students are saying no to costly textbooks in a variety of ways, according to data released from a survey by the Book Industry Study Group. In that survey, 34% of students reported downloading course content from unauthorized websites, which was up from 20% in In addition, 31% of students said they photocopied or scanned pages from other students books, which was up from 21% in The article also cites a 2012 study by the National Survey of Student Engagement that found one in four first-year students and one in three seniors frequently did not purchase required course material due to cost. In 2012, Time magazine and The New York Times both published articles about Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs (Pappano, 2012; McCracken, 2012). Whereas traditional online courses charge tuition and limit enrollment, MOOCs are usually free and massive. The enrollment for a single MOOC course is typically on the order of tens of thousands or more. MOOCs do not offer credit and therefore do not count toward a degree, though certificates may be granted by the instructor for successful completion. Nevertheless, the demand for learning in this new style is overwhelming. In fact, a company called Coursera, a non-profit MOOC provider run by a professor from Stanford, claimed that it had reached 1.7 million members in its first 10 months of operation. Most courses being offered in the MOOC format are developed by university faculty and represent adaptations of actual courses offered at those universities. 4.3 Textbook and OER Legislation Policy and legislation around textbooks and open educational resources have gained national momentum in the recent years. A little over five years ago, the United States Congress enacted the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) that includes several provisions to ensure students have access to information about selected course materials (Public Law FINAL REPORT 9 of 47 10 , 110th U.S. Congress). In accordance with HEOA, when publishers provide faculty with information about textbooks and supplemental materials, they are required to provide the price at which those products would be made available to the school s bookstore (20 U.S.C. 1015b(c)). Publishers are also required to provide a description of the revisions made between current and prior editions of a given textbook. In addition, schools are required to disclose information on textbooks to students and campus bookstores (20 U.S.C. 1015b(d),(e)). To the maximum extent possible in their online course schedules, schools are required to provide the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and retail price for the required and recommended materials for each course listed in the schedule. HEOA also encourages schools to provide information to students about institutional textbook rental programs, buyback programs, and any other cost-saving strategies (20 U.S.C. 1015b(f)). The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a small study to examine how a select number of schools were implementing the HEOA textbook information provisions (GAO, 2013). Four of the schools in the study provided textbook information to students by adding links from their school s online course schedule. In some cases, these links would redirect the user to the bookstore s website that lists textbook information for each course. One school had modified their course schedule in order to provide textbook information directly on the course schedule webpage. One student commented that it was useful to have course and textbook information in one place. A key element in this system is having appropriate deadlines for textbook selection by faculty. Students interviewed in the study reported that they benefit from having timely and reliable textbook information. Students also said that they use ISBNs of required textbooks listed on their bookstore s website to research textbook prices in order to find the most cost effective option. Since HEOA, several states have taken an aggressive approach to lowering textbook costs through legislation/policies specifically related to OER. Below are those bills that have been enacted in Note, there are several other bills and policies that were proposed but did not pass (see Florida, House Bill 5201: requires the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) to promote and provide recommendations concerning the use and distribution of open-access textbooks and educational resources as a method of reducing costs, and work with postsecondary educational institutions to develop a standardized process for the review and approval of open-access textbooks. FLVC coordinates the state s postsecondary education distance learning courses and degree programs, and is overseen by the Chancellors of the Florida State University System and Florida College System. Washington, House Bill 2337: requires the superintendent of public instruction to take the lead in developing openly licensed courseware aligned with the common core state standards. California, Senate Bill 1052: requires the California Open Education Resources Council to establish a competitive request-for-proposals process in which faculty or other parties would apply for funds to produce high-quality, digital open source textbooks for 50 FINAL REPORT 10 of 47 11 lower division courses with the highest enrollment in the public postsecondary schools. The bill also requires the Council to promote strategies for using open source textbooks. California, Senate Bill 1053: provides for the establishment of the California Digital Open Source Library that will serve as a repository for open source material and manage a web site for students, faculty, and staff to easily find, adopt, utilize, or modify course materials for little or no cost. Utah State Office of Education: the USOE is remixing and/or creating new open textbooks in language arts, math, and science for grades 6-12 and encouraging all districts/schools in the state to adopt these books. The USOE is also sponsoring informational meetings and professional development designed to help faculty successfully implement open textbooks. Oregon, House Bill 4058A: the Higher Education Coordinating Commission will convene a work group to examine and recommend adoption strategies for making textbooks more affordable to students at all post-secondary schools in Oregon. At the federal level, U.S. Senators Dick Durban (D-IL) and Al Franken (D-MN) introduced a bill in November, 2013 known as the Affordable College Textbook Act that would direct the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants to institutions of higher education to support pilot programs that expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve savings for students (http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1704). 4.4 Initiatives at Other Institutions There are numerous universities and colleges around the nation that have recent initiatives related to textbook cost savings, especially the adoption of open educational resources. In some cases, these initiatives were originally developed by students who brought the issue of textbook costs to the attention of faculty and administrators. Some examples in this category include The Maryland Open-Source Textbook Initiative (http://m.diamondbackonline. com/news/local/article_220ab e bb30f31a.html?mode=jqm) and the Tacoma Community College OER Project (http://open.tacomacc.edu). Increasing the use of open textbooks on college and university campuses, however, relies on the existence of high-quality open textbooks. In order to be a viable option in the classroom, open textbooks must adhere to the same high standards of quality set by publishers of commercial textbooks. Although it may not be intuitive, faculty and universities alike can benefit from assuming roles as publishers of textbooks and developers of e-learning environments (Moxley, 2013). There are some free content-management systems, such as Joomla, Drupal, or WordPress, coupled with inexpensive web hosting packages that can assist faculty in building communities around educational materials. Tools and resources to aid in selfpublication, however, are somewhat lacking. Therefore, funds are needed to create incentives for faculty to write and review open textbooks, pay for editorial/publication services, and support the development/maintenance of web-based repositories. The burden of this expense is currently falling on the shoulders of individual institutions, though state legislation (and FINAL REPORT 11 of 47 12 possibly federal legislation in the near future) are assisting as well as some philanthropic organizations. Note, MIT (2014) claims that their open courseware costs from $10,000 to $15,000 per course. For comparison, the cost of self-publishing a book with professional help lies in the range $3,800 to $38,000 per book (Sattar, 2013). Academic monographs can be professionally published for $8,000 to $15,000; but, textbooks are often more expensive because they contain a lot of images, tables, sidebars, etc. Two institutions spearheading the development and promotion of open textbooks are University of Washington and Rice University. The Washington Open Course Library (http: //opencourselibrary.org) is jointly funded by the State of Washington and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and includes open textbooks for the 81 highest enrolled courses in Washington s community and technical colleges. The program received an initial investment of $1.8 million and, to date, has saved students $5.5 million (Allen, 2013a). Because the materials created by the program are open, the savings will continue to grow. Rice University started the ambitious OpenStax College program with the goal to provide free textbooks to 10,000,000 students. OpenStax College receives funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 20 Million Minds Foundation, and Rice University. In order to reach its goal, OpenStax College is marketing its open textbooks to college instructors around the country. Richard Baraniuk, founder and director of the Connexions platform that runs OpenStax College, said in a recent interview (Cherry, 2012), We re providing things like exam copies for instructors to look at the books so they can adopt them. And just like the publishing companies, we ve put in place the exact same development process that involves professional writers, peer review, testing in the classroom, copy editing, graphics, etc. The goal of OpenStax College is really to create textbooks that are a high-quality, viable alternative to the publishers books... We re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per book... But the payoff is that if these initial five books that we re releasing get even just 10 percent of the college market, that small investment could save students over $90 million in the next five years. The School of Business at Virginia State University (VSU) conducted an experiment whereby open source textbooks were implemented in eight core business courses at once (Kincheloe, 2010). The remarkable aspect of the experiment is that the faculty pulled this off in three months time, basically by spending the entire summer writing course content. The effort was spearheaded by Dean Mirta Martin who wanted to create a model of access and affordability. In order to expedite the process of open textbook adoption, VSU partnered with Flat World Knowledge, an open source textbook publisher. Flat World Knowledge offered the Business School a bulk rate of $20 per student per course that allowed students to download digital textbooks, study guides, audio versions and ipad edition, a bundle that would normally cost $100. Early feedback was reported to be overwhelmingly positive. One of the main factors that the school will be looking at is whether the adoption of open textbooks has any effect on classroom retention, and eventually graduation rates. In speaking about the experiment, Dr. Martin stated that I believe at Virginia State University we had the perfect storm: an incredibly supportive administration, an enthusiastic faculty, a persuasive FINAL REPORT 12 of 47 13 champion, students who were ready for change, and a revamped curriculum we could all believe in. She hopes to deliver all of the Business School s 30 courses digitally within 18 months. There is another business model for reducing textbook costs based on university-level subscriptions of commercial textbooks. Indiana University started a project two years ago that requires students enrolled in certain courses to pay a material fee, which grants them access to an electronic copy of the assigned commercial textbook (or other materials) for the course (Young, 2011). Indiana has agreements in place with McGraw-Hill and a number of other publishers that supply these e-textbooks amongst other digital features, such as online quizzes. Since the university is buying in bulk for many students, the publishers have agreed to offer them a discount, the savings of which gets passed to the students. The university s vice president for information technology, who is leading the project, said that students save more money than if they purchased a new print book and resold it back to the bookstore at the end of the semester. Participation by faculty in the program is optional so far, 22 courses have joined the project. The assessment data (from student surveys) indicated that 60% of students preferred the e-textbooks to the traditional print copies; though, satisfaction varied widely between courses. About 55% said they read less of the e-textbook than they would have from a print copy; while 22% said they read more from the e-textbook. Note, students do not own these e-textbooks; they only have access as long as they are enrolled at the university. 5 Data The estimated national annual average cost for books and supplies at public institutions of higher education is $1,200 (College Board, 2013). According to the National Association of College Stores, however, the expenditures on textbooks are declining, down about 5% from four years ago (Schmidt, 2012). This is believed to be due to students relying more and more on used books, textbook rentals, and digital resources; but, it could also indicate a shift in the types of materials that are being assigned by faculty. 5.1 Textbook Costs at the University of Utah The Committee compiled estimates of textbook costs for the most popular majors at the University of Utah, as well as the most popular courses, as measured by number of degrees and enrollment, respectively. Enrollment and degree data for 2013 were supplied by the Office of Institutional Budget and Analysis (OBIA, 2013); textbook price information was supplied by the Campus Bookstore. Table 2 lists the price of new textbooks for each of the most popular courses at the University of Utah, rounded to the nearest dollar. If a course is taught in the fall and spring, the enrollment numbers reflect the total number of students for both semesters. The range of prices exist because (i) different sections of the same course may have different textbook requirements depending on the instructor, or (ii) students can choose additional options. In some cases, classes may require a response clicker, which costs $ Clicker cost has been included into the textbook cost for the classes that require FINAL REPORT 13 of 47 14 Table 2: Textbook costs for the most popular undergraduate courses in 2013 Course Textbook Cost number name enrollment clicker new used WRTG 2010 Intermediate Writing 2326 no $0 $98 $7 $74 CHEM 1210 General Chemistry I 1685 yes $225 N/A MATH 1010 Intermediate Algebra 1664 no $251 $ HIST 1700 American Civilization 1631 no $80 $89 $60 $67 MATH 1050 College Algebra 1630 no $140 $105 BIOL 1210 Principles of Biology 1619 yes $152 $273 $57 $106 BUS 1050 Foundations of Business 1517 no $79 $59 IS 2010 Computer Essentials 1366 no $189 N/A ECON 2010 Princ of Microeconomics 1302 no $229 $187 MATH 1210 Calculus I 1234 no $101 $76 NUTR 1020 Sci Fndtn Nutr & Health 1221 no $104 N/A MUSC 2100 Hist of Rock n Roll 1200 no $117 $88 ACCTG 2600 Survey of Accounting 1167 no $229 N/A MATH 1220 Calculus II 1072 no $101 $76 MATH 1060 Trigonometry 1059 no $114 $105 PSY 1010 General Psychology 990 no $101 $189 $76 $119 BIOL 2325 Human Anatomy 938 no $362 N/A CHEM 1215 General Chemistry Lab I 822 no $213 N/A MUSC 3600 World Music 558 no $149 $112 CHEM 1220 General Chemistry II 557 yes $225 N/A MUSC 1236 Survey of Jazz 498 no $131 $98 BIOL 2420 Human Physiology 493 yes $145 $194 N/A PHYS 2210 Phycs For Scien & Eng I 472 no $73 $201 $22 $55 them, though students can use the same clicker for multiple classes. The textbook for MATH 1060 is listed as optional. Note, many sections of WRTG 2010 utilize Open2010, in which case the cost of the textbook would be $0 for the students in those sections. The courses with an asterisk are part of a series with a single textbook required for the series. There are nine courses in this list requiring textbooks that cost over $200. The most expensive textbook on this list is that for BIOL 2325, Human Anatomy at $362. Table 3 lists the total cost of textbooks for the top five undergraduate degrees plus Mechanical Engineering, which is included for comparison purposes. Data for both new print books and used rental books are given. Note, the estimates in Table 3 were obtained by cross-referencing the courses listed in the DARS Report for the respective majors with the required textbooks for each of those courses. Since some flexibility exists in elective courses for each major, the total dollar amount for textbooks will necessarily vary somewhat from student to student. Table 3 shows that, of the majors listed, new textbooks for Psychology will cost students the most money, about $1,150 per year assuming students graduate in four years; while, new textbooks for Economics will only cost the students $740 per year. Also, Table 3 shows that FINAL REPORT 14 of 47 15 Table 3: Total estimated textbook costs for several popular majors Major Textbook Cost new used rental Psychology (BS) $4,610 $2,090 Psychology (BA) $4,730 $2,130 Mass Communication NA NA Exercise and Sport Science NA NA Human Development and Family Studies (BA) $3,730 $2,030 Human Development and Family Studies (BS) $3,810 $2,110 Economics (BA) $2,945 $1,320 Mechanical Engineering (BS) $3,530 $1,950 students can reduce their textbooks costs by about 50% if they purchase the used rental option, rather than new. It would be interesting to calculate the dollar amount students spend on textbooks for the general education requirements versus those specific to their major. 5.2 Student Behaviors and Attitudes about Textbooks U of U Student Textbook Survey The Committee put together a survey on textbook costs that was administered to students at the University of Utah (see the Appendix for a copy of the survey questions). There were 667 respondents out of a total of 7346 students who received the survey via . The survey sample was stratified by gender. The number of students that received the survey was as follows: 346 professional students from Law, Medicine, Dental, 2000 graduate students, and 5000 undergraduates; of the undergraduates, equal proportions (1250 each) were sent to Freshman, Sophomore, Juniors, and Seniors. This yielded a 9.1% response rate. The percentage of respondents from each college are displayed in Figure 2. These numbers are consistent with the percentage of students enrolled in each college, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 4 shows the histogram of the amount of money students spend on textbooks each semester. These data indicate that the average amount of money students spend on textbooks at the University of Utah is about $427/semester or about $850/yr. This value is consistent with the cost for books and supplies of $1000/yr as listed by the University administration (OBIA, 2013). The discrepancy might be attributed to cost saving strategies employed by students, as discussed further below. The outliers in Figure 4 might be due to students misreading the question as money spent on textbooks each year rather than each semester. Students indicated that their most expensive textbook cost about $200 on average. Figure 5 shows the relationship between the college of the students major(s) and the amount of money spent on textbooks. The data indicate that students in the colleges of Dentistry, Law, and Social Work incur the highest textbook costs; while, students in the colleges of Architecture & Planning, Education, and Mines & Earth Science pay the least for textbooks. FINAL REPORT 15 of 47 16 % of respondents Architecture & Planning Business Dentistry Education Engineering Fine Arts Health Humantities Law Medicine Mines & Earth Sciences Nursing Pharmacy Social & Behavioral Science Science Social Work Undeclared Figure 2: Response from U of U Student Survey to the question What is the College of your major(s)? 20 % of all UU students Architecture & Planning Business Dentistry Education Engineering Fine Arts Health Humantities Law Medicine Mines & Earth Sciences Nursing Pharmacy Social & Behavioral Science Science Social Work Undeclared Figure 3: Percentage of all University of Utah students enrolled in each college (undergraduate + graduate), based on Fall 2013 enrollment numbers. FINAL REPORT 16 of 47 17 150 mean: number of students U.S. dollars Figure 4: Histogram of the amount of money students spend on textbooks each semester. 800 U.S. dollars Architecture & Planning Business Dentistry Education Engineering Fine Arts Health Humanities Law Medicine Mines & Earth Science Nursing Pharmacy Social & Behavioral Science Science Social Work Undeclared No Response Figure 5: Average amount of money students spend on (i) all of their textbooks each semester,, and (ii) their most expensive textbook this year,, divided according to the college of the students major(s). FINAL REPORT 17 of 47 18 Figure 6 shows the various ways that students save money on textbook costs. The most popular method is purchasing used books, with 81.4% of respondents indicating that they utilize this method. The next most popular method was purchasing textbooks online at the lowest price, with 78.25% of respondents utilizing this method. Note, the Campus Bookstore provides a web resource for comparing prices between several different online providers such as Bookbyte, Amazon, ValoreBooks, AbeBooks, Alibris, amongst others. Over 65% of students said that they do not purchase optional textbooks. Less than half of the students (about 43%) said that they rent textbooks. About one quarter of the students would purchase an ebook if available; and, a similar number indicated that they use free copies from the library. The other methods of saving money were borrowing, sharing with a friend, and using a free online resource. Figure 7 shows the number of times that students have chosen not to purchase a textbook because of its cost. Perhaps the most disturbing result is that nearly 75% of students have chosen not to purchase a textbook at some point during their college career. Furthermore, almost 12% frequently do so (7 or more times). This is bound to have a negative impact on students ability to learn the course material and successfully complete the course objectives, although the students were not asked to comment on this in the survey. Figure 8 shows how difficult it is for students to afford textbooks each semester on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 6 (very). The results indicate that 68% of students have a difficult time affording textbooks. Within this group, 19% find it very difficult (scale rating of 6 out of 6) to afford textbooks; while, another 20% find it moderately difficult (scale rating of 5 out of 6). Correlations between several variables indicated that the average amount paid for textbooks per semester is positively correlated with the difficulty of affording books (0.24) and the number of times students have skipped buying textbooks (0.13). There does not seem to be a clear relationship between the students perceived ability to afford textbooks and the actual amount of money spent on textbooks, see Figure 9. Across the board, students in every college on average found textbooks somewhat to very difficult to afford. As expected, the number of times students have skipped buying books is positively correlated with their year in school (0.19). There were no other significant correlations between the variables tested and gender, age, or year in school. Figure 10 illustrates the likelihood of students to use the following types of methods to access a required textbook for class: buy new print, buy used print, textbook rental, physical copy at the library, online copy at the library, buy ebook, and borrow from someone else. The results indicate that students are overwhelmingly most likely to purchase a used print copy of a required textbook and least likely to purchase a new print copy. The likelihood of using a rental textbook was relatively flat, i.e., equal percentages were both least likely and most likely to use this modality. Over 30% of respondents were least likely to use either physical or online copies at the library. The aversion to using physical copies at the library could be attributed to the fact that the majority of students commute to campus, so accessing physical materials at the library may not be convenient for many students. However, students aversion to using online copies of textbooks at the library was surprising. This may be due to a misconception that online materials can only be accessible if the FINAL REPORT 18 of 47 19 Figure 6: Response from U of U Student Survey to the question How do you save money on textbook costs? FINAL REPORT 19 of 47 20 Figure 7: Response from U of U Student Survey to the question Over the time you have been at the University of Utah, how many times have you chosen not to purchase a textbook because of its cost? Figure 8: Response from U of U Student Survey to the question On a scale from 1 to 6 with 1 being not at all difficult to 6 being very difficult, please rate how difficult it is for you to afford textbooks each semester. FINAL REPORT 20 of 47 United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Committees June 2013 COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS Students Have Greater Access to Textbook Information GAO-13-368 June 2013 COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS AFFORDABLE TEXTBOOKS A Policy Guide Ethan Senack The U.S. PIRG Education Fund & the Student PIRGs March 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to extend special thanks to Cable Green from Creative Introduction Florida s Orange Grove Repository: A Sustainability Case Study The Orange Grove The Orange Grove repository, established in 2004, was designed as a K-20 repository to collect and store learning April 2008 Report No. 08-29 Options Exist to Address the Rising Cost of Textbooks for Florida s College Students at a glance The cost of college textbooks and required course materials has increased faster Information Item Page 1 of 5 COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONAL POLICY The California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Initiative: Update Presentation By Gerry Hanley Assistant Vice Chancellor Academic Textbooks Can be Affordable: Getting Faculty in the Game Kim Lynch, PhD, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities [email protected] Greg Rathert, Anoka Ramsey Community College [email protected] Kevin Hamlett, Rex Weeks Hamlett Weeks 1 Dr. Neumann MIS 111 Honors 28 November 2014 U Books I. Introduction Year after year college students battle with raising costs of higher education. Tuition, housing, GAO United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Requesters July 2005 COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS Enhanced Offerings Appear to Drive Recent Price Increases GAO-05-806 Accountability Integrity White Paper 2013 College President, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer Survey on Textbook Delivery and Bookstore Services Covering topics including the impact of course material costs on student satisfaction, The 2016-17 Budget: Assessing the Governor s Zero-Textbook-Cost Proposal MAC TAYLOR LEGISLATIVE ANALYST MARCH 14, 2016 Summary Governor Proposes $5 Million (One Time) for Creating Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees Affordability of College Textbooks: Textbook Prices Have Risen Significantly in the Last Four Years, but Some Strategies May Help to Control These Costs for Students Report 2007-116 C A L I F O R N I A MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses MOOC (noun) Massive Open Online Course, a term used to describe web technologies that have enabled educators to create virtual classrooms of thousands of students. Typical Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Quality in Online Learning. The Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Future Direction of Quality Education is charged with: Defining quality in online/distance education Trends in Higher Education Series Trends in College Pricing 2006 Introduction This report, based on the College Board s Annual Survey of Colleges, provides up-to-date information on tuition and other expenses Indiana University Kokomo School of Business Undergraduate Program Assessment Report Academic Year 2014-2015 I. BRIEF SUMMARY OF ASSESSMENT PLAN Highlights of the Assessment Plan Assurance of student learning Faculty Productivity and Costs at The University of Texas at Austin A Preliminary Analysis Richard Vedder Christopher Matgouranis Jonathan Robe Center for College Affordability and Productivity A Policy The Adoption of Open Educational Resources by One Community College Math Department ( SNA) in OnlineCourses John Levi Hilton III 1, Donna Gaudet 2, Phil Clark 2 (not shown), Jared Robinson 1 (not shown), MPA Program Assessment Report Summer 2015 Introduction: This was the second full year for doing learning outcomes assessment based on the 2009 NASPAA accreditation standards and conducting our exit interviews An Assessment of Two etextbook Platforms at the University of Washington: Preliminary Report UW Information Technology Cara Giacomini, Wren Haaland, Henry Lyle, and Peter Wallis November 2012 Introduction Page 1 of 5 Undergraduate Degree Map for Completion in Four Years College: College of Science, Engineering & Technology Department: Physics & Astronomy Name of Program: PHYSICS EDUCATION Degree Designation: 24 Chapter 3 Undergraduate Students: Affordability Goals A central priority for the University of Michigan is ensuring that admitted students are able to attend regardless of financial need. The institution Page 1 of 5 Undergraduate Degree Map for Completion in Four Years College: College of Science, Engineering & Technology Department: Physics & Astronomy Name of Program: PHYSICS EDUCATION Degree Designation: UW-Stout Math Teaching and Learning Center Four-Year Progress Report: Fall 24 - Spring 28 HIGHLIGHTS: submitted by Dr. Jeanne Foley, Math TLC Director September 22, 28 The Math TLC program has served 233 Strategic Planning and Support of Distance Learning Programs A Model to Centrally Develop and Locally Support Online and Blended Programs at Tufts A Report from the Distance Learning Service Model Design Free Knowledge: Changing the Textbook Model James McDonald MxCC Technology Showcase 2014 At the University of Hartford we have used open source texts for introductory physics. Legal to photocopy, print, Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 8, No. 3, October 2008. pp. 29-35. Impact of attendance policies on course attendance among college students Tiffany Chenneville 1 and Cary Jordan Page 1 of 5 Undergraduate Degree Map for Completion in Four Years College: College of Science, Engineering & Technology Department: Biological Sciences Name of Program: BIOLOGY Degree Designation: BS Emphasis/Concentration: 1 CREATING ON-LINE MATERIALS FOR COMPUTER ENGINEERING COURSES Abstract Suxia Cui 1, and Yonghui Wang 2 1 Electrical and Computer Engineering Department 2 Engieering Technology Department Prairie View A&M Providence College Local Faculty Survey: Analytical Memo of Findings October 1, 2013 Overview The following memorandum provides an analytical narrative of the results of the 2013 Ithaka S+R Local Faculty BARBARA S. ILLOWSKY EDUCATION Doctor of Philosophy in Education Capella University Specialization: Instructional Design for Online Learning Master of Arts in Statistics The Wharton School, University of Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grants Round 2 Summer 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016 Proposal Form and Narrative Institution Name(s) Team Members (Name, Title, Department, Institutions GAO United States Government Accountability Office Report to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, U.S. Senate March 2008 HEALTH INSURANCE Most College Students Are Covered through Employer-Sponsored FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 22, 2013 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary FACT SHEET on the President s Plan to Make College More Affordable: A Better Bargain for the Middle Class A higher education UF ONLINE ANNUAL REPORT 2013-14 Submitted July 21, 2014 by the Advisory Board for UF Online 1 Executive Summary Under Florida law, the Advisory Board for the institute for online learning, which was subsequently GRADUATE STUDENT SATISFACTION WITH AN ONLINE DISCRETE MATHEMATICS COURSE * Amber Settle DePaul University 243 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, IL 60604 (312) 362-5324 [email protected] Chad Settle University Technology: Creating New Models in Higher Education By Robert W. Mendenhall Western Governors University Summary Technology will greatly expand access to higher education and fundamentally change the models State Board of Regents Board of Regents Building, The Gateway 60 South 400 West Salt Lake City, Utah 84101-1284 TAB G Phone 801.321.7101 Fax 801.321.7199 TDD 801.321.7130 www.higheredutah.org May 6, 2015 AN OVERVIEW OF COURSE REDESIGN by Carol A. Twigg In partnership with more than 200 colleges and universities, the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) has proven that it is possible to improve Page 1 of 5 Undergraduate Degree Map for Completion in Four Years College: College of Allied Health and Nursing Department: Human Performance Name of Program: EXERCISE SCIENCE Degree Designation: BS Emphasis/Concentration: Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grants Round 2, Fall 2015 Proposal Form and Narrative Institution Name(s) Team Members (Name, Title, Department, Institutions if different, and email A Case for Change elearning Integration at York University Summary and Recommended Actions Prepared for: Rhonda Lenton, Vice President Academic and Provost Prepared by the Members of the Academic Technology Evaluation of the Impact of Participation in First Year Learning Communities on Persistence to Sophomore Year University of California, Riverside, Fall 2006 David Fairris Vice Provost for Undergraduate TWENTY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT MIT OPENCOURSEWARE 1. What is MIT OpenCourseWare? MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) makes the course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all MIT s undergraduate Faculty Dimension Report California State University-San Marcos Foundations Institutions make the first college year a high priority for the faculty. These institutions are characterized by a culture of The Game Changers in Online Learning Series Case Study #2: The Colorado Community College System Online. Collaborative. Lab-based. System-wide. Inter-state/International. www.contactnorth.ca www.contactnord.ca ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCE ASSESSMENT REPORT 2009-2010 The Environmental Health Science (EHS) Program at East Central University is one of 30 accredited undergraduate environmental health programs in Assessing Blackboard: Improving Online Instructional Delivery Adnan A. Chawdhry [email protected] California University of PA Karen Paullet [email protected] American Public University System Daniel On-Line Courses: A Comparison of Two Vastly Different Experiences by Sharon Testone, Ph.D. Introduction The busy lives that people lead today have caused a demand for a more convenient method to gain a Preliminary Findings Summary: Effective Practices in Fully Online Programs July 13, 2009 Introduction Education institutions of all shapes and sizes are taking a serious look at fully online programs as PRIOR PRINTER'S NOS.,, 0 PRINTER'S NO. 0 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA SENATE BILL No. Session of 00 INTRODUCED BY DINNIMAN, PICCOLA AND WILLIAMS, JUNE, 00 AS AMENDED ON SECOND CONSIDERATION, JUNE EARLY WARNING Impact of Participating in Early Warning on Course Performance Fall 2011 July 2012 Undergraduate Education Institutional Research Report Allison M. Cantwell Director of Evaluation, Assessment, Sixth Edition UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA Online Joint/Dual Enrollment Program Affiliate Institutions 2014/2015 Parent-Student Handbook 1 Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Albany State University Clayton INNOVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION REDESIGN ST. JOHNS RIVER STATE COLLEGE Jobs for the Future November 2015 In 2013, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 1720, which called for all developmental Guide to Applying to Offer a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) at the University of Michigan 1. Introduction The Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) offered by the University of Michigan (U-M) have extremely 1 Appendix D: Summary of studies on online lab courses 1) Sloan Consortium Class Differences: Online Education in the United States (2011) Searched for lab, laboratory, science found no significant hits Senate Reference No. 09-22 To: IPFW Senate From: Cheryl Sorge, Chair Curriculum Review Subcommittee Date: March 26, 2010 Re: Proposal for the Certificate in Small Business Management The Curriculum Review ES4077 Page 1 DES MOINES AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES PROCEDURES FACULTY Section: INSTRUCTIONAL ADMINISTRATION Procedure: Application for Award of and Completion of Online Courses Effective University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, MA Undergraduate Degree in Public Health Sciences Bachelor in Science & 4 Plus 1 BS/MPH http://www.umass.edu/sphhs/public_health/academics/undergraduate/index.html Rutgers University Senate Student Affairs Committee Response to Charge S-1402 (Cost of Textbooks) February, 2015 Charge S-1402: Examine the current practices involving purchasing and cost of textbooks, ACADEMIC AFFAIRS FORUM Student Course Evaluation Management and Application Custom Research Brief Research Associate Anna Krenkel Research Manager Nalika Vasudevan October 2012 2 of 14 3 of 14 Table of McGraw-Hill LearnSmart Effectiveness Study Evaluating the adaptive learning tool s impact on pass and retention rates and instructional efficiencies at seven U.S. universities EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY TO ACHIEVE THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND HIGHER EDUCAT I O N Policy Alert June 2005 QUICK LOOK Key Message In partnership with 30 colleges and universities, the National Center for Academic Transformation E2 Office of the President TO MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONAL POLICY: For Meeting of DISCUSSION ITEM FUNDING UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GRADUATE ACADEMIC STUDENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY There has been David Wiley, Lumen Learning Sarah Young, Utah State Office of Education Introduction The Utah Open Textbook Initiative (UTOT) began in 2010. From a small pilot involving less than 10 teachers and three Intermediate & College Algebra Course Redesign Final Report Department of Sciences and Mathematics Mississippi University for Women Kerzel Principal Investigator and Department Chair Adhikari, Hanes, Oppenheimer, CONSTITUTION COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA This Constitution is intended to be consistent with Florida law, the University Constitution and the regulations of the University of Florida Board Southwest Texas Junior College Distance Education Policy I. Institutional Policies A. Mission To provide quality education to students who prefer or require an alternative classroom setting. To accomplish dlab Project Plan 1 Digital Learning Lab-Foundation for the Future of Learning: Project Plan By Drs. Tracy Hurley, Cherry Li-Bugg, Jennifer Spohrer (Team innov8) Requested funding amount: $3,530,800 Abstract Preliminary Findings Summary: Effective Practices in Fully Online Higher Education Programs Introduction Education institutions of all shapes and sizes are taking a serious look at fully online programs Request for Proposals Rules and Guidelines Applications due October 1, 2012 Summary The Postsecondary Success team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is part of a community of higher education institutions, I. Sabbatical Leave Application - Cover Page Name: Stephen Eso Department: Psychology Phone Extension: 6503 Application 1 November 2011 Full-time Hire Date (semester and year): Fall 2004 Semester and year OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER Thomas P. DiNapoli, State Comptroller Textbook Pricing Disparities December 2008 Introduction Over 427,400 students attend the 64 college campuses of the State University Investing for Economic Growth in Colorado: Linking University Funding to Policy Goals Larry Edward Penley Colorado State University System February 2006 Investing for Economic Growth in Colorado Executive COURSE SYLLABUS MAN 4301 B51A GENERAL INFORMATION PROFESSOR INFORMATION Instructor: Emmanuele Archange Phone: Office: PC #234 MMC Fax: Office Hours: By appointment Email: (305) 3486088 (305) 3486476 Please Youth Data Archive Issue Brief October 2012 Math Placement Acceleration Initiative at the City College of San Francisco Developed with San Francisco Unified School District Betsy Williams Background This Higher Education Higher Education includes the California Community Colleges (CCC), the California State University (CSU), the University of California (UC), the Student Aid Commission, and several other October 2013 Convergence A Vision and Framework for Leadership in Digital Learning Serving the igeneration requires breaking down barriers between the physical campus and the virtual campus to create a Department of Economics Cal State Univ., Hayward Phone 510 885 3275 OR 25800 Carlos Bee 510 885 3265 Hayward, CA 94542-3068 Fax 510 885 4796 DEPARTMENT AND PROGRAM MISSION, GOALS, AND ASSESSMENT A FOCUS Preprint of: Nicholson, S. (2010). Inviting the world into the online classroom: Teaching a gaming in libraries course via YouTube. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 51(4). Inviting CHANGES AS A RESULT OF ASSESSMENT March 2012 1. Institutional Learning Outcomes 2. Student Learning Outcomes (Instructional Program and Course) 3. Service Level Outcomes (Student Services) 4. Service Area TRANSFORMING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH COURSE REDESIGN TODAY S DISCUSSION Overview of the Methodology and Findings of the Successful Redesign Projects Examples from Successful Institutions Established	61,923	24,275	157,698.940597
warc	201704	1 THE ROAD TO RETENTION: A CLOSER LOOK AT INSTITUTIONS THAT ACHIEVE HIGH COURSE COMPLETION RATES Janet C. Moore The Sloan Consortium Marie J. Fetzner Monroe Community College ABSTRACT Although online course completion rates are commonly believed to be lower than in other delivery modes, some programs achieve equal or better course completion rates. This issue presents studies that suggest certain practices contribute to student success. Readers are invited to contribute to work-inprogress on key factors for a framework of effective practice. KEYWORDS Course Completion, Retention, Student Success, Community of Inquiry, Pillars of Quality I. INTRODUCTION From 2003 to 2007, enrollment in online courses nearly doubled, from 1.98 million to 3.94 million. By 2007, the 12.9% growth rate of online enrollments far exceeded the 1.2% growth of the overall higher education student population [1]. Online education will continue to grow as a significant percentage of the 19 million enrollments in postsecondary education projected for 2010 [2]. In a climate of shifting demographics and economies, demand for higher education grows. Understanding how students succeed online can lead to far greater access and success, contributing significantly to initiatives for doubling the number of United States college graduates [3]. Yet a barrier to greater access via online education is the belief that online retention rates are lower than in other delivery modes [4]. The early growth of online education was attributed to its convenience, flexibility and affordability. But many regarded it as a novelty, a second best alternative to face-to-face education. Today, however, the success of online education is more authoritatively attributed to its quality: For both first-year students and seniors, the percent of courses delivered primarily online was significantly related to level of academic challenge [italics added]. Online courses seem to stimulate more intellectual challenge and educational gains. This suggests that integrating technology-enhanced courses into the curriculum for all students might have some salutary benefits [5]. That cautious conclusion of the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was followed in 2009 by a stronger one from a United States Department of Education analysis of empirical research: Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction. Learning outcomes for students who Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 3 2 engaged in online learning exceeded those of students receiving face-to-face instruction [6] While these findings support the vision of online access to educational quality, scale and breadth that has spurred innovation since 1978 when Hiltz and Turoff envisioned a nation of networked education [7], online success rates are commonly claimed to be 10 20% lower than success rates in face-to-face courses. In an environment in which 6-year completion rates for a baccalaureate are only 56% and achievement gaps are widening at all educational levels, retention is an increasingly recognized indicator of institutional effectiveness. For example, the Higher Education Act Reauthorization gives consumers decision-making information via College Navigator, a web site that provides 27 categories of information about each institution that participates in Title IV programs: institutional mission; statistics on applications, admission, enrollment, SAT or ACT scores, transfer students, male and female students, in-state and out-of-state students, racial and ethnic groups, disabled students, degrees awarded, time to completion of degrees, faculty, cost of attendance and financial aid; alternative tuition plans; and campus safety information. [and] in a sortable and searchable format, information on the cost of higher education for each institution that participates in Title IV programs [8, 9]. Just as the quality of an individual course is a confluence of teacher and learner expertise, academic challenge and design, technology and resources, and support services, each of the College Navigator categories reflects on the quality of an institution and the leaders who advance its mission. Each category influences institutional and individual success. As digital culture advances, public performance ratings will increasingly influence consumer choice. Calls for accountability lead to the rise of public ratings that are published by individuals and both non-profit [10] and commercial groups [11]. Ratings are not uniformly reliable [12] and choosing the right online program is still a daunting task; but as quality indicators become more public, sharing the frameworks and practices that support effective online education is in the interests of every institution. Thus, this special issue asks: Why do some institutions achieve strong online course completion rates? What common practices do these institutions share? Can common practices begin a framework to guide retention efforts in diverse online contexts? Reasoning from results to determine cause, the case studies in Part I address these questions. Six institutions that were featured in Volume 10:3 of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN) [13] present practices that contribute to course completion rates of 85% or more. Common practices are compiled in a preliminary framework. The collaborative and empirical study, An Exploration of the Relationship Between Indicators of the Community of Inquiry Framework and Retention in Online Programs, finds that students experiencing effective social interactions are most likely to persist from one semester to the next. Part II collects previously published empirical JALN studies on retention. We republish them here because their literature reviews, sample surveys and insights about the experience of online learners are useful in diverse institutional contexts. 4 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 3 Readers are welcome to comment and to contribute to developing a framework for retention practices at the Sloan Consortium website: II. CASE STUDIES Six case studies are included in Part I of this issue. All six institutions share a definition of online course asynchronicity; namely, at least 80% of the course is online, requiring at most 20% face-to-face presence. This threshold follows the Sloan-C definition that courses delivered asynchronously 80% or more of the time are considered online courses as distinguished from blended, hybrid, mixed-mode or web-enhanced courses that require more face-to-face participation. The case studies are from institutions that have sustained high growth rates and high online course success rates for at least five years [9]. Focusing first on 100- and 200-level courses, four institutions report on how they have achieved student success rates of 85% or more in courses in which rates are customarily lowest in any delivery mode [14]. We focus on 1- and 200 level courses because beginning students are more likely to opt out than advanced students. In addition, two institutions report on very high graduate program or overall course success rates. Table 1 shows the range of institutions by overall size, acceptance rates, and the proportion of online enrollments in Fall 2008; it includes links to institutional websites and online program portals. Appendix A provides institutional mission statements. Type of Institution Acceptance Rate Online Enrollments in Fall 2008 (estimated % of total Enrollment) Undergraduate 1-and 200 level course success rates above 85% Peirce College Small, Open 4-year, Private not-forprofit admissions Philadelphia, PA University of Illinois, Springfield Small, 60% 4-year, Public Springfield, IL Rochester Institute of Technology Medium, 4-year, Private not-forprofit 60% Rochester, NY University of Cincinnati Large, 75% 4-year, Public Cincinnati, Ohio Graduate and overall success rates above 90% SetonWorldwide of Seton Hall University Medium, 4-year, Private not-forprofit 73% South Orange, NJ 3516 (64%) 3815 (25%) 9,121 (5% ) 2800 (8%) Graduate 3132 (9%) Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 5 4 Dallas Baptist University Dallas, TX Small, 4-year, Private not-forprofit 47% Overall 5200 online enrollments (32%) Table 1. Institutions with High Online Success Rates in Beginning Courses, Graduate Courses and/or Overall Enrollments: Small <5,000; Medium< 15,000; Large> 15,000 Standards and definitions for success online are no less daunting than they are in traditional delivery modes. To begin to develop a framework which might be useful across institutions, the case studies in this issue use the Sloan-C pillars of quality to explore commonalities and differences in their distinctive contexts. The goal of Sloan-C s quality framework (see Appendix B) is that any learner who engages in online education should have, at a minimum, an education that represents the quality of the provider's overall institutional quality and better, learning outcomes that meet professional and industry standards. Any institution can use the pillars as metrics by demonstrating progress towards quality goals in five inter-related areas: learning effectiveness, access, scale (capacity enrollment achieved through costeffectiveness and institutional commitment), faculty satisfaction, and student satisfaction [15]. The pillar framework is intentionally flexible to be useful in any context it works at the mission, department, program and course levels. As one of the case study authors points out, the starting point is, the imperative to look within [5]; thus, the institutional mission is the source for specific goals in each of the pillars. In these institutions high success rates in online courses appear to be a product of institutional cultures that are committed to student success. Key people enact institutional policies in academic, technology and support offices using metrics to guide practices that achieve the goal of accessible education. One question that emerges from this review of effective practices is, Do institutions with high online success rates focus the majority of their efforts on a particular pillar or set of pillars? With this question in mind, in brief, representative practices drawn from the case studies as a whole are outlined below. Appendix C is a composite list of practices in place at each institution categorized by the Sloan-C five pillars of quality [16]. A. Access The goal for access is that all learners who wish to learn online have the opportunity and can achieve success. Providing additional access to higher education is as appealing to institutions as anytime, anywhere learning is to prospective students. But one size does not fit all. For example, in many institutions and particularly in institutions that serve students with lower SAT scores and higher Pell grant levels, expenditures on student services that improve access are demonstrably related to retention and graduation rates [17]. Despite the efforts of rating agencies, it remains difficult to find the online program that aligns with individual learner needs and preferences. Thus, the challenge access brings is accommodating learners so that the course or program matches the institution s strengths with students skills and interests, in ways that nurture a strong sense of belonging to an inclusive educational and social community [18]. 1. Personalize Thus, these successful institutions aim to personalize relationships via marketers, advisors, troubleshooters, peers and coaches throughout the student s academic career, even dedicating individual administrative or programmatic advisors who use established protocols in working with individual learners. Institutions introduce learners to the community in several ways: through a first year experience, through online student community websites, through face-to-face and online student orientations, and 6 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 5 through introductory courses to encourage online students to share concerns, questions, and solutions. One institution groups its online students into cohorts to promote community teamwork and sustained involvement, beginning with a week-end on-campus residency before classes begin [19]. 2. Prepare and Assist To prepare students for the significantly more active role that online learners must adapt to, institutions provide on-campus and/or online orientations to procedures, role adjustment and expectations. Setting the stage for student expectations is key, and these preparatory efforts assist in that effort. So that learners (faculty too) can get technical help whenever they need it, 24/7 online help desks are a boon for all, residential as well as online. Going beyond technical help, institutions also provide academic support, tutoring, library, registrar, financial and other support services online, including skill assessments before taking an online class. One institution provides free software so students have what they need to complete courses, and another institution provides free interlibrary loan services to online students. 3. Design and Observe Once students are enrolled in courses, online delivery offers advantages in terms of designing for students with different learning styles and abilities. Understanding that students respond to interactivity differently (e.g. deaf and hard of hearing students responses suggest they are even more favorable to higher levels of interaction than hearing students), one institution transcribes and captions media for the online learning environment; this service has proven to benefit all students who use the transcriptions for review. Another key for retaining students is using Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to observe how students are using features and interacting with the course. These observations are useful for refining design and for helping to identify and intervene with students at risk for non-completion. B. Faculty Satisfaction The goal for faculty satisfaction is the sense that teaching online is personally and professionally beneficial, an enthusiasm that communicates itself to students. Thus, institutional leadership endorses online faculty excellence, recognizing the benefits and the demands of online teaching and providing ongoing professional development, support, and recognition. 1. Introduce Online Teaching At these institutions, faculty members and their respective programs are actively involved in content development and curriculum design, internal and external quality reviews, and community building. Initially, faculty are introduced to online teaching via online and/or face-to-face workshops, ensuring faculty have experience as online learners and benefit from received knowledge before they begin teaching online. Technology and instruction services occur online and at convenient places such as in campus libraries. For new instructors, institutions provide boilerplates and placeholders including a series of effective practices as for course design and delivery, often using institutional and/or external standards or rubrics. Faculty may also view sample online courses that illustrate effective practices in online teaching. They are supported via helpdesks, instructional designers, and technology and academic resource centers (e.g. and and they know that additional professional development is available. The institutions survey and interview faculty to understand and improve faculty satisfaction with online teaching. 2. Provide Ongoing Professional Development and Support To support the design and development of effective online courses and programs, institutions dedicate support from instructional designers, disability services, advisors, librarians and other personnel, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 7 6 including a team member assigned to make sure all course links are working, dates are set correctly, and exams and quizzes are functioning. Additional support includes peer consulting and mentoring. Institutions provide or subscribe to an array of ongoing professional development workshops for new and experienced faculty with topics such as: understanding differences between online and face-to-face teaching reconceptualizing courses for online delivery co-teaching and team teaching prioritizing pedagogical priorities understanding copyright and intellectual property managing workload using Web 2.0 applications designing and managing effective discussions and creating and engaging students in online learning community New and experienced online faculty benefit from teaching centers that emphasize prioritizing pedagogy, using teaching practices that have been demonstrated as effective, and being current with the scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g. the Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Communities of practice encourage faculty to share and advance effective practice and provide opportunities for cross-discipline discussions on online pedagogy and course design. 3. Recognize Excellence Award and recognition programs for outstanding online teaching and courses signal institutional commitment to online education, providing exemplars that communicate effective practice in-house and beyond the institution. One institution denotes award winning online courses in its course listings. Endorsing excellence, institutions link online teaching and quality reviews to promotion and tenure or other benefits such as funding for conference attendance, research presentations, and mentoring activities. Some institutions create various royalty arrangements or release time for teaching or developing online courses. Others provide additional compensation for research about online education and for developing courses and effective practices. C. Learning Effectiveness 1. Compare Outcomes in Delivery Modes The goal for learning effectiveness online is that learning outcomes meet or exceed industry and professional standards. As reported by NSSE and the Department of Education [5, 6], these goals are achievable. As we continue to learn about improving outcomes, institutions compare the differences in outcomes in delivery modes and use the comparisons to identify the components of effective pedagogy that can be used in all modes. Institutions regularly review and critique online courses to improve them; they recommend using the same curricula to achieve the same learning outcomes in face-to-face instruction and online delivery, understanding the affordances that support learning activities in the various modalities.. 2. Emphasize Interaction An especially important finding results in an emphasis on intensive faculty-student and student-student interactivity [20] that foregrounds teaching, cognitive and social presence. At least one institution provides faculty with expectations for teaching presence and feedback time, and another ranks all courses interactivity as a measure of learner engagement. 8 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 7 3. Set Policy, Assess and Benchmark Quality The institutions regularly use assessment tools, including course evaluations and student satisfaction surveys, regularly, to evaluate learning effectiveness and improve instructional design. Policies for class size differ among institutions according to course design, discipline and difficulty level, but the goal is to assure that class size is manageable for effective teaching and learning. Since interaction among peers engages students, the institutions advocate using LMS groups features for small group online discussion and team projects. They also enable feedback on effectiveness via online group project peer evaluation surveys to gather better data about what works in designing and conducting group activities. Institutions also encourage peer tutoring because it encourages students to turn to each other so those who are reluctant to approach the teacher don t feel lost; peer tutoring or peer review also tends to give students greater confidence in negotiating their own learning. Partly for this reason, one institution uses cohort teams to help students perform and sustain learning communities due to comfort with interaction bred by familiarity with cohort members; cohort members who have to stop-out may return and join a new cohort. Another school provides on-demand tutoring that is free for students; this individual tutoring encourages students to get help as needed and stick with the program rather than giving up. As further commitment to learning effectiveness, these institutions benchmark courses and programs inhouse and externally with other quality courses and programs. D. Student Satisfaction The goal of student satisfaction with regard to progress towards course and degree completion is that students are pleased with learning and with support experiences and feel their effort is worthwhile. Many of the components of student satisfaction have to do with effective access, personalized support, community, relationships, and relevant learning. A primary principle for student satisfaction is adopting students perspectives and assisting them with adjusting to becoming online learners, a significant adjustment from what is generally a more passive learning role. Students may come to online education with the usual expectation of receiving relevant knowledge from a knowledgeable instructor who provides fair and reliable feedback and grades. But they may also expect convenience to equate with easiness and passivity. Instead, while maintaining the usual expectations and privileges attached to the role of learner, online learners add such things as: knowledge about, skill with, and acceptance of the technology new modes and amounts of communication with instructors, peers and administrators increased levels of learner self-direction, and a new place for learning in time (anytime, usually determined by the learner and their life circumstances) and space (anywhere, dependent upon equipment requirements) [21]. Thus, these institutions emphasize knowing their students, actively seeking their feedback, and using it for continuous improvement. 1. Introduce Online Learning A one-stop shop helps introduce prospective students to what they can expect in online education, sometimes including a self-assessment Is online learning for me? Once students are admitted, they can use the one-stop site or student community site to get all the information they need, including advising, scheduling, registration and support. Most institutions require an orientation essentials course that includes technical and academic information about using the LMS, making effective discussion posts, accessing student services, time management, goal setting, and participating in community activities ( i.e. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 9 8 information much like that addressed in on-campus first year initiatives aimed at engaging students in the campus community). One institution requires a two-week on-campus residency to familiarize students with the institutional culture and the people with whom they will be working. 2. Assist Completion The institutions are very aware of the fact that students choose online education because its asynchronicity and flexibility fit with their work and family schedules. Thus, institutions work hard to make sure courses are available when online students can take them, holding online seats for matriculated students until just before the course starts, and giving them course enrollment preferences. Institutional and peer support in student communities help students motivate each other to complete. 3. Listen Students value knowing that they are an integral part of an institution that listens to them and recognizes they need to control the pace of their own multiple commitments. Thus, institutions regularly solicit and use student input, conduct online student satisfaction surveys and using results for continuous improvement, and by asking students to identify obstacles so the institution can eliminate them. Students value leadership opportunities in the online classroom, in groups or in leading discussions that better prepare them for and or align with formal electronic communications and expectations in the workforce. E. Scale The goal for scale is to achieve capacity enrollment, a measure of the academy's greater appreciation of itself as a community focused on common goals [22]. While there are a variety of business models for achieving scale [23], each of the case studies shows institutions that have grown significantly and have built infrastructures to accommodate much more learning by building reliable technical and people networks. 1. Make Retention a Visible, Mission-driven, Institution-wide Priority The whole point...is to increase access to education to a pool of learners who currently do not have this access, and so we need to be able to assess whether increased access is, in fact, being provided, [24] thus these institutions have strong leadership with an imperative for retaining students that is at least as important as recruiting them. Online programs are initiated strategically with an expectation that programs will be self-sustaining and viable, with budgets set for the number of students to be admitted annually; with estimated persistence and completion rates; and with anticipated income generated from anticipated tuition and fees aligned with investment expenditures in operational, production and infrastructure costs. 2. Build Sustainable Models Each of the institutions has developed financially sustainable, scalable models with strategies for (1) developing programs, faculty, and courses; and (2)for providing student access, orientation and community [25]. They may have the same faculty teach both online and on-campus. have the majority of faculty from full-time on-campus faculty, or, in some cases, combine full-time faculty and part-time, compensating both on an adjunct overload basis. 10 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 9 3. Partner Case study institutions are active members of Sloan-C and of regional and national professional organizations. This participation enables them to benchmark, share research and effective practices and other resources for improving the quality of online education as new knowledge unfolds. III. ADDITIONAL STUDIES REPRINTED IN THIS VOLUME Getting Better: ALN and Student Success summarizes factors that influence high course success rates at 13 institutions and systems. Thanks are due to people from institutions cited in that paper for generously contributing more detailed case studies for this volume. Two studies of retention in graduate programs approached retention from students perspectives explaining why they left and why they stayed. Both studies include surveys that are useful for gauging student perceptions. In Factors that Influence Students Decision to Dropout of Online Courses researchers wanted to know if there were reasons specific to online delivery (such as feelings of isolation and disconnectedness, or problems with technology). Student surveys showed that the reasons students gave were not very different from those typically given by dropouts from traditional face-to-face programs [26]. In Why They Stayed: Near-Perfect Retention in an Online Certification Program in Library Media, the review of research on online retention also finds no conclusive evidence that reasons for dropping out differ by delivery mode. Asking why students stayed in the program, researchers created a survey drawn from the models of Tinto [27], of Bean and Metzner [28], and of the Community of Inquiry Model [29]. They find that perhaps a necessary condition of retention for this population is the program being online, and afterwards, other conditions such as academic integration and relevance to the students work lives may be sufficient to keep them enrolled [30]. The survey results usefully compare the reasons that motivated students to enroll and the reasons that motivated them to complete. Using Asynchronous Learning in Redesign: Reaching and Retaining the At-Risk Student documents increases in retention at the course level in large introductory courses at several institutions. These are the principles of redesign: Whole course redesign (not just a section) Active learning (rather than lecture or other passive assignments) Computer-based learning resources (for self-checks, audits, and demonstrations) Mastery learning (for greater learner self-direction) On-demand help (expanded support from many different people and groups) Alternative staffing (to free faculty from routine tasks) Examples of redesign amply substantiate that these practices improve online retention, learning, and scale [31]. IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The last two decades witnessed rapid growth and innovation in higher education online. As the contributors to this issue know well, higher success rates are a result of institution-wide focus on improvements in access, learning effectiveness, scale and faculty and student satisfaction. The studies in this issue demonstrate that course completion rates can be as good as, and better than, course completion rates in face-to-face education. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 11 10 The papers in this issue give a gestalt of practices that positively affect student success. No doubt the elements of each practice take different shapes at each institution that adopts them. Institutions that are committed to improving student learning will need to determine the cost of implementing and maintaining practices as they determine the impact of each. The emergence of effective practices for engaging students and motivating them to persist can best be addressed through collaboration within and across learning organizations. Appendix D is such a collaboration, a work-in-progress blog with tips for faculty for achieving greater course engagement and success. The Sloan-C Faculty Development Advisory Board invites you to join its collaboration on tips for faculty at and you are welcome to comment on the studies in this issue. V. APPENDIX A: INSTITUTIONAL MISSIONS Dallas Baptist University The purpose of Dallas Baptist University is to provide Christ-centered quality higher education in the arts, sciences, and professional studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to traditional age and adult students in order to produce servant leaders who have the ability to integrate faith and learning through their respective callings. Seton Hall Seton Hall is a major Catholic university. In a diverse and a collaborative environment it focuses on academic excellence and ethical development. Seton Hall students are prepared to be leaders in their professional and community lives in a global society and are challenged by outstanding faculty, an evolving technologically advanced setting and values-centered curricula. University of Illinois at Springfield The University of Illinois at Springfield provides an intellectually rich, collaborative, and intimate learning environment for students, faculty, and staff, while serving local, regional, state, national, and international communities. UIS serves its students by building a faculty whose members have a passion for teaching and by creating an environment that nurtures learning. Our faculty members engage students in small classes and experiential learning settings. At UIS, the undergraduate and graduate curricula and the professional programs emphasize liberal arts, interdisciplinary approaches, lifelong learning, and engaged citizenship. UIS provides its students with the knowledge, skills, and experience that lead to productive careers in the private and public sectors. UIS serves the pursuit of knowledge by encouraging and valuing excellence in scholarship. Scholarship at UIS is broadly defined. Faculty members are engaged in the scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching. Excellence in teaching and meaningful service depend on a foundation of excellence in scholarship. One vital area in which UIS extends its scholarship, teaching, learning, and expertise beyond the campus is in the broad area of public affairs. From its location in the state capital, UIS shapes and informs public policy, trains tomorrow s leaders, and enriches its learning environment through a wide range of public affairs activities, programs, 12 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 11 and organizations. UIS empowers its students, faculty, and staff by being a leader in online education and classroom technology. UIS uses technology to enhance its distinctive learning environment and extend that environment beyond the boundaries of the campus. University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati serves the people of Ohio, the nation, and the world as a premier, public, urban research university dedicated to undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, experiencebased learning, and research. We are committed to excellence and diversity in our students, faculty, staff, and all of our activities. We provide an inclusive environment where innovation and freedom of intellectual inquiry flourish. Through scholarship, service, partnerships, and leadership, we create opportunity, develop educated and engaged citizens, enhance the economy and enrich our University, city, stateand global community. Rochester Institute of Technology Vision, Mission and Values Vision: RIT will lead higher education in preparing students for successful careers in a global society. Mission: The RIT community engages and motivates students through stimulating and collaborative experiences. Our mission is to provide technology-based educational programs for personal and professional development. We rigorously pursue new and emerging career areas. We develop and deliver curricula and advance scholarship relevant to emerging technologies and social conditions. Our community is committed to diversity and student centeredness and is distinguished by our innovative and collaborative spirit.internal and external partnerships expand our students experiential learning. RIT is committed to mutually enriching relationships with alumni, government, business and the world community. Teaching, learning, scholarship, leadership development, and student success are our central enterprises. Values: Student Centeredness: Exhibits behavior, performs duties of position, and/or makes decisions that demonstrate and/or support the importance of students as the primary constituency of the university and/or contributes directly to student success. Professional Development and Scholarship: Takes actions to continuously advance and/or improve in one s academic or professional discipline; as an individual contributor; as a team member; and/or as an organizational leader. Integrity and Ethics: Does what it takes to deliver on commitments made to the department, college, or division and to constituency groups. Builds personal trust and relationships inside and outside the university by doing what one says he or she will do when it is promised. Respect, Diversity and Pluralism: Provides a high level of service to fellow members of the RIT community. Treats every person with dignity. Demonstrates inclusion by incorporating diverse perspectives to plan, conduct, and/or evaluate the work of the organization, department, college, or division. Innovation and Flexibility: Provides and/or encourages new ideas that could make the department, college, or division an even better organization. Open to, and adapts well to change. Teamwork and Collaboration: Contributes to the efforts of the department, division, or college as a Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 13 12 team player. Works well with others outside the department to accomplish cross-college or division goals and objectives. Peirce College Founded in 1865, Peirce is a private, four-year, specialized institution providing practical, leading edge curricula to primarily working adult learners. VI. APPENDIX B: BRIEF VERSION OF THE QUALITY FRAMEWORK Brief Version of the Quality Framework Goal Process/Practice Metric (for example) Progress Indices The quality of learning online is demonstrated to be at least as good as the institutional norm and meet or exceed industry and professional standards. The institution achieves capacity enrollment by continuously improving services while reducing costs. All learners who wish to learn online can access learning in a wide array of programs and courses. Faculty are pleased with teaching online, citing appreciation and happiness. Academic integrity and control reside with faculty in the same way as in traditional programs at the provider institution. The institution demonstrates leadership, financial, and technical commitment to its online programs. Tuition rates provide a fair return to the institution and best value to learners. Program entry and support processes inform learners of opportunities, and ensure that qualified, motivated learners have reliable access to instruction and services. Processes ensure faculty participation and support in online education (e.g. governance, intellectual property, royalty sharing, training, preparation, rewards, incentives and so Learning Effectiveness Faculty perception surveys or sampled interviews compare learning effectiveness in delivery modes. Learner/graduate/employer focus groups or interviews measure learning gains. Scale Institutional stakeholders show support for participation in online education. Effective practices are identified and shared. Access Administrative and technical infrastructure provides access to all prospective and enrolled learners. Quality metrics for information dissemination; learning resources delivery; tutoring services Faculty Satisfaction Repeat teaching of online courses by individual faculty indicates approval. Addition of new faculty shows growing endorsement. Faculty report online learning is equivalent or better. Direct assessment of student learning is equivalent or better. The institution sustains the program, expands and scales upward as desired, strengthens and disseminates its mission and core values through online education. Qualitative indicators show continuous improvement in growth and effectiveness rates. Data from post-course surveys show continuous improvement: At least 90% of faculty believe the overall online teaching/learning 14 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 13 Students are pleased with their experiences in learning online, including interaction with instructors and peers, learning outcomes that match expectations, services, and orientation. on). Faculty/learner interaction is timely and substantive. Adequate and fair systems assess course learning objectives; results are used for improving learning Student Satisfaction Metrics show growing satisfaction: Learner surveys and/or interviews Alumni surveys, referrals, testimonials Outcomes measures Focus groups Faculty/Mentor/Advisor perceptions experience is positive. Willingness/desire to teach additional courses in the program: 80% positive. Satisfaction measures show continuously increasing improvement. Institutional surveys, interviews, or other metrics show satisfaction levels are at least equivalent to those of other delivery modes for the institution VII. APPENDIX C: PRACTICES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO HIGH COURSE COMPLETION RATES Access Emphasize the flexibility as well as the responsibilities of asynchronous any-time, any-place learning Publicize additional access to degree completion via online courses Personalize access via administrative or programmatic contact people, marketers, advisors, troubleshooters, and coaches throughout the student s academic career Establish protocols for student advising Provide students with online student skill assessments before taking an online class and offer online and/or on-campus orientations to online learning Develop or share an online student community website or introductory course that encourages online students to share concerns, questions, and solutions Provide academic support, tutoring and support services online, including an institutional 24/7 Help Desk to reach all students Provide necessary software free or at a reduced rate Leverage technology to help identify and work with students who are at-risk Faculty Satisfaction Share information about the benefits and demands of online teaching Involve faculty members and their respective programs in content, curriculum design, peer quality reviews, and community building Support faculty via a Technology Resources Center, offering technology and instruction services online and at convenient places such as in University Libraries Require an online teaching course for new online faculty and make ongoing online professional development available for new and experienced online faculty so that faculty develop confidence and Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 15 14 competence Create boilerplates and placeholders to guide new instructors through a series of effective practices as they prepare their courses; use standards or rubrics to guide course design; develop sample online courses that illustrate effective design and practices Provide a technical HelpDesk for faculty Support online faculty via teaching/learning resources, peer consulting and ongoing workshops for topics such as understanding differences between online and face-to-face teaching, co-teaching and team teaching, prioritizing pedagogical priorities, copyright, tips and tricks for managing workload, designing and managing effective discussions, and for successfully creating an online learning community and engaging students Dedicate personnel support for online faculty from instructional designers, disability services, librarians, technologists and other personnel, including team members assigned to make sure all links are working, dates are set correctly, and exams and quizzes are functioning Conduct online surveys and interviews to measure and improve faculty satisfaction Establish or encourage participation in venues for faculty communities of practice Create various royalty arrangements for online courses Provide additional compensation (seed money, operational funds, release time, etc.) to faculty for course development, research and mentoring and fund online faculty for conference attendance, research presentations, and mentoring. Formally recognize outstanding online teaching and best courses for annual awards or recognition program Learning Effectiveness Compare differences online and face-to-face to validate learning effectiveness and to leverage respective affordance Emphasize intensive faculty-student and student-student interactivity Rank all courses interactivity as a measure of engagement Assure class size is manageable Use groups feature for small group online discussion and team projects, measuring CMS features used as an index of interaction Use cohort learning teams Provide online group project peer evaluation surveys Regularly review and critique the online courses to improve them Benchmark courses and programs with other quality courses and programs Use the same curricula to achieve comparable learning outcomes in face-to-face instruction and online delivery Require or encourage prompt feedback from online faculty, explaining teaching presence expectations in advance of the course Implement a teaching and learning technology center to help faculty and students with just-in-time academic support Provide online peer tutors or commercial tutoring Use assessment tools, including course evaluations and student satisfaction surveys, to evaluate learning effectiveness and improve instructional design and delivery Understand that students respond to interactivity differently, and provide multiple options for interaction 16 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 15 Transcribe and caption media for the online learning environment Scale Integrate online education with the institutional mission Make retention efforts and their results visible to the institution and beyond Evaluate production costs and seek cost effective affordances Develop infrastructure for growth in online and blended delivery Set a reasonable expectation of return on investment of online initiatives Set benchmarks for the number of students to be admitted annually; estimate persistence and completion rates Require a long-term budget plan that addresses continuing viability in proposals for online programs Partner with professional organizations to share faculty, student, administrative resources; professional networks, professional development; funding opportunities Build a sustainable model based on the needs of your institution. Develop a budget model that: Compensates faculty on an adjunct overload basis, or Includes a majority of online instructors from on-campus full-time faculty, or Includes all full-time faculty, who teach both online and on-campus Student Satisfaction Conduct online student satisfaction surveys and use results for continuous improvement Identify online learning obstacles to eliminate them for students Promote flexibility in student scheduling Assure matriculated online students receive course enrollment preferences Hold online seats for matriculated online students until just before the start of the course Require on-campus residency or peer support for cohort learning team students Provide low-cost or free supplemental academic support to online students Make available a technical helpdesk for students Respond to the need for students being able to control the pace of their lives Support students and enable them to support each other with online student community courses or websites, including student associations VIII. APPENDIX D: WHAT DO FACULTY DEVELOPERS RECOMMEND TO FACULTY FOR IMPROVING COURSE COMPLETION AND RETENTION? Thanks to members of the Sloan-C Faculty Development Advisory Board for posting tips they give faculty for helping students complete courses. You are welcome to add tips and comments to the blog at: Open portions of the LMS course site before the semester starts. Giving students an early view of the syllabus, materials requirements, and a description of how the course will be conducted establishes a comfort level with the course requirements, design, and navigation. Early opening avoids last minute panic drops and establishes needed transparency from the start. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 17 16 Set the tone for engaging the class in a community of purpose, we re all in this together. Have personal interviews or phone calls with each student or with small groups so they feel personally connected with you and with each other. Remember that online roles and virtual learning platforms are still new for students (and faculty). In the earliest parts of the course, acknowledge that fact and help the students understand that learning the system of asynchronous interaction is a process. Use plain language rather than academese to convey friendliness and accessibility, introducing concepts first in plain language and gradually introducing the vocabulary of the discipline (see Virtual Facilitators Help Students Become Rhetorically Savvy, and Emphasize the relevance of the course to students everyday activities, other courses, and longterm goals. For example, begin with a course-related challenge to which everyone can respond, drawing on each person s prior experience and knowledge. But remember that some learners may not have a lot of professional experiences, or may not be confident in writing about experiences they have had. Be sure to engage less experienced learners so that they do not feel lost or overpowered. KISS. Keep the course operation as simple as it can be while maintaining course quality and effectiveness. DO NOT include gratuitous activities (even if they re really cool) that do not support the desired learning outcomes. Simplify the learning space while leveraging the most powerful communications technologies. Don't go overboard on the technology (no matter how cool it is!) such that it is distracting to learners. Make the structure of the course and expectations for overall flow explicit. Use tables, charts, mind-maps, advance and graphic organizers, photos, cartoons whatever it takes to help students see how the pieces of the course relate to one another and more importantly, how the students themselves fit into all of it (i.e., where, when, how are they contributing to building the course content and their own understanding). Make content accessible for different preferences and abilities (see and Center for Applied Special Technology Link to student services and resources from within the course. Give students opportunities to practice with all functional/operational aspects of the course as early in the course as possible and in a low-stakes, non-threatening environment. Be certain to introduce all tools and systems that will be required later on in the course. Provide a detailed timeline for completing successive steps toward meeting the objectives (see UMUC Office of Evaluation and Assessment, Best Online Instructional Practices Study, Estimate time on task for assignments so learners get a sense of how they'll need to manage their time. Collect feedback on time actually spent to involve class members in co-design. Encourage self-direction and diversity by getting students to draw on their own experiences and perspectives as part of their learning and to incorporate their own goals into the work of the course (see UMUC Office of Evaluation and Assessment, Best Online Instructional Practices Study Encourage students to support each other, e.g. giving each other feedback and help on assignments before you assign a grade, perhaps even asking veteran students to help novices. Provide a "Student Cafe" where students can interact both in real-time or asynchronously outside of the classroom so that they can support each other. (see Wizards and Brown, R. The Process of Community-Building in Distance Learning Classes. JALN 5:2, September Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 17 Encourage divergent thinking so that students learn to consider alternative interpretations of their own or others' experience (see UMUC Office of Evaluation and Assessment, Best Online Instructional Practices Study, Set consensus rules with the class for discussions and other activities (see Wang, Y, Chen, V. Essential Elements in Designing Online Discussions to Promote Cognitive Presence A Practical Experience. JALN 12(3): December Scaffold problem-based or project-based approaches, enabling students to accomplish objective in small steps that can be revised as they lead to the completion of the final product. Present learning tasks in terms of problem solving, not only as accumulated knowledge, and encourage multiple approaches to problem solving (see UMUC Office of Evaluation and Assessment, Best Online Instructional Practices Study, Use audio and video for feedback to enhance immediacy (see Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students Sense of Community, Use student-designed exam questions (see Shen, J., Bieber, M., Hiltz, S.R. Participatory Examinations in Asynchronous Learning Networks: Longitudinal Evaluation Results, JALN 9(3): October Create a database of exam questions that students can answer to prepare for the final (see Heckman, R., Annabi, H. Cultivating Voluntary Online Learning Communities in Blended Environments, JALN 10(4): December Think outside of the course management system to interact with people and resources that add relevance to course topics and skills. Use blogs, wikis, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, IM or other applications so people can stay in touch as the class proceeds. Use mobile learning as a way to connect learning to real-life. Be creative. For example, have learners upload their own photos, videos, or other objects created with mobile devices that relate to current topics (see, for example, Welcome to the Human Network video Give students opportunities to publish their work (see What is Student-Generated Content? and Content Area Vocabulary Digital Stories, If your LMS allows students to manage the available communication tools turn them on and let the students choose how they want to work together. Here s an excerpt from a faculty member who was surprised most by the fact that students willingly took ownership of the learning space (Scroll forward to 1:35 Provide frequent and regular checkpoints (both student and faculty managed) for measuring student progress and gauging student s grasp of course material. Low-stakes questions, automated check your knowledge or question forums can go a long way to keep students engaged and on track. Provide multiple points of contact to the instructor. These may include using an to create a personal connection, discussion forums, blogging, or using the announcements to keep student s abreast of course progress. Flexibility in communication and delivery requires underlying structure and predictability. Set patterns of instructor communication and meet and keep scheduled updates; students may interact in various ways, but the instructor establishes the solid center. See the Community of Inquiry Survey Instrument in JALN 13(3) for ways instructors enhance community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 19 18 Use learning contracts and rubrics to help students track progress towards goals, but don't create overly-complex, verbose and restricting rubrics to explain your expectations. Leave room for quality, creativity and individualization to come through in assignments. Also consider providing several sample assignments so that learners can see examples of your expectations. Use discussions wisely. Avoid quantitative measures of engagement such as post 5 comments every day and devise grading schemes where discussion postings are evaluated on the quality of the overall participation, rather than the number of postings.see, for example, (My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy by Bill Pelz, JALN 8(3): 43, June 2004, Thanks for the tips above to advisory board members: Allen Clarkson, Western Governors University; Nan Chico, California State University Eastbay; Phil DiSalvio, Seton Hall University SetonWorldWide; Kim Eke, University of North Carolina; Susan Ko, University of Maryland University College; Larry Ragan, Pennsylvania State University World Campus; Maria Puzziferro, Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design; and Shari McCurdy Smith University of Illinois Springfield. IX. ABOUT THE EDITORS Janet C. Moore is the Chief Knowledge Officer for the Sloan Consortium. She is an editor for the Sloan- C View, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, effective practices, and annual volumes in the Sloan-C quality series. She participates in various initiatives, including helping design and conduct Sloan- C workshops and seminars, and Sloan-C Catalog reviews. She is the author of Elements of Quality: The Sloan-C Framework, Pillar Reference Manual. Marie J. Fetzner joined Monroe Community College (MCC) in Rochester, New York 1987 and currently serves as the Assistant to the Vice President for Educational Technology Services (ETS). In , Marie served as Director of Online Information and Distance Learning at Montgomery College, Montgomery County, Maryland. From , she was on special assignment as MCC s Banner Project Manager. Marie is a founding member of the Monroe Model team that was created in 1997 to support MCC s online learning faculty and students. Marie serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), is a Quality Matters online course reviewer and is a peer reviewer on the Music editorial team for MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching). She is an adjunct assistant professor (online) in MCC s Transitional Studies department and in the Visual and Performing Arts department. Marie is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Education at the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester, where her research focuses on online student retention. X. REFERENCES 1. Allen, I.E. and J. Seaman. Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, Sloan- C, November 2008, page Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2010, Table 214 <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/> 3 See retention efforts from the Gates Foundation the Lumina Foundation the Carnegie Foundation and the 20 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 19 Education Trust and the National Association of System Heads 4. Association of Public and Land Grant-Grant Universities. Sloan National Commission on Online Learning. Online Learning Benchmarking Study and Faculty Survey. August 31, National Survey of Student Engagement. Promoting Engagement for All Students: The Imperative to Look Within, 2008 Results. Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. November 14, pdf. 6. Means, B., Y. Toyama, R. Murphy & K. Jones. Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service. July Hiltz, S. R., & M. Turoff. Network Nation: Human Communication via Computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (1978), rev College Navigator. ACE Analysis of Higher Education Act Reauthorization. 9. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Services See for example not-for-profit rankings: American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) What Will They Learn? A Report on General Education Requirements at 100 of the Nation's Leading Colleges and Universities Association of American Colleges and Universities, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) VALUE-Plus: Rising to the Challenge College Portrait of Undergraduate Education American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Diplomas and Dropouts Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't). By Frederick M. Hess, Mark Schneider, Kevin Carey, Andrew P. Kelly. June Transparency by Design University and College Accountability Network, 11. See for example news and commercial rankings: USNEWS Best Colleges and USNews catalog of online programs at Washington Monthly Best Colleges Online Get Educated Rate, Rank and Compare Online Schools and Degrees : Online Education Database College Crunch 12. The College Navigator advises readers to interpret data with caution. 13. Moore, J., M. Fetzner & J. Sener. Getting Better: ALN and Student Success. JALN 10(3) SENSE National Report, Imagine Success: Engaging Entering Students: nationally, nearly 50% of entering students drop out before the second year. March 18, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 21 20 15. Sloan Consortium quality framework In March/April 2009, a Sloan-C Workshop on Retention Strategies in Online Education discussed the extent to which particular pillars were emphasized in retention initiatives. A listing of workshop participant retention practices was prepared by the workshop facilitators, Ruth Bennett and Marie Fetzner. 17. Webber, D. A., R. G. Ehrenberg. Do Expenditures Other Than Instructional Expenditures Affect Graduation and Persistence Rates in American Higher Education? Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. August 1, p Tinto, V. Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition. Second edition, University of Chicago Press, March Di Salvio, P. Cohort Student Grouping: Does It Enhance Student Retention? 20. Swan, K. Relationships Between Interactions and Learning In Online Environments Garrison, D. R., M. Cleveland-Innes & T.Fung. Student Role Adjustment in Online Communities of Inquiry: Model and Instrument Validation. JALN 8(2): 64, April Top Ten Issues related to Scale. Sloan-C View, May A special issue of JALN focuses on institutional business models, see JALN 10(2): May Gary Miller quoted in From Cost Effectiveness and Institutional Commitment to Scale The Sloan-C View, July Moloney, J. and B. Oakley. Scaling Online Education: Increasing Access to Higher Education. JALN 10(3): July Willging, P. A. & S. Johnson. Factors that Influence Students' Decision to Dropout of Online Courses. JALN 8(4): December Tinto, V. Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, Bean, J. P. and B. S. Metzner. A conceptual model of nontraditional undergraduate student attrition. Review of Educational Research 55(4): , Garrison, D. R., T. Anderson, and W. Archer. Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education 2(2 3): , Meyer, K.A., J. Bruweilheider & R. Poulin. Why They Stayed: Near-Perfect Retention in an Online Certification Program in Library Media. JALN 10(4): December The National Center for Academic Transformation. Fully online model: 22 Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 13: Issue 3 The Sloan Consortium Quality Framework And The Five Pillars By Janet C. Moore Copyright 2005 by Sloan-C All rights reserved. Published 2005 THE SLOAN CONSORTIUM QUALITY FRAMEWORK AND THE FIVE PILLARS Janet Commission on Colleges Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Best Practices For Overview to the Best Practices These Best Practices are divided into five separate components, each of which addresses THE UIS MODEL FOR ONLINE SUCCESS Bill Bloemer, Ph.D. Research Associate, Center for Online Learning, Research and Service University Of Illinois Springfield ABSTRACT This case study describes the philosophy UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI: CASE STUDY OF ONLINE STUDENT SUCCESS Melody Clark Lisa Holstrom Ann M. Millacci University of Cincinnati ABSTRACT The University of Cincinnati (UC) is a premier, public, urban How to Build Effective Online Learner Support Services www.contactnorth.ca www.contactnord.ca How to Build Effective Online Learner Support Services Online support services for learners can be as important Management Fundamentals in Healthcare Organizations University of Minnesota School of Public Health LEARNING MODEL The learning model underlying the Management Fundamentals Certificate is an application Towson University Strategic Academic Plan 2010-2016 University Summary Mission Statement Towson University, as the state s comprehensive Metropolitan University, offers a broad range of undergraduate and Guidelines for Massachusetts Early Educator Preparation Programs Participating in the Early Childhood Educator Scholarships Program Background The Departments of Higher Education and Early Education and Academic Affairs Strategic Plan 2012 The Academic Affairs Strategic Plan is a continually evolving plan, building on the university s Strategic Plan and its three pillars: learner-centered, discovery driven, School of Accounting Florida International University Strategic Plan 2012-2017 As Florida International University implements its Worlds Ahead strategic plan, the School of Accounting (SOA) will pursue Principal Performance Review Office of School Quality Division of Teaching and Learning Principal Practice Observation Tool 2014-15 The was created as an evidence gathering tool to be used by evaluators Plan 0 07 Mapping the Library for the Global Network University NYU DIVISION OF LIBRARIES Our Mission New York University Libraries is a global organization that advances learning, research, and scholarly 12 Section Two: Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession 1 Teachers understand student learning and development and respect the diversity of the students they teach. Teachers display knowledge of how Get to Know My RE Observe Collect Evidence Mentor Moments Reflect Review Respond Tailor Support Provide Provide specific feedback specific Feedback What does my RE need? Practice Habits Of Mind Share Data Management Competencies and Sample Indicators for the Improvement of Adult Education Programs A Publication of Building Professional Development Partnerships for Adult Educators Project PRO-NET April 2001 Standards for Accreditation of Master s Programs in Library and Information Studies Adopted by approval of the Council of the American Library Association, February 2, 2015 Purpose of Accreditation Introduction EBD #10.9 2013-2014 TO: ALA Executive Board RE: Revised Standards for Accreditation of Master s Programs in Library and Information Studies ACTION REQUESTED/INFORMATION/REPORT: For information purposes. Achievement, Innovation, Community: The University of Baltimore Strategic Plan 2014-17 Mission The University of Baltimore provides innovative education in business, public affairs, the applied liberal Missouri Baptist University Center for Distance Learning Policies and Procedures Manual MBU Center for Distance Learning Vision, Mission and Goals Through technologically-enhanced teaching-learning opportunities, Texas Wesleyan University Policy Title: Distance Education Policy Policy Statement Texas Wesleyan University recognizes the goal of distance education is to increase accessibility to learning by providing SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT NEW PALTZ Five-Year Strategic Plan Revised June 1, 2008 by Chih-Yang Tsai, Associate Dean This strategic plan for the School of Business is the result April 14, 2015 Page 1 of 10 PURPOSE: This document is intended to create and clarify policies related to a range of online teaching and learning issues at CI. BACKGROUND: The Special Committee for Online North Carolina School Library Media Coordinators Standards Every public school student will graduate from high school, globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared for life in METROPOLITAN COLLEGE Goals and Student Assessment Outcomes Measures for Graduate Degree Programs TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview... 3 Degrees Master of Arts in Human Resource Management. 4-10 Human Resource PACIFIC 2020 Excelling in a Changing Higher Education environment 1 PACIFIC 2020 Excelling in a Changing Higher Education environment STOC KTON SAN FRANC I S C O S A CRA MENTO University of the Pacific University of Nebraska Online Worldwide Rolling Three Year Strategic Plan January 2010 The University of Nebraska has established an integrated University wide distance education program to serve the educational Strategic Plan 2011 2020 Revised, April 2015 A Message from the President I am pleased to present Endicott College: Strategic Plan 2011 2020, which was developed by the Endicott College Planning Committee Hello, thank you for joining me today as I discuss universal instructional design for online learning to increase inclusion of I/DD students in Associate and Bachelor degree programs. I work for the University NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY College: College of Business Department: Inter-Departmental Program: Master of Business Administration CIP Code: 52.0201 Northern Illinois University s M.B.A. program follows Action Plan for the Graduate College Feb. 2012 Western Michigan University Introduction The working premises of this plan are that graduate education at WMU is integral to the identity and mission of the Northeastern State University Online Educator Certificate Purpose Beginning in October 1999, the Northeastern State University Distance Learning Advisory Committee (now the Center for Teaching and Learning Ch. 354 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS 22 CHAPTER 354. PREPARATION OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS Sec. 354.1. Definitions. 354.2. Purpose. GENERAL PROVISIONS GENERAL 354.11. Minimum requirements for approval. 354.12. Terry College of Business Strategic Plan The mission of the University of Georgia s Terry College of Business is the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge for the effective and ethical practice of business. James Madison University Best Practices for Online Programs Updated December 2013 JMU Best Practices for Online Programs I. Introduction... 2 II. Institutional Context and Commitment... 2 III. Curriculum FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN 2011-2016 (LSU SSW Five Year Strategic Plan 2011 2016 unanimously approved 11/18/11) Vision, Values, Mission, and Goals: Vision The LSU School of Social Work (SSW) aspires to be Presented to the Enrollment and Marketing Working Group October 2015 Our Vision The vision of the Graduate College of Arkansas Tech University is to empower students through advanced degrees to meet the Online Instruction Task Force Final Report and Recommendations: Guidelines and Standards of Practice for Online Programs and Courses at Wayne State University July 2012 Contents I. Introduction... 3 II. Arkansas Teaching Standards The Arkansas Department of Education has adopted the 2011 Model Core Teaching Standards developed by Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) to replace STRATEGIC PLAN 2012-2017 OUR MISSION The mission of the USC Rossier School of Education is to improve learning in urban education locally, nationally and globally. Urban education takes place within many SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: ACADEMIC STRATEGIC PLAN These are extraordinary times for higher education and for students aspiring to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Technology is affecting the way we learn Consortium for Faculty Diversity at Liberal Arts Colleges Fellowship Program G U I D E L I N E S O N M E N T O R I N G The Consortium for Faculty Diversity at Liberal Arts Colleges (CFD) Program The Consortium DRAFT College of Architecture Strategic Plan 2014-2025 Design. Technology. Engagement. School of Architecture School of Building Construction School of City and Regional Planning School of Industrial Design Proposal to Change an Academic Program Adding an Online Version of an Existing Program at The University of Minnesota, Crookston Bachelor of Manufacturing Management for Online Delivery Prepared and Submitted Proposal to Change an Academic Program Adding an Online Version of an Existing Program at The University of Minnesota, Crookston Bachelor of Science in Business for Online Delivery Prepared and Submitted Program Review Committee Report Police Graduate Studies Program Specific Majors/Degrees Granted: Masters of Arts Human Resources Training and Development Overview/History I. Goals and Objectives (Are there STRATEGIC PLAN 2015-2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Georgia Regents University Division of Enrollment & Student Affairs participates in annual strategic planning so that the division can clarify goals and focus Hearing of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance September 30, 2011 Written Testimony on Nontraditional Students Submitted by David L. Warren, President National Association of Independent PASADENA CITY COLLEGE EDuCATIONAL MASTER PLAN PCC PROUD PAST GLOBAL FUTURE PROUD PAST, GLOBAL FUTURE The purpose of our Educational Master Plan (EMP) is to guide the college s transformation to educate Library Information Specialist [27.450] STANDARD 1 Information Access and Delivery The library information specialist provides equitable intellectual and physical access to information and ideas in support Online Learning at Duke: A Planning Guide I. Planning an online program at Duke (for deans, chairs, program directors) II. Teaching an online class at Duke (Faculty, TAs, etc. level) III. Adding online DISCUSSION 5.0 Office of the Superintendent of Schools MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS Rockville, Maryland May 30, 2013 MEMORANDUM To: From: Subject: Members of the Board of Education Joshua P. Starr, Strategic Planning View Plans OSU System Home System at a Glance System News Administration School of Applied Health and Educational Psychology This is the School of Applied Health and Educational Psychology Master of Health Care Administration Program Strategic Plan 2008 2010 The faculty and staff of the MHA program met and developed the following document. Included are foundational statements that include: MISSION / VISION / VALUES FRAMEWORK The Mission / Vision / Values Framework builds on the strengths of Concordia today and provides the vision and strategies to build an even stronger and more vital Concordia Evaluation of Undergraduate Academic Programs Self-Study Guidelines Office of the Provost Fall 2009 Purpose This guide is designed to support academic unit efforts to evaluate undergraduate academic programs Standards for Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library & Information Studies Adopted by the Council of the American Library Association January 15, 2008 Office for Accreditation American Library Association GRADUATE PROGRAM REVIEW POLICY Texas Southern University The Purposes of Graduate Program Review Graduate program review at Texas Southern University exists to ensure that programs are functioning at the The New York State Board of Regents and The New York State Education Department Growing Tomorrow s Leaders Today Preparing Effective School Leaders in New York State "The factor that empowers the people The University of Hawai i Community Colleges Online Learning Strategic Plan GOAL 1,2,3,4,5 DESCRIPTION OUTCOMES RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND DATA REPORTING FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS Overview As an important subset Approved by Academic Affairs May 2010 DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION POLICY ON REAPPOINTMENT, TENURE, AND PROMOTION (RTP) I. DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING RTP POLICY A. Preamble B. Miami University Ohio Mission Statement: Miami provides the opportunities of a major university while offering the personalized attention found in the best small colleges. It values teaching and intense UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MISSION, VISION & STRATEGIC PRIORITIES Approved by SBA General Faculty (April 2012) Introduction In 1926, we embarked on a noble experiment the creation College of Architecture Strategic Plan 2014-2025 From the Dean The College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology houses a rich mix of disciplines that are critical in shaping how people Expectations for Classroom Setup and Online Teaching UMUC is committed to providing the highest-quality online education to its students. UMUC-sponsored research and evaluation data, including the Institute The Graduate School STRATEGIC PLAN 2007-2016 Table of Contents Page 1. Introduction 4 2. The Graduate School s Mission, Vision and Core Values.. 5 3. Strategic Advantages. 6 4. Strategic Challenges.. 7 FACULTY SUPPORT The College provides an ongoing program of appropriate technical, design, and production support for faculty members teaching classes using the Internet. Faculty have several services for 1 Political Science Program Standards Aligned with College Standards 5.00 COLLEGE STANDARDS FOR FACULTY EVALUATION The additional Political Science Program Standards, where relevant, appear in italics. Columbus State University Strategic Plan and Direction 2013-2018 1 Table of contents: 3 Strategic Plan overview 4 Letter from Tim Mescon, Columbus State University president 5 Letter from Tom Hackett and Standards for Online Guidelines for Planning and Evaluating Online Courses and Programs Southern Regional Education Board 592 10th St. N.W. Atlanta, GA 30318 (404) 875-9211 www.sreb.org For more information, Strategic Plan 2011 and Sciences Leading the Way in Academics, Research and Public Engagement www.art-sci.udel.edu/ Vision The and Sciences at the University of Delaware will be nationally recognized for MAY 20, 2008 STEPHEN J. LASTER The Future of ABC University and Blended Learning Eighteen months after joining ABC University (ABC) as chief information officer (CIO), Rob Smith was pleased with the progress Performance Management Guide For Managers This guide applies to employees who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement or for whom the agreement contains no provision regarding this subject. A THREE-PRONG STRATEGIC APPROACH TO SUCCESSFUL DISTANCE LEARNING DELIVERY Carol Scarafiotti Dean of Instruction Rio Salado College 2323 W. 14 th St. Tempe, AZ 85281-6950 (480) 517-8135 Fax: (480) 517-8149 WHITE PAPER Business Analytics and Data Warehousing in Higher Education by Jim Gallo Table of Contents Introduction...3 Business Analytics and Data Warehousing...4 The Role of the Data Warehouse...4 Big Pamplin College of Business Strategic Plan 2014-2019 Adopted: 5-13-2014 Revised: 7-3-2014 1. Introduction Pamplin is a nationally recognized, integral part of Virginia Tech the premier research university Illinois Professional Teaching Standards Preamble: We believe that all students have the potential to learn rigorous content and achieve high standards. A well-educated citizenry is essential for maintaining Blended Learning: What Does This Trend in Higher Education Mean to WPI? Stephen Flavin Amy Ricci February 13, 2007 What is Blended Learning? Some face-to-face learning is replaced by online learning, making Effective Date: Definition Authority Scope The purpose of this document is to ensure the consistent academic quality and accessibility of all online/ hybrid courses and programs offered through Humboldt At SUNY Empire State College, we pride ourselves on seeing our students as individuals. We recognize that everyone s needs and goals are different, and we respect those differences. 10/10/2014 1 Working California State Polytechnic University, Pomona University Strategic Plan 2011 2015 Introduction On the threshold of its 75 th anniversary, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is positioned 2014 A Guide to Ensure Quality Distance Learning Academic Technology Center at UWF 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 http://uwf.edu/atc http://onlinecampus.uwf.edu Updated April 2014 A Guide Summary of Goals Set/Goals Met: Part 1: Division of Online and Distance Education (Student and Administrative Support) Restructured in 2011 (see related organizational charts), the Division of Online and QUALITY ASSURANCE OF ONLINE LEARNING December 1, 2014 As Prepared by Dr. Chris Schedler, Director of Multimodal Learning Dr. Tom Henderson, Director of Institutional Assessment Daniel Matthews, Director NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION OF PROGRAMS IN BUSINESS MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Strengthening the Role of Part-Time Faculty in Community Colleges EXAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION FOR PART-TIME FACULTY: Valencia College - Job Description and Essential Competencies Valencia College Job Description: ACRL Best Practices in Information Literacy Invitational Conference Application, 2002 Program and Institution: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Information Literacy Program of the A.C. Buehler Library at Elmhmst College, Master of Science in Nursing Nurse Educator Purpose of Methodist College Masters Degree Program In 2010, 56% of schools had nurse faculty vacancies. http://www.discovernursing.com The graduate academic	79,695	30,056	211,020.990152
warc	201704	Just when you thought that there are some medical treatments which will never change, along comes some new research which blows the status quo away. Appendectomy or removal of the appendix has, for over hundred years, been considered the gold standard and in fact the only treatment for acute appendicitis. A recently published study provides evidence that there might be another way. Researchers divided patients with early acute appendicitis into two groups: One group underwent the usual treatment-that is surgical removal of the appendix. The other group were treated with antibiotics only. Guess what? Those patients who were treated only with antibiotics not only did not develop peritonitis from rupture of the appendix, they also were about 30% less likely to suffer complications. Those who had the surgery had more complications as opening up the belly does result in higher risks of infection, scar tissue and pain than just antibiotic treatment. This result goes against a long held medical dogma: Appendicitis can only be treated with appendectomy. Antibiotics are given but never without the surgery. If some patients truly can be managed without the surgery, this would not only reduce complications, it also would save beaucoup dollars. Still, before mainstream medicine can or should change its course, several caveats are in order. For one, this is a single study and would need to be repeated. Patients need to be carefully screened, as this surgery free course, requires that there be no evidence of rupture of the appendix or abscess formation. Thus, all patients would need to have a CT scan. CTs do expose patients to quite a bit of radiation. In fact, many patients for this reason are taken to surgery based on ultrasound results alone. (Ultrasound has no ionizing radiation). Another problem is that with this study, about 20% of the patients given antibiotics alone required appendix removal within one year. 20% is a lot of people who would need a second CT scan and hospitalization. For the present, this study will be looked at very carefully and if the results can be reproduced there could in the future be an alternative to an appendectomy, at least for some patients. Perhaps, patients might be offered a choice of immediate surgery or antibiotics with a wait and see approach. It just goes to show you that, in medicine as in life, there are indeed no sacred cows.	2,408	1,150	5,023.297391
warc	201704	Specific source of dangerous germs still unclear in about half of cases WEDNESDAY, March 26, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- About one of every 25 U.S. hospital patients contracts an infection during their stay, and doctors can't say for certain why half those infections occur, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers estimate that in 2011 about 648,000 Americans developed an infection while hospitalized, or about 4 percent of all inpatients. About 75,000 of those patients died while in the hospital. About half of the infections resulted from surgery or through use of a medical device such as a ventilator or a catheter, the study reports. These causes of hospital infection are well known and efforts are underway to combat them. The other half are infections with no clear cause, researchers said. "This finding should expand the public health focus to include these other types of infections, identifying patients at risk and developing effective prevention measures," the study's authors conclude. For example, pneumonia is the most common infection associated with a hospital stay, the new study reports, accounting for about 22 percent of all health care-related infections. But only half of those hospital pneumonia cases could be linked to a patient placed on a ventilator, said Dr. Mike Bell, deputy director of the CDC's division of healthcare quality promotion. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a common occurrence with a known set of recommended steps that can be taken to prevent its spread. "That tells me these pneumonias happening outside the ICU need to be investigated," he said. "This study points us toward the things we need to tackle next." Besides pneumonia, other common infections that occur in hospitals include surgical site infections (22 percent), gastrointestinal infections (17 percent), urinary tract infections (13 percent) and bloodstream infections (10 percent), according to the CDC report published in the March 27 New England Journal of Medicine. Clostridium difficile is the most common germ spread during a hospital stay, accounting for 12 percent of all infections, the study found. About seven of 10 gastrointestinal infections in the hospital involve C. difficile. C. difficile can cause deadly diarrhea and results from antibiotic overuse. The germ infests a person's colon after antibiotics have wiped out the healthy bacteria that normally resides in their gut. "This is not just the nuisance diarrhea it used to be 12 years ago," Bell said, noting that the germ produces a toxin that has grown more powerful over time. "That toxin chews up the colon to such an extent that people have to have their colons removed to save their lives." These other germs most commonly spread in hospitals all have strains that are antibiotic resistant: Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA (11 percent) Klebsiella (10 percent) E. coli (9 percent) Enterococcus (9 percent) The fight to halt the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs continues to be a top priority for U.S. hospitals, said Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy for the American Hospital Association (AHA). "It's a very complex and challenging clinical area, but one that doctors and nurses and pharmacists are passionate about getting their hands around because we can see how devastating it can be for patients," Foster said. The new study resulted from the CDC's multistate survey of infections associated with health care. The survey used 2011 data from 183 U.S. hospitals to estimate the burden of a wide range of infections in hospital patients across the country. Researchers already are taking steps to track down the unknown causes of hospital infections, CDC's Bell said. For example, many of the pneumonia cases not caused by ventilation could occur due to aspiration, with the patient breathing in germs in their own saliva or regurgitation. "If we find that a lot of this is aspiration, that's a big deal," he said, noting that cutting back on the use of sedatives could cut back on aspiration and, as a result, the number of pneumonia cases. "That sort of thing we can tackle with a coordinated effort." Hospitals are investigating other sources of infection, including the spread of disease back and forth between hospitals and care facilities, AHA's Foster said. Experts also are considering germs that might be introduced by families and friends visiting loved ones, and the possibility that common physician items such as stethoscopes and white coats might carry bugs from patient to patient. "There are a lot of good ideas out there, but we find in each hospital the sources of infection are different, so the strategies that will work for them may be different as well," Foster said. Patients can help themselves avoid infection while hospitalized by asking lots of questions, Bell suggested. They can ask what's being done to prevent them from contracting C. difficile or having a surgical site infection. They also can ask every day if they can have their catheter removed, since the device increases their infection risk. Even better, patients can get a loved one to ask these questions for them, as well as requiring anyone who enters the room -- even hospital staff -- to wash their hands. "It's not very realistic to expect a sick person to deal with all of this. It really helps a lot to have a friend or family member with you and be tasked with some of these things," Bell said. More information For more about infections associated with health care, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/hai/ ). SOURCES: Mike Bell, M.D., deputy director, division of healthcare quality promotion, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Nancy Foster, vice president, quality and patient safety policy, American Hospital Association; March 27, 2014, New England Journal of Medicine	5,971	2,655	13,311.619209
warc	201704	This report presents analysis of a database of global geothermal drilling success. The database, compiled by IFC, covers geothermal fields that together supply power to 71 percent of the world's installed geothermal electricity generating capacity, making it the largest database of its kind. ... See More + This report analyzes that data to gain a better understanding of the probability of drilling a successful well, and the factors that influence such success, which will be of interest to geothermal developers, and to financers engaged in the risk assessment of such projects. The core objective of this project was to develop a sufficiently large database to allow statistically significant conclusions to be drawn on the success rates of geothermal wells worldwide (expressed as the number of successful wells developed as a proportion of total wells drilled in any given field). This report seeks to assess the extent of any improvements in well success rates, and how far the likelihood of success increases as a developer learns more about any specific resource. For more publications on IFC Sustainability please visit www.ifc.org/sustainabilitypublications. See Less - Other Environmental Study 78230 JUN 01, 2013 Allen, Mike; Avato,Patrick Alexander; Gehringer,Magnus; GeothermEx; Harding-Newman,Tom; Levin,Jeremy; Loksha,Victor B.; Meng,Zhengjia; Moin,Sonia; Morrow, James; Oduolowu,Akin O.; Pantelias,Alexios; Sanyal,Subir Kumar Disclosed Title Document Date Report No. Document Type Also available in Success of geothermal wells : a global study (English) See More + JUN 01, 2013 78230 Other Environmental Study	1,634	898	2,962.30735
warc	201704	We examine how owners of productive resources (e.g., public enterprises or financial capital) optimally allocate their resources among wealth-constrained operators of unknown ability. Optimal allocations exhibit: (1) shared enterprise profit - the resource owner always shares the operator's profit; (2) dispersed enterprise ownership -resources are widely distributed among operators of varying ability; (3) limited benefits of competition - the owner may not benefit from increased competition for the resource; and, sometimes, (4) diluted incentives for the most capable - more capable operators receive smaller shares of the returns they generate. Implications for privatizations and venture capital arrangements are explored. (JEL D82, D44, D20). Citation: American Economic Review, 2000, 90 (4), pp. 944 - 960	819	482	1,384.823651
warc	201704	My father has a lot of interesting hobbies. One of those is collecting minerals and gemstones, many of them in their rough form. I saw some jagged purple and white striped stones in his collection and it surprised to learn it was amethyst. In order to polish stones, the rough rocks – like jasper, agate, and amethyst – are placed inside a rock tumbler barrel. Then, you add course grit, which is harder than the rocks being tumbled, and water. As the rock tumbler turns, the grit and water rounds the sharp edges off the rocks. Then the rocks are tumbled with medium grit and finally fine grit. Each step means the edges of the rocks become smoother and smoother. This gives the rock a shiny surface and bright color. The tumbling process transforms a rough stone into a beautiful specimen. What brings out the best in us? Have you met someone who is “rough around the edges”? This person can be described as “unsophisticated” or “unpolished.” They don’t always understand social cues or say the wrong things. While these individuals have some wonderful traits – like honesty, genuine curiosity, and a “take me as I am” attitude, it takes a lot of patience to deal with someone who is a bit rough. Rough Around the Edges A “rough” person that comes to mind is the pastor’s wife at a church I used to attend. (Let’s call her Sharon.) Sharon had lived a hard life and became a Christian when she was in her 40s. Sharon had a difficult start at the church because she didn’t understand her role as pastor’s wife. A gentle soul who played the piano on Sundays and cuddled fussy babies? Nope. She was often abrasive in church business meetings, had words with the parent of a reckless toddler, and cursed when she burned the coffee. Over time, a transformation took place. Sharon grew in her spiritual life as she spent more time in the Word, fellowshipped with believers, and supported her husband. Sharon would listen carefully to others’ points of view before she disagreed with them. She wasn’t the most musically talented person, but she began singing with the choir. The church congregation gradually changed, too. They were more patient with Sharon. Some of the older ladies were helpful in helping Sharon navigate her role. Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Getting to know Sharon and seeing the changes in her has helped me understand Proverbs 27:17. The “rough” parts of our personalities will be at odds with others. We don’t get along with everyone, but we have to make accommodations. Those folks you don’t necessarily see eye to eye with in your Sunday school class? Think about how you can grow by listening to their point of view. Those neighbors that get under your skin? Ask God to help you love them as He loves them. Personal growth is rarely pleasant, but it can be more bearable when you think about how spiritual growth will benefit you in the long run. [Featured image from Hobbits, Horses, and Handcrafts]	3,110	1,546	5,962.509702
warc	201704	Your baby is crying and you don't know why! If only he could tell you what was wrong... Let me show you how they can! These are just a few of the benefits of teaching your child sign language: You would be surprised at how often knowing sign language really comes in handy for both you and your child! Studies have shown that babies who learned sign as infants had a higher IQ overall than babies who didn't learn sign. Signing with your child provides a unique bonding experience between you and your child. Signing opens the doors to wonderful friendships with those who use ASL as their primary language. Signing is FUN for the whole family!!!!! Signing in the classroom has led to improved math scores among students. Signing helps promote self-esteem in children. Learning sign language at an early age helps develop the brain in the critical early years of language development. Babies who can communicate through sign are often much happier babies and toddlers which translates into a happier YOU! Here are just some of the amazing secrets, tips & techniques this ebook will teach you: Learn the benefits of learning sign language to music Learn how children make the transitions from gestures to signs to speech Learn how to teach your child Sign Language in a natural environment! Learn the advantages of learning American Sign Language rather than inventing your own signs Dispel any fears that sign language may delay speech development and find out why the opposite is actually true! Learn how Sign Language can promote self-esteem in your child! Learn the benefits of utilizing sign language in children who have speech-delays or special needs. Learn how you can communicate with your baby much earlier than you would if you simply wait for him to learn how to talk Learn how sign language develops the brain and has actually been linked to a higher IQ in children! Learn how to use sign language to develop reading skills Find out how you can greatly reduce your child's frustrations and tantrums! Discover the best time to start signing to your baby Learn how to reduce the noise level in your home or classroom!	2,134	1,016	4,467.537402
warc	201704	In recent times, on his show Hardball, Chris Matthews has called the Republican member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, a “balloon head”, “pretty close to a nut case”, and has accused her, facetiously I assume, of being hypnotized. This criticism is not at all helpful. I admit I have not watched nearly as much Fox News as I have MSNBC. But judging from those admittedly unequal samplings, it appears that the MSNBC approach is to call the other side on the lack of factual underpinnings for their ideologically driven assertions. The other side fights back less with evidence-based counter-arguments than with moral indignation and insinuating labeling, the “umbrella” accusation being that the president – and, by association, his supporters – is not “one of us.” That, basically, is the primary distinction. One side fights with factual evidence; the other, with name-calling. (Full disclosure: I’m with the evidence-based crowd.) Now, however, it’s getting muddy, because here’s Chris Matthews, the, generally, facts-arguing commentator, Resorting to name-calling. This is, as mentioned, not helpful. And here’s why. First of all, those of us who are longstanding residents of the fact-based community are now legitimately vulnerable to the oft-heard schoolyard taunt: “They do it too.” It is easily provable – by counting – that one side “does it” considerably more often than the other. But even so, it’s Goodbye moral high ground. Secondly, notwithstanding the fact that Bachmann’s questionable assertions – for example, that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery when they didn’t – earned her the epithet “balloon head”, Matthews ignores the fact that Bachmann’s calculated pronouncements make perfect, persuasive and energizing sense to the audience she was speaking to. Third – and this one’s tied to “second” – Matthews – representing “the enemy” – allotting considerable airtime for his, arguably, unhinged and, inarguably, disrespectful assault on Bachmann, increases Bachmann’s legitimacy and stature. Nobody attacks a “nobody.” Which, by definition, validates Representative Bachmann as a powerfully emerging “somebody.” Fourthly, it’s not real classy attacking a woman. And for a liberal, doing so in terms, to which men who make similar assertions to Bachmann’s are generally immune, Matthews’ remarks seem embarrassingly hypocritical. I suppose it can be statistically determined whether name-calling works as a strategy for energizing support from your political base. I suspect that it does. Emotion stirs up the blood. And propels the stirred-up to the polls. But personal attacks also broaden and deepen the political divide, making it even harder – it’s already crazy hard due to the way our political system is structured – for the men and women sent to Washington to work together to find answers to our most urgent and difficult national concerns. Their stirred-up constituents will simply not permit it. I know using intemperate language is about ratings. I know it’s about gamesmanship. I know it’s about gaining the strategic upper hand any way you can. The thing is, beyond show business and the “down and dirty” of political combat, there’s something real going on here. Real people in this country need actual help. Real problems need thoughtfully considered solutions. Real injustices need to be reversed. And real changes need to be considered, so that government can do what it was meant to do creatively, productively, responsibly and efficiently. For these essential things to happen, the least helpful approach I can imagine is name-calling. My “facts based” team used to understand that. But apparently they’ve forgotten.	4,027	1,967	7,599.503813
warc	201704	The great debate about how badly polarised we are as a multiracial nation is still continuing and for all practical purposes many have come up with the idea of a Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua system which will ensure that our children will not be segregated when they are still young. Segregating our young from primary school is a sure fire way to ensure polarisation when they are adults, because people who grow up without knowing each others' culture and religion even the official language Bahasa Melayu are cursed to grow up feeling alien to each other. I like to quote from Dr. Farish Noor: " The fact that there remain Malaysians who are nominal citizens, who don’t even speak a word of the national language, is a glaring anomaly that would not be tolerated anywhere else. Even in countries like Australia, New Zealand or Canada, migrants are expected to learn the language of the nation in order to be part of it. And as the linguist’s joke goes: even if we hate and curse each other, let us curse each other in the same language at least! The problem for Malaysia, however, is that for a long time linguistic diversity has been elevated to the status of a near-sacred taboo that cannot be touched. To even question the need for vernacular education leads one to being accused of political incorrectness of the highest order. Conversely, there are also those who insist that the national language ought to be claimed as the language of one, and only one community, and referred to as Bahasa Melayu instead. But this denies the reality that it is the national language — Bahasa Malaysia — and ought to be claimed by all Malaysian citizens, regardless of their ethnic origins. Unless and until the policy-makers have the political will to impress upon the nation the fact that Bahasa Malaysia is the language of all Malaysians, and that we need to have one education system that accommodates, represents and includes all communities, we will remain a nation divided into linguistic ghettos of our own making. That path leads not to peace, but only mutual ignorance of each other; and the fact that we — as a nation — will sink or swim together, even if we cannot communicate with our neighbours next door." Source here. Many especially the Chinese from political parties to their NGOs has spoken up for vernacular schools even the Prime Minister has spoken but to me it will not help with Malaysia's unity if our young study in different schools and never meet each other until they are adults by which time it would be close to impossible to change the way we look at each other through racially prejudiced eyes. The sense of trust and common bonding will not be there if at all. Here is another article by a lawyer presumably due to its long winded write, but the article actually boils down to the core matter of defending the vernacular school for its supposedly higher quality education and treating the Sekolah Kebangsaan education with contempt with no statistics to prove that the vernacular schools are of better quality. Read:Vernacular education in Malaysia — Zhi Wei Lee (www.loyarburok.com) I have an alternate view of Zhi Wei Lee's essay though, I think his is a good challenge for the Kementerian Pelajaran to show that the Sekolah Kebangsaan are equal if not better than the vernacular schools. Good grades are not everything. It must be remembered however that unlike vernacular schools with its inherent biased emphasis on teaching/exam oriented subjects, the Sekolah Kebangsaan has come up with a balanced approach i.e emphasis on Studies plus Sports plus Co Curriculum, so that it will produce students who are more balanced and equipped to face the adult world and help in nation building. To make the Sekolah Kebangsaan more attractive to all Malaysians I believe it is best that the BN Gomen make another thorough review of the cancellation of the teaching of Maths and Science in English (PPSMI) and revert to what would be the final puzzle to Malaysia's holistic education need without of course compromising on the official position of our Bahasa Melayu. Gomen no need to worry about making a flip flop decision on the PPSMI as this is one flip flop which the majority rakyat will support. Once the Sekolah Kebangsaan position is strengthened by the PPSMI, the transition to a Satu Sekolah Untuk Semua system will be met with a lot less resistance. Thank You.	4,429	2,081	9,338.996636
warc	201704	International Macroeconomics The module introduces the fundamentals of international macroeconomics in particular as they impact on the business world. After a brief review of the basic economic aggregates and their measurement students are introduced to the main aggregative macroeconomic models in both the neoclassical and Keynesian traditions and then to the extension of these in a interdependent world economy. The fundamentals of monetary economics and banking are studied as a prelude to the discussion of the role of finance in the world economy, irrationality and asset price bubbles, financial cycles and financial crises. A review of the potential role for government policy in the world macroeconomic arena concludes the course. Geopolitics This course will examine the different facets of geopolitics by focusing on the major determinants of geography, power, history and structure of the international system, and culture. We will also answer a fundamental question about how nation-states use their geographical position and power to promote their national interests, expand their sphere of influence and ultimately achieve hegemony. One of our debates will concern the relevance of the nation-state in the context of globalization and the inevitable rise of stateless protagonists such as NGOs and terrorist groups.	1,338	671	2,656.059613
warc	201704	Umm al-Sahali: Life in a Fading Palestinian Village is currently going through a transitional phase whereby the English website is available for Archival purposes only. All new content will be published in Arabic on the main website (www.al-akhbar.com). Al-Akhbar Al-Akhbar Management By: Paul Karolyi Published Thursday, December 13, 2012 The Palestinian village of Umm al-Sahali is slowly being destroyed by the Israeli government. Home to 80 people living in 13 small houses, the residents of this village inside the green line are denied electricity and prevented from building new homes on their own land. This is in stark contrast to the Israeli towns nearby, which, even though they belong to the same municipality as Umm al-Sahali, are granted all the essentials. Each day, the Palestinian residents anticipate their uncertain futures. Every few months, a story appears in the back pages of Israeli newspapers about the demolition of a Palestinian’s home. This month, an entire unrecognized village is being threatened with destruction. Early in the 1950s, a Bedouin Arab named Atif Mohammad Sawaed (Abu Walid) bought a small parcel of land from the Shafa ‘Amr municipality. After 60 years, the Israeli government has decided that the village that grew on that land, Umm al-Sahali, has no right to exist. In the beginning, Abu Walid was hoping to simply build a home for his new wife and his family. The land he bought lies on a hilltop, no more than two kilometers south of Shafa ‘Amr in the Lower Galilee. It is a beautiful place. From the front steps of the home he built, you can see the shimmering blue waters of the Mediterranean, the urban sprawl of Haifa, and if you look north on a clear day, you can even see into Lebanon. As the Sawaed family grew, so too did Israel around them. In the early years of Israel’s existence, the government instituted a policy of “Judaization” in the Galilee. On the recommendation of David Ben Gurion, who famously said that traveling through the Galilee did not feel like traveling through Israel, the government seized thousands of acres of land to found three new urban centers for new Jewish immigrants. In addition to the cities, many new Jewish neighborhoods were founded. The purpose of the plan was to negate the perceived threats of a demographic imbalance to the Jewish nature of the state. Though the term “Judaization” has gone out of style, modern politicians still openly speak about defense against the “Arab Threat.” Palestinians living inside the green line have a difficult choice. There is too much poverty to move into affluent, Jewish neighborhoods, and there are too many people already living in Arab municipalities. The choice is between living in legal yet crowded homes, or breaking the law by building a home without a permit. In this time, 25,000 dunams (one dunam = ¼ acre) of land were expropriated from Shafa ‘Amr, an Arab municipality 25 kilometers east of Haifa. Initially, the confiscated land was designated for military use. After a reasonable enough period of “uncultivation,” it was developed for Jewish settlements. In the years since the initial seizure of land from Shafa ‘Amr, the population of that city has grown. In 1961 there were around 8,000 people living there. By 2009, that number had ballooned up to over 35,000. The Israeli government has not allocated enough land to Shafa ‘Amr to keep up with the growth of the population. In 1962, Shafa ‘Amr was 10,731 dunams, and in 2009, it is still only 19,766. For Abu Walid, the restrictions to Shafa ‘Amr’s expansion meant that Umm al-Sahali became isolated. It is also one of the many unrecognized villages in Israel. Two kilometers from Umm al-Sahali, the “Judaization” effort led to the establishment of a town named Adi. Adi was built in the 1970s on the land Israel expropriated from Shafa ‘Amr for military use. The Jewish residents of Adi built stables for their livestock, playgrounds for their children, and all the other expected features of a modern, affluent, residential space. Because it is a Jewish settlement, the land Adi was built on was put under the purview of the Emek Yisrael Regional Council rather than the Arab municipality of Shafa ‘Amr. The proximity of Umm al-Sahali to Adi means that the governmental administration of Abu Walid’s land fell to Emek Yisrael as well. __title__ The specifics of which municipality controls which neighborhoods are critical to what happens next in the story. Both Adi and Umm al-Sahali are situated within the borders of Emek Yisrael. But, the people living in Adi received citizenship services from Emek Yisrael while Abu Walid’s family hold identification cards listing them as residents of Shafa ‘Amr. They vote in Shafa ‘Amr. They send their children to schools in Shafa ‘Amr. They receive medical services in Shafa ‘Amr. Still, their land is in Emek Yisrael, so there are no bus lines to transport the children to school, there is no electricity in their homes, and there is no connection to a central plumbing system. The residents of Adi enjoy all these services. In fact, a power line was built through Umm al-Sahali leading from Adi to the central grid. It literally traverses Abu Walid’s land while ignoring his home. In 1994, the situation deteriorated for Abu Walid and his family. The Haifa district court decided that six of the houses in Umm al-Sahali needed to be destroyed. Without offering Abu Walid an opportunity to appeal the decision or to make a plea for his case, the government set in motion a plan to remove them from this hilltop. Abu Walid says he is not sure why they want to destroy the houses. At times he hypothesizes that the land is too strategic to pass up. “You build a tower here, you can see Haifa University, the Golan, and the mountains in Lebanon.” He vacillates between that opinion and an agricultural option, “maybe they want this land for farms or something.” Regardless of the murky reasoning, it took four years for the demolition orders to be acted on. In 1998 the notorious rumble of tread on dirt that has become so familiar to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza could be heard on the road leading up to the peaceful hilltop community of Umm al-Sahali. Something unexpected happened next. The community rallied behind Abu Walid’s family. And not just the Palestinians living in Shafa ‘Amr. Over the years, many Jews living in Adi had grown quite close with their neighbors in Umm al-Sahali. Personal relationships had been forged. So, when the bulldozers started knocking down buildings, the people came out in droves. What started as protests turned into riots when the police showed up. Hundreds of people were arrested and between 40 and 50 were injured in a crossfire of tear gas, rubber covered-steel bullets, and live ammunition. Though the protesters eventually stopped the demolitions, three homes were destroyed that day. The community had fully embraced the cause of Abu Walid’s family in opposition to their government. Not only did hundreds turn out to protest the demolitions, but they stuck around to help rebuild as well. All three homes that were destroyed that day have since been reconstructed. Since 1998, Abu Walid has been concerned less with national politics, and more concerned with finding suitable housing for his family. Despite his petitions to build more houses, the Emek Yisrael Regional Council refuses to permit any construction in Umm al-Sahali. “There are men, thirty years old, living in the houses they were born in,” Abu Walid said. “They cannot get married or start a family.” There are 80 people living in Umm al-Sahali today and they live in 13 small houses. (Photo: Paul Karolyi) Earlier this year, Abu Walid’s son, Sayid Sawaed got married. Out of desperation, he and his new bride built a small structure out of aluminum siding near his father’s home. They don’t even call it a house because it is not a permanent structure. They prefer a word that translates best as “shack.” The ironic thing about Sayid’s new home is that however shabby and dilapidated the outside appears, the interior is awash in modern luxuries. He has fitted out his new living space with leather furniture, numerous kitchen appliances, and even a flat screen TV. The problem is not the money. They clearly have the money to build proper homes. The government simply refuses to permit them. The flat screen TV may seem out of place in a rural village with no connection to the power grid, but Abu Walid and his family have figured out other ways to get electricity. At first they purchased large portable generators. Each home was outfitted with a generator and, though it was far from perfect, it was enough. Unfortunately, the city council of Adi had some complaints about the noise from the generators. The city council appealed to the Regional Council and the generators were quickly seized. Abu Walid told me all this on a tour of Umm al-Sahali. Pointing out a small building in the distance, he said, “Do you see that? That is a stable for horses. The people of Adi have electricity and air conditioning for their horses and we have nothing.” Walking through Umm al-Sahali today, there is clear evidence of ingenuity in the face of bureaucratic constraint. For each restriction the Israeli government institutes on Abu Walid’s land, he and his family find a way to make due. So when their generators were arbitrarily seized, the people of Umm al-Sahali outfitted each of their thirteen houses with a functioning solar panel. They have struggled for fifty years to find these types of creative ways to get around the intrusions of the government. After the most recent developments; however, the days of resilient workarounds may be over. Following the construction of Sayid’s makeshift “shack”, the Haifa District Court once again ordered the demolition of houses in Umm al-Sahali. Abu Walid and his brother went to the Emek Yisrael Regional Council to appeal the decision. They had several meetings with various officials, but the governor general had the final word. He said that Abu Walid was allowed six houses, no more, and he condemned the other seven houses to demolition. My visit to Umm al-Sahali coincided with the officially given date for the first demolition. Starting Tuesday, 14 November 2012, Sayid and his wife live in fear of waking up to bulldozers with orders to destroy their home. They don’t know when it’s going to happen, be it a week, a month, or even a year; but they know it’s coming. The outlook is bleak, and it’s even worse than it seems. The thing is, Abu Walid knows the solution to this whole crisis. He thinks that Umm al-Sahali should be absorbed by the Shafa ‘Amr municipality. With roads leading into town, bus routes near his home, and power lines, Abu Walid could finally get his kids to school on time and keep some lights on at night for them to do coursework. The Shafa ‘Amr municipality is on record approving this plan and the Arab High Follow-Up Committee supports it as well. Unfortunately, the Israeli government will never accede to this proposal. It would mean expanding the borders of Shafa ‘Amr and allowing for growth in an Arab municipality. In its refusal to make this prudent zoning change, Israel displays the policy that maintaining a favorable demographic balance is higher on the list of state priorities than protecting and preserving the welfare of its citizens. Abu Walid described how it felt to have his proposal stifled. He said “I just want freedom on my land. I don’t care how it happens. This is an occupation and it should be settled.” The human rights of 80 people are being stomped on because the Israeli government refuses to allow for an expansion of the Shafa ‘Amr municipality. In 64 years of its existence, Israel has never stopped treating the indigenous Palestinian Arab minority as enemies. This bureaucratic quagmire in Umm al-Sahali is “Judaization” in another form, just a new way of countering the perceived “Arab Threat.” With these terms in mind, it’s no surprise that Abu Walid insisted, “Umm al-Sahali is like Gaza...We are living under siege.”	12,503	5,400	28,046.081296
warc	201704	WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell for the third consecutive week last week as the superstorm Sandy effect waned, the Labor Department said Thursday. The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits was 370,000 in the week ending Dec. 1, down 25,000 from the previous week's revised figure. However, the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility, still increased to 408,000, remaining above 375,000, considered the threshold for sustained job growth. Applications have mostly stayed near that level since spring, a level consistent with modest job growth. The advance figure for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Nov. 24 was 3.205 million, a decrease of 100,000 from the prior week. Jobless claims data were elevated for the past month by superstorm Sandy which swept the East Coast from North Carolina to Maine in late October. The Labor Department said the storm had little effect on the latest data. Although the storm-ravaged region has continued to recover, the global slowdown and looming U.S. fiscal tightening weighed on private hiring. To boost the anemic economic growth and labor market, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced in September that it would expand its holdings of mortgage debt until the labor market improved significantly.	1,397	783	2,479.987229
warc	201704	Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. (2011) Blessing or curse?: appreciation, amenities and resistance to urban renewal. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 41 (1). pp. 32-45. ISSN 0166-0462 Abstract This article investigates the 2008 referendum held in opposition against the “Mediaspree”, a major urban development project in Berlin that has been perceived as a threat of displacement of local residents and culture. Using precinct level data we find a high degree of localized resistance around the project area, conditional on socio-demographic characteristics. Comparison to local appreciation rates shows that in an environment of very low owner occupancy public (re)development projects are opposed the more residents associate them to an increase in area valuation. This effect is, however, not strong enough to explain the localized resistance. Considering a micro-level data set on music nodes, our results suggest that this effect is instead attributable to a feared loss of specific cultural amenities and neighborhood character. Item Type: Article Official URL: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescriptio... Additional Information: © 2010 Elsevier BV Library of Congress subject classification: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor Sets: Departments > Geography and Environment Collections > Economists Online Date Deposited: 10 Aug 2010 08:45 URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28843/ Actions (login required) Record administration - authorised staff only	1,536	899	2,581.641824
warc	201704	McDoom, Omar (2011) The psychology of security threats in ethnic warfare: evidence from Rwanda's genocide. PSPE working papers, 5, 2011. The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. Abstract This article addresses the role of threat in explanations of ethnic and other inter-group conflict and examines two issues in particular. First, it explains how security threats work by providing micro-level evidence of the psychological causal mechanisms behind them. Second, it contributes to two longstanding meta-theoretical debates in security studies on the causes of ethnic warfare. It asks how important are emotions – such as fear, resentment, and hostility - compared first with structural and materialist factors in explanations of ethnic conflict, and compared second with rationalist approaches. On the first issue, the article identifies four psycho-social mechanisms at work when an ethnic in-group faces a security threat: boundary activation, out-group derogation, out-group homogenization; and in-group cohesion. I show that the greater the threat, the stronger each of these psychological effects. Addressing the two meta-theoretical debates, the article suggests they present a false theoretical choice. Both emotions and material opportunities matter in ethnic conflict, and emotion and rationality are not opposing alternatives. I propose then two simple but fundamental precepts to refine existing theories. First, I distinguish between support for violence - which I term ethnic mobilization – and participation in violence - which I term ethnic violence. Emotions matter for mobilization, but material opportunities matter more for violence. Second, I apply an axiom in social psychology - that emotion and reason interact in numerous ways in individual judgement and decision-making - and illustrate these psychological mechanisms using micro-data. The article draws inter-regional and inter-temporal comparisons from within the case of Rwanda’s civil war (1990-94). The war culminated in a genocide that involved one of the most rapid and deadly mobilizations of a civilian population in world history. It uses a combination of survey data of ordinary Rwandans, content analysis of national radio broadcasts, and micro-case studies of four Rwandan communities. Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper) Official URL: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroup... Additional Information: © 2011 The Author Library of Congress subject classification: D History General and Old World > DT Africa H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology U Military Science > U Military Science (General) Sets: Departments > Government Identification Number: 5, 2011 Date Deposited: 19 May 2011 13:48 URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/36295/ Actions (login required) Record administration - authorised staff only	2,897	1,447	5,741.946095
warc	201704	The end of March and the first part of April have certainly been the "lion" as opposed to the "lamb" when it comes to weather. Those few, and I mean FEW, days of warm temperatures, rain and wind opened the lakes much earlier than last year. If that wouldn't have happened, I bet we would still have ice-covered lakes. That's the good news! However, Mother Nature did send us a few of her quirks, like jamming huge chunks of ice in several spots along the shores of Big Spirit. That put dock building and hoist setting on hold for a while. Plus, West Okoboji just wouldn't quite open up. It wasn't until Friday that the lake was finally free of all the ice. The other lakes in the chain and Center Lake had lots of dock and hoist work going on by the end of March. Of course, we had our brush with a big blizzard that just didn't quite come together here. As I travel around the lakes, it's good to see water running into Big Spirit and some water going over the spillway into East Okoboji. It's always good to see the lakes full in the spring, because we know what summer can bring. The DNR's walleye gill netting should get going earlier than last year's April 16 date. Plans are for the netting to maybe begin this week if we can get water temperatures to rise. Once netting begins, it will last between 1-2 weeks. During the seining operation, the Fish Hatchery will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The public is invited to visit the hatchery during those hours and take a self-guided tour of the spawning operation. For groups that might want a guided tour, contact Wendy Sander at 712-336-1840. With the early ice-out, we're all looking forward to The Annual Great Walleye Weekend scheduled for May 2 and 3. The walleye opener is part of a two-day fishing tournament that benefits Easter Seals that last year raised over $17,000 with proceeds supporting Easter Seals programs for residents in Dickinson County and the surrounding area who have a disability. The action officially begins at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, May 2, and concludes with an awards ceremony and barbecue on Sunday, May 3 at the Dickinson County Expo Building. The big prize of $10,000 goes to the individual who catches one of the six specially tagged walleyes released in the area lakes just prior to the event. However, if more than one tagged walleye is taken, the $10,000 is equally divided. Additionally, 18 other tagged fish are released, each with cash or merchandise awards assigned to them if caught. Anglers who catch a tagged fish can report to any Lakes Area bait shop for confirmation. So, what will the fishing be like? According to DNR fisheries biologist Mike Hawkins, Big Spirit continues to have a strong year class of 15-20 inch fish coming through the system with many of them now recruited into the slot limit. With the slot limit in place on the entire Iowa Great Lakes chain, there is no minimum length limit and anglers are now able to keep walleyes below that 17-inch slot. Any walleyes taken between 17-22 inches must be immediately released with only one walleye over 22 inches per day. Spirit Lake, of course, seems to be the popular walleye lake and will most likely see the most angling pressure. The numbers are good and the baitfish, especially the spottail shiners, are in excellent shape. At the same time, the 2007-year class is potentially the next big year class. Now in that 10-12 inch length, these will be the most aggressive biters. According to Hawkins, it usually takes four years for a year class to reach that 14-inch length that used to be the minimum length limit. Now, these fish can be kept with the idea that this will help recruit the year class grow more quickly. According to Hawkins, the broodstock is good on East Okoboji. One of the interesting data pieces collected by the DNR is that many of the broodstock collected for spawning actually migrates from West Okoboji to the warmer waters in the rest of the chain. Hawkins also noted that East Okoboji and West Okoboji also have a good 2007-year class coming. Typically, the May fishing on East Okoboji deals with a lot of small fish. The West Okoboji walleye population is good but, of course, catching walleyes during the day on West Okoboji is always tough because of its water clarity. In recent years, the DNR has stocked West Okoboji with a significant number of 8-10 inch fish. This should mean we will see these fish recruited to catchable size sooner. So, things look good. Now we just need some help from Mother Nature to get the water temperature up and the fish to be ready for opener as much as the anglers will be! If you are looking for a little fishing information, check with local bait shops such as Oh Shucks Bait and Tackle on the southwest side of West Okoboji, Stan's Bait and Tackle at the north edge of Milford, Fisherman's Factory Outlet, Kabele's Trading Post and Pioneer Beach Resort all in the town of Spirit Lake.	4,962	2,378	10,303.76619
warc	201704	Janganan, Thamarai kannan (2008) The regulation of the cAMP signalling pathway in the human pathogenic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. Masters thesis, Durham University. PDF 10Mb Abstract Paracoccidioides brasiliensis (Pb) is the causative agent of the disease Paracoccioidomycosis (PCM), which is one of the most prevalent systemic mycoses in Latin Amercia (Borges-Walmsley et al., 2002). P. brasiliensis is a thermally dimorphic fungus which undergoes morphological changes from a mycelial form at 26 C (environment) to a pathogenic yeast form at 37 C (human body) after inhalation of spores/conidia into the lungs of a human host (Nemecek et al., 2006). The cAMP pathway controls this morphological transformation in several fungi (Borges-Walmsley and Walmsley, 2000; Kronstad et al., 1998). G proteins are guanine-nucleotide (GDP or GTP) binding proteins that are generally associated with the cytoplasmic side of the plasma membrane. They receive signals from G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). Adenylyl cyclase acts downstream of these G proteins. Ga subunits are required to regulate the activity of adenylyl cyclase (AC), which controls the level of cellular cAMP (Ivey and Hoffman, 2005). Protein Kinase A (PKA), which is activated by cAMP, is required for morphogenesis and virulence (Durrenberger et al., 1998; Sonnebom et al., 2000). The cAMP pathway in P. brasiliensis is poorly understood. However, recently the genes encoding a number of the components of the cAMP pathway have been cloned in our lab: these include the genes encoding three Ga proteins, Gpal-3, a Go protein, Gpb1; a Gy protein, Gpg1; Ras; adenylyl cyclase, Cyr1; and the catalytic subunit of PKA, Tpk2. Two-hybrid analyses confirmed that Gpa1 and Gpg1 interact with Gpb1. These data indicate the formation of a Gaβy trimer complex. A GST pull-down assay confirmed that Gpa1 and Gpb1 interacted with the N-teminus of adenylyl cyclase. Our hypothesis is that Gpa1 and Gpb1 modulate the activity of the AC/Tpk2 signalling pathway. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found changes in intracellular cAMP levels during the mycelium to yeast transformation that correlated with changing transcript levels of the signalling genes (Chen et al., 2007). We have established that Tpk2 interacts with the N-terminus of adenylyl cyclase, the G protein β subunit Gpb1 and with the co-repressor Tup1 by both two-hybrid and GST pull down analyses. This suggests that Tpk2 activity is required for feedback regulation of adenylyl cyclase to reduce cAMP levels. P. brasiliensis Tpk2-C-terminal 226-583-GFP and Tpk2 full length (FL) complemented the growth defect of a S. cerevisiae tpk2 temperature sensitive mutant strain SGY446 and induced the formation of pseudohyphue in the S. cerevisiae tpk2 mutant diploid strain XPY5a/a. Tpk2 C-tenninus has been over expressed in E. coli and in vitro PKA activity was measured. On the other hand we have also analysed the second catalytic subunit Tpk1, which failed to induce pseudohyphae in S. cerevisiae tpk1 inutant strain and is localised to the cytoplasm. Interestingly, the Pb Gβ subunit Gpb1 inhibited the development of pseudohyphae in TPK2 FL transformed yeast cells. Tpk2 C-terminus and Tpk2 FL co-transformed with Gpb-GFP were localized in the nucleus. Our hypothesis is that Gpb1 down regulates the activity of Tpk2, because Gpb1 binds to the catalytic C-terminal domain of Tpk2. Item Type: Thesis (Masters) Award: Master of Science Thesis Date: 2008 Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author Deposited On: 08 Sep 2011 18:26	3,589	1,712	7,475.685748
warc	201704	The genus Clematis belongs to the family Ranunculaceae , which also includes anemones , aquilegias , delphiniums , hellebores , ranunculus , trollius and pulsatillas among others. The Clematis is my favorite flowering plant, I have a number of them that have survived my lack of a green thumb for over 15 years. I still have the first Clematis I every purchased; it is growing in an oak barrel and still produces an abundant mass of beautiful purple flowers every year. The majority of clematis are climbers. Exceptions are the species , C. heracleifolia , C. integrifolia , and C. x aromatica which are herbaceous. C. recta History: The earliest known species , (Hedge-vine) was described by William Turner in 1548, in C. vitalba The Names of Herbes. John Gerald called it the "Traveler's Joy", in the 16 th century. It was know as "Gypsy's bacca" since some people cut and dried the stems to smoke them; and as the "Old Man's Beard" referring to its fluffy seeds. The first well known species was introduced to Brittan from Spain about 1569. Soon after the species Clematis viticella , C. integrifolia , C. cirrhosa and C. flammula were discovered in Europe. The first North American species C. recta was discovered in 1726, followed by C. crispa in 1730, then C. viorna was introduced from Asia in 1731. C. orientalis Hybridization was introduced in the second half of the 18 th century, with the Chinese species used to create many large flowered hybrids. C. florida By the 19 th century dozens of new species became available, and hybridization became increasingly important. The earliest known hybrid, , was introduced by A. Henderson of the Pineapple Nursery in 1835, it is a cross of C. x hendersonii and C. viticella . After the introduction of this hybrid many nurseries began intensive programs of hybridization. Currently thousands of hybrids and cultivars are available. C. intergrifolia Light Exposure: In most areas Clematis need about 5-6 hours of bright light per day, in hot tropical regions plant in bright shade rather than direct sun. Planting: In heavy clay soils dig a hole 24" by 24" for the roots, use only the best topsoil and amend with compost and a small amount of time-release fertilizer. In light or sandy soils make the hole 18" by 18". Plant the rootball 3" to 5" below the surface. Mulching: Place a 3" to 4" layer of peat moss or compost over the roots. But keep it 8" away from the stem to avoid rot. Feeding: When the Clematis buds are about 2 inches long, begin feeding them with about 2 tablespoons of a good fertilizer per plant every 4-6 weeks. Continue this until the beginning of October. Watering: Always water thoroughly and deeply during the hot summer months, cut back when the Clematis goes dormant. Sources: Clematis a Care Manual by Mary Toomey http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/angio/www/ranuncul.htm http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:M07Eih2Nw98C:www.roselandhouse.co.uk/viticella1.htm+Clematis+Henderson+hybrid&hl=en http://www.suncrestnurseries.com/descript/clematis.html http://www.homeofclematis.com/ http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/clematis/ http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/	3,194	1,666	6,006.483794
warc	201704	You were worried about acid rain? Short for "Lava Haze", is a mist produced when molten lava flows into the sea, such as Kilauea's ongoing lava flow into the Pacific Ocean off the east coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i. But it's not a mist you would want to run your boat through, as it is composed primarily of hydrochloric acid. laze Laze is produced by chemical reactions in seawater vaporized by the lava's heat. Steam (H 2O) at 1200° F reacts with the chloride salts normally found in seawater (such as NaCl, CaCl 2, and MgCl 2), producing HCl and metal oxides. HCl mixed with residual steam escapes into the air and cools, forming a corrosive mist. The HCl can become more concentrated (10-15 ppm) than your own stomach acid, with a pH of 1.5-2. So if you're visiting the site of an active volcano and you see what looks like fog, stay clear. Another hazard of boiling water is its reduced buoyancy, so make sure your tour boat operator stays clear.	970	605	1,532.760331
warc	201704	“Because everything can be reduced to an infographic!” —Guy Kawasaki When it comes to infographic resumes, the critics haven’t entirely weighed in yet. Commenters on posts predicting infographics as the resumes of the future point out the difficulty of reading some infographics. Not to mention the fact that certain industries, like accounting and business, may not appreciate the creativity preferring the straight up, cut-to-the-chase resume. So, what are the latest thoughts on the infographic resume, and how can you adapt them to your needs? Here I’ll review the evolution of resume to infographic and suggest some creative ways to put the current resume infographic to work for you. The Resume in Review, Infographic or Otherwise Websites offering career tips and advice about resumes far and wide have pounced on the “History of the Resume” chronology, compiled by Todd Lempicke on Optimal Resume, as the best condensed history of the resume . Lempicke attributes the first recorded resume to Leonardo da Vinci. Marc Cendella (of TheLadders.com) actually provides us with a picture of the original document and a translation. Highlights of da Vinci’s personal summary include his ability to build bridges and fighting machines in times of war and sculpture in times of peace. Da Vinci definitely marketed himself well in his self-introductory letter to the Duke of Milan. Letters of introduction, like da Vinci’s, then morphed into the more formal and somewhat less personal resume we know today, which became standardized in the 1950s. From that point on technology began offering more options for personal marketing: VHS portfolios, resume transmission by fax machine, email, YouTube videos, and the infographic. The infographic resume really garnered attention, however, when Christopher J. Spurlock’s version was posted on the HuffPost College blog and went viral. Spurlock wanted to work with journalism visualization and soon after his infographic went viral he was was offered a job at the Huffington Post as an infographics design editor (he started in May 2011, according to his current infographic resume). You Are Here: The Resume Infographic Now Most recently, the launch of the resume-infographic generator vizualize.me has brought this resume format once again front and center. The hook here is that we, as users, can participate. Give visualize.me permission to access your LinkedIn account and it will arrange that info into a brightly colored graphic rendition of your previously text-only profile (don’t worry, you can calm those colors down a little). Another, though lesser known, resume-infographic generator is re.vu, also recently launched. Re.vu has the added benefit of an analytics generator that tracks data, like the number of hits your infographic receives and the amount of time visitors spend looking at it. Both of these sites offer visually attractive depictions of your life history—you may even see yourself in a different way then you have before. Other options for creating your resume infographic aren’t quite so easy: put your Illustrator and Photoshop skills to work or hire a graphic designer. But the real question about resume infographics is where can they take us? Putting That Data Visualization to Work for You On the crest of Chris Spurlock’s infographic wave, Elana Zak, for mediabistro.com, listed three reasons why you should consider an infographic resume: “1) It demonstrates you “get” multimedia, 2) It shows you’re more than just a writer, 3) It illustrates your creativity.” Though some recruiters and interviewers may not consider you serious if you offer up an infographic resume, posting one alongside your LinkedIn or Google+ profile certainly can’t hurt you. It may draw others to your profile, extending your networking reach. As re.vu says on its website: “Don’t send a resume. Share your story.” Perhaps greater words were never spoken, at least in the marketing industry! Stretch that Resume Infographic Idea a Little Further There are other ways to apply the concept of the infographic resume. What if you work for a fresh start-up eager to establish their reputation? Consider an infographic—a business-history infographic. Posting this visual description of your business history on your about us page is far more likely to attract attention than a few paragraphs of dry copywriting. Are you also presenting bios of your founders? How about bio-infographics? Those are sure to highlight the experience they possess and their skill set. A well designed infographic does have the potential to go viral. Finally, consider your client pitch. Could you incorporate some data visualization? Perhaps of the audience you and/or your client are targeting? So, between the continuing popularity of eye-catching infographics and the visual/viral nature of the web, the resume infographic has many applications, all of which can be taken into the future. Though they may have to accompany some traditional resumes rather than replace them, the resume infographic is a trend that foreshadows the future because one thing is certain: the way we consume data is changing, fast.	5,277	2,536	10,693.416009
warc	201704	By Gordon Gray, Director of Fiscal Policy at the American Action Forum It has been asserted as fact that the negotiations that produced the 2011 “What happened in 2011 is that Republicans in Congress demanded – said they would let America default for the first time in its history if they did not get the items on their agenda. That was consequential and it was unprecedented, and the result was bad for everyone.” -- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Budget Control Act, which increased the debt limit in exchange for spending reduction, were unique. This assertion has been deployed by the administration to paint Republicans as irresponsible and to advance an argument that Congress should cede its authority over the debt limit. But history has shown that debt limit debates produce a legislative rarity – bipartisan deficit reduction. A review of past debt limit increases suggests that the August 2011 debate was neither unprecedented nor irresponsible, but rather it shared key characteristics with the debt limit debate of the mid-1990s. This debate equaled, if not exceeded the rancor and stretched the technical capacity of the Treasury’s ability to avoid default. Of note, it also preceded a period of fiscal surplus that saw a $450 billion increase in borrowing authority suffice without increase for 59 months. A Legislative History of Debt Limit Increases The Debt Limit In Context There are several unique aspects of this legislative experience. The first of which is the April 6, 1993 temporary increase in the limit, which would have seen the Treasury’s borrowing authority snap back to $4,145 billion after September 30th of that year. It is unclear how such a reversion would have been resolved if it had been allowed to transpire, but such an eventuality certainly would have threatened potential default on tranches of debt coming due after September 30th. The April 6th measure is the last time the United States enacted a temporary increase in Treasury’s overall borrowing authority. Another key feature, and one also not seen since, is the pair of temporary exemptions in borrowing needed to liquidate Social Security obligations. These measures reflect the degree to which the United States had reached its technical borrowing limit. If these measures had not been put in place the United States could have missed the timely payment of Social Security benefits or risked default on other elements of Treasury’s debt portfolio. During this same period, the Secretary of the Treasury exercised extraordinary powers to operate under the debt ceiling without breach. Outside observers were also noted the great uncertainty that attached to this episode of executive-legislative tug of war. Both Fitch and Moody’s placed certain tranches of Treasury debt on review for downgrade – a significant precedent at the time. The adversarial dynamic that existed between the Republican Congress and the Clinton administration at the time equaled or perhaps exceeded the degree of hostility that currently prevails. In addition to the two well-known government shutdowns, President Clinton vetoed 10 bills sent by the Congress, including a debt limit bill. Several distinctions emerged from the resolution of the debt-limit confrontation of the mid to late 1990s that should inform any assessment of current and looming debt limit negotiations. These debates are messy, but should serve as rare catalysts for policymakers to acknowledge minority views and establish a framework for the difficult task of deficit reduction. The 2011 debate reflects these characteristics. President Obama had super-majorities in both chambers of Congress for two years of his presidency. But once that partisan advantage was gone in 2011, he could not expect to sign into law a clean debt-limit increase passed along near pure party lines (George Voinovich and Evan Bayh essentially swapped votes) as he did after the Congress increased the debt limit on Christmas Eve in 2009. Rather, the debt limit debate of 2011 required the president to acknowledge the opposition party – and the debt crisis – in a way that he had not since taking office. The result, while certainly produced through an imperfect process, was the first meaningful deficit reduction discussion of the Obama presidency. Gordon Gray currently serves as the Director of Fiscal Policy at the American Action Forum (AAF). Prior to joining AAF, Gray served as senior policy advisor to Senator Rob Portman and as policy director on the Senator's campaign. Gray has also worked for the Senate Budget Committee as professional staff and before that was deputy director of domestic and economic policy for Senator John McCain's presidential campaign. Gray also spent several years with the American Enterprise Institute. Politics & Government Debt American Action Forum Congress	4,911	2,271	10,462.095112
warc	201704	The United States Department of the Treasury provides one of the largest and safest ready markets for debt securities in the world. Both institutions and individual investors can purchase U.S. government debt securities, such as Treasury bonds, through the TreasuryDirect.gov website. Treasury bonds offer investors a number of benefits, including the safety of being backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. They also come with some built-in tax advantages. Treasury Bonds U.S. Treasury bonds are sold in increments of $100 with a $100 minimum purchase. Technically, a Treasury bond is a U.S. government debt security with a maturity of at least 10 years, but as of 2012 all newly-issued Treasury bonds had 30-year maturities. Treasury bonds pay a stated fixed rate of interest every six months and can be redeemed for their face value upon maturity. There is an active secondary market for government securities, allowing investors to buy and sell previously issued Treasury bonds. Interest Income The interest paid by U.S. Treasury bonds is exempt from income taxation at the state and local level, but is fully taxable on your federal income tax return. The Department of the Treasury will provide you with a Form 1099-INT detailing the amount of interest you were paid on your Treasury securities that you can use when you file your federal tax return. Capital Gains The price of bonds in the secondary market is heavily influence by prevailing interest rates. If current interest rates rise, the market price of bonds tends to fall. If interest rates decrease, the market price of bonds tends to rise. The reason is obvious: Why would you pay $1,000 for a Treasury bond paying 2 percent interest in the secondary market when you can buy a new-issue $1,000 Treasury bond paying 2.5 percent interest? If you sell a Treasury bond in the secondary market for more than you paid for it, you will have a taxable capital gain. Considerations The government's TreasuryDirect program will automatically withhold up to 50 percent of your interest payments for income tax purposes if you so desire. You can designate the percentage that you want withheld. U.S. government securities, including Treasury bonds, are considered to be one of the safest of all investments. Both the principal and interest on these bonds is guaranteed if held to maturity, but your investment is not protected against market risks. You can lose money if you sell your Treasury bond prior to maturity. Photo Credits savings bonds image by Stephen VanHorn from Fotolia.com	2,573	1,154	5,712.327556
warc	201704	New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that 77 percent of the U.S. population has adequate access to exercise opportunities. According to the study, the top 10 percent of counties had accessibility levels of 85 percent or greater. Statewide access varied from 46 percent in Mississippi to 91 percent in Maryland, with 100 percent of District of Columbia residents having access. Greater access to exercise opportunities occurred in northeastern and western states compared with southwestern and southeastern states. Continued at MedicalNewsToday>>	572	345	945.043478
warc	201704	The Food and Drug Administration on May 4 issued a advisory to warn drugmakers, suppliers and health professionals that a counterfeit additive may be illegally used to replace or contaminate more expensive glycerin, a sweet syrup used in over-the-counter medicine like cough medications, fever medication and injectable drugs. The FDA suggests, but not requires that drug manufacturers test glycerin for possible contamination of diethylene glycol or DEG, a known poison that is used in antifreeze and as a solvent. No evidence indicates that glycerin used in the US has been tainted with the poisonous industrial solvent, the FDA says. But caution needs to be excised to ensure glycerin used in the country is free of DEG. The warning was issued as cases of death associated with use of tainted glycerin have been reported to the FDA since last October. Panama has recently confirmed 100 deaths from the DEG contamination and another 200 are waiting to be confirmed. Today, the New York Times reported in a lengthy article that the DEG responsible for the deaths in Panama probably originated from some Chinese suppliers. Although it can't be 100 percent certain, the newspaper found that some chemical traders often sell industrial grade DEG as 95.5 percent pure glycerin to make a ludicrous profit. Inhalation of diethylene glycol can cause cough and dizziness and contact with it can lead to redness on the skin and the eyes. Ingestion of the poison causes abdominal pain; confusion; dizziness; downiness; nausea; unconsciousness; and vomiting. In serious cases, it can cause kidney failure and nervous damage or even deaths. In Haiti, 85 children died in 1996 through glycerin contaminated with DEG in paracetamol syrup produced by Pharval Laboratories, a Haitian company, which did not verify the authenticity of the glycerin supplied by a Dutch company, Vos from a manufacturer in China, according to Wikipedia. In October 20006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ministry of health of Panama found toxic levels of diethylene glycol in a sugarless liquid expectorant during an investigation of 46 deaths from a syndrome characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms, renal failure and paralysis. Between 1990 and 1998, according to the FDA, similar incidents of DEG poisoning reportedly occurred in Argentina, Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria and resulted in hundreds of deaths. In the US, the FDA says, more than 100 people died in 1937 after ingesting DEG-contaminated Elixir Sulfanilamide, a drug used to treat infections, which triggered the enactment of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. However, no death in the country has been linked to DEG contamination in any medicine. The FDA says that it "is emphasizing the importance of testing glycerin for DEG due to the serious nature of this potentially fatal problem in combination with the global nature of the pharmaceutical supply chain and problems that continue to occur with this kind of contamination in some parts of the global supply of glycerin." The FDA recommends that: 1. Drug product manufacturers perform a specific identity test that includes a limit test for DEG on all containers of all lots of glycerin before the glycerin is used in the manufacture or preparation of drug products because of the serious hazard associated with DEG contamination.3. The relevant safety limit for DEG is 0.1%, as recognized by the USP monograph for glycerin. The Agency recommends that a manufacturer perform the identity tests, including the limit test for DEG, which appear in the USP monograph for glycerin. Alternatively, a manufacturer may use an equivalent identification procedure that includes a test to detect and quantify DEG provided it meets the relevant safety limit. One alternative procedure is a thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method published in the Journal of AOAC International. 4. This identification test is done in accordance with the CGMPs, which require that each lot of a component undergo testing to confirm its identity before use in drug product manufacturing (21 CFR 211.84(d)(1) requires that “[a]t least one test shall be conducted to verify the identity of each component of a drug product. Specific identity tests, if they exist, shall be used”). A specific identity test for glycerin is found in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) monograph. 5. The USP monograph for glycerin provides a two-part identity test: test A using “Infrared Absorption” and test B using gas chromatography that references the “Limit of Diethylene Glycol and Related Compounds.” The infrared absorption test identifies glycerin and DEG, but does not distinguish between the two. Test B distinguishes glycerin from DEG. 6. 2. Drug product manufacturers know their supply chain for glycerin (i.e., the manufacturer of the component and any subsequent distributor(s)). 3. All manufacturers take every opportunity to ensure proper testing of glycerin for DEG contamination. All personnel in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities (especially personnel directly responsible for receipt, testing, and release of glycerin) should be made aware of the importance of proper testing and the potential hazards if the testing is not done. 4. Repackers, and others who distribute and prepare glycerin for use in drug products, test glycerin that is used, sold for use, or intended for use in drug products. 5. Pharmacies that use glycerin in compounding drug products either test the glycerin for DEG content or ensure that such testing was properly done by a reliable supplier. Bulk or repackaged glycerin intended as an excipient or other component of a drug product is a drug as defined by section 201(g)(1) the Act (21 U.S.C. 321(g)(1)). Section 501(a)(2)(B) of the Act (21 U.S.C. 351(a)(2)(B)) requires that the methods used in, or the facilities or controls used for a drug’s manufacture, processing, packing, or holding conform to CGMP. Testing bulk or repackaged glycerin for DEG content is consistent with good manufacturing practice required under the Act. For other components, such as propylene glycol, that in the past were found to be contaminated with DEG, precautions should also be taken to identify reliable suppliers and secure shipment to prevent similar occurrences. 7.	6,333	2,868	13,856.197699
warc	201704	McCown’s Longspur Calcarius mccowni This story is featured in Montana Outdoors July–August 2006 All prairie and plains birds have evolved unique ways of projecting their songs in the windy, open environment. But McCown’s longspurs have a particularly stylish and captivating way of delivering their distinctive territorial tune. Rising from the open, dry prairie, the male pushes himself high into the sky with deep strokes of his long wings. Reaching the zenith, he pitches his wings back, locks them straight out, and begins to sing see see see me see me hear me hear me see. Floating downward through the wind like a feathered parachute, he continues singing until reaching the ground, when he heads back into the sky to begin the territorial display all over again. Appearance Male McCown’s longspurs are light gray with a white face, black cap, and black “mustache.” They have a wide black band across the breast set off with a chestnut shoulder patch. In shades of brown, the female is a paler version of the male. The tail of both sexes is white, with a “T” formed by a black central tail feather and the black tips of the outer tail feathers. Reproduction The males arrive in Montana in late April from the high plains of the American Southwest and begin setting up territories. When females arrive a short time later, courtship begins. On the ground, the male prances in a circle around the female, occasionally raising his wings straight into the air to flash the white lining, all the while pouring forth an ecstatic song. After the female chooses her mate, she builds a grass nest in a small depression in the ground. Usually around mid-May, she lays three or four white eggs with heavy brown or purplish brown markings. She incubates the eggs for 12 days, and the nestlings leave the nest 10 days after hatching. McCown’s longspurs primarily eat grasshoppers during the summer and feed on grass and weed seeds during the winter. Habitat McCown’s longspurs are birds of grasslands with very little grass. Historically, this type of mostly barren grassland was found in patches throughout the North American interior. Certain types of soils, heavy grazing by bison and locusts, periodic wildfire, and severe drought combined to create patches of short sparse grass. As bison were killed, locusts reduced, and fires tamed, most of the prairie bald spots disappeared, and with them most McCown’s longspurs. However, because occasional droughts continue and the special soils remain, the birds still have remnant breeding habitat in open prairie characterized by buttes, gumbo, short grasses, and prickly pear cacti. Range McCown’s longspurs historically bred throughout the prairies of the northern Great Plains, from Minnesota west to the Rocky Mountain Front, north into prairie Canada, and south to Wyoming and Oklahoma. Due primarily to the conversion of prairies to agricultural fields, the species is no longer found in Minnesota, Manitoba, or Oklahoma, and distribution is limited in the western Dakotas. Montana appears to be the species’ remaining stronghold. McCown’s longspurs are found throughout the state’s eastern half, in appropriate habitat, as well as in high, sparse grasslands in mountain valleys of Montana’s southwestern region. Management McCown’s longspurs are a species of concern in Montana and are on the national watch list of species that have the potential to become federally listed as threatened. Converting native prairie to cropland can reduce McCown’s longspur populations. The transcontinental Partners in Flight bird management plan recommends that the best way to conserve McCown’s longspurs is to preserve native shortgrass prairie, especially in areas of sparsely vegetated hills. [ BACK TO TOP ]	3,857	1,835	7,871.643052
warc	201704	It must suck to be a wealth advisor in "North America's Siberia," home to two of the country's ten poorest counties. Unless you find a way to woo the 1 percent of the 1 percent away from Pacific Heights and the Upper East Side. A branch of Chicago's Pritzker family rents space here, down the hall from the Minnesota clan that controls the Radisson hotel chain, and other rooms held by Miami and Hong Kong money. Don't look for any heiresses in this former five-and-dime. Most days, the small offices that represent these families are shut. Even empty, they provide their owners with an important asset: a South Dakota address for their trust funds. As Bloomberg's Zachary Mider reports, you don't even need to splurge on a stately prairie lodge to secure a legacy for your heirs—you just need a P.O. box in this largely unseen mole in the small of America's back. Most of America's huge financial families have done just that: Businesses in McDowell's building alone manage $89 billion worth of trusts, all told—for owners of TGI Friday's and Hyatt hotels, executives from Monster Beverage Co., and the Wrigley family, among others. How'd this happen? You see, under the "ancient...Anglo-American" rules of primogeniture, dating back to an English court ruling in 1681, a wealthy noble could shelter some dough in a trust for his heirs, but only for the lifespan of his heirs, plus 21 years. Screw that socialist overregulation, said America's frontier jurists! South Dakota repealed that rule in 1983, and unlike Idaho and Wisconsin — the other two states without the provision — it had no income tax. So, McDowell wrote, a trust set up here could shield a big fortune from taxes for centuries, escaping tax bills as it hands out cash to great-great-great-grandchildren and beyond. The advantage of dynasty trusts is that they shield a family's wealth forever. But the home of Mount Rushmore has plenty more to recommend itself to the monied—or, to their money, anyway: The dynasty trust isn't South Dakota's only lure. Another attraction, for customers in places like New York and Massachusetts, is the chance to shelter their investments from income taxes in their home states… Still others are drawn to South Dakota's iron-clad secrecy, and protections of trust assets from creditors and ex-wives. What's a scheme like this do for society? As little as possible. It shelters billionaires' castles and investments from federal taxes in ways John Q. Public can't shelter his meager take-home paycheck. Even South Dakota doesn't see much tax revenue from all this financial activity. And the entire multi-billion-dollar system creates fewer jobs for South Dakotans than a single Walmart.	2,736	1,465	5,021.913993
warc	201704	I had the privilege of hearing a passionate Executive Director speak last night. He talked about how his organization has realized that they can’t just keep doing the same old work any longer – they must work to eliminate the problem before it occurs. He spoke about how they are doing that and the lives that are being changed because of it. I found myself very quickly and easily being pulled into the importance of their work. Passion is a cornerstone of successful fundraising. It’s what differentiates the successful nonprofits from those mediocre groups that barely creep along. Passion brings with it vision and purpose. And it engages donors and prospects in your organization’s mission. Without passion, fundraising is boring to both you and your donor. If you’re not passionate about the work you are doing to help fulfill your organization’s mission, I suggest you do a gut-check. Is it time to move on? Or is it time to step up and bring your ‘A’ game to your work? I suggest you go spend some time on the front lines of your nonprofit so you can reconnect with the reasons why you care.	1,148	625	2,018.6432
warc	201704	Testimonials See what others are saying about us in our testimonials. WARNING You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. Call us at 541-963-4068 to make your appointment today! Dr. Willard Bertrand is a Chiropractic Physician serving La Grande and the surrounding communities. Dr. Bertrand and the rest of the friendly team at the Crossroads Health & Nutrition Clinic are dedicated to natural solutions to target your unique needs, whether you are suffering from chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, diabetes, post-operative recovery, sleep disorders, back pain, neck pain, headaches, or even "routine" muscular tightness and anxiety... Read More If you are new to seeing a chiropractor and want to find out more, please email us or call 541-963-4068 to receive personalized answers to your questions from our friendly team. We also welcome referrals, so feel free to use the "Send to a Friend" link located at the bottom of every page to share our health information with your friends and loved ones. If you would like to stay informed about modern chiropractic care or if you want to start receiving free articles about health and wellness news, please subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter, even if you are not a patient. Once you are subscribed, you will be able to explore our member wellness section and take advantage of our animated exercise videos, wellness articles, and other resources. "Observational study found that low back pain patients receiving chiropractic care, which typically includes spinal manipulation, are more satisfied than those receiving medical care." -New England Journal of Medicine Dr. Willard Bertrand, D.C. La Grande, Oregon in beautiful Union County Chiropractic Physician Crossroads Health & Nutrition Clinic 541-963-4068 1704 Adams Avenue La Grande, OR 97850 Office Hours Day Morning Afternoon Monday 9 am-1pm 2pm - 6pm Tuesday 9 am-1pm 2pm - 6pm Wednesday 9 am-1pm 2pm - 6pm Thursday 9 am-1pm 2pm - 6pm Friday 9 am-1pm 2pm - 6pm Saturday Closed Closed Sunday Closed Closed Day Morning Afternoon Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 9 am-1pm 9 am-1pm 9 am-1pm 9 am-1pm 9 am-1pm Closed Closed 2pm - 6pm 2pm - 6pm 2pm - 6pm 2pm - 6pm 2pm - 6pm Closed Closed Featured Articles Summer is here and, although you may not be actually "dancin' in the streets" as famously proclaimed by the beloved Motown group Martha and the Vandellas, you will likely be spending much more tim ...View Article As autumn’s outdoor temperatures begin to moderate, many of us look forward to opportunities for vigorous cardiorespiratory activities that we put aside in the heat of the summer. It's much easi ...View Article Many of us are continually amazed at the frequency with which professional baseball players suffer season-threatening muscular injuries. There they are, running hard down the first base line tryin ...View Article According to the U.S. Geological Survey, approximately 71 percent of the earth's surface is composed of water. Similarly, 60 to 70 percent of the average adult human body is composed of water. If ...View Article A computer’s operating system is the vital component that enables the device’s hardware and software resources to function as one. But when the system is compromised by malware or a computer v ...View Article The seasons change and so do we. Superficially, it may not appear as if we're undergoing perpetual metamorphosis, but we are. Just as trees replace their leaves and birds shed their feathers, we t ...View Article	3,597	1,762	7,251.160045
warc	201704	Why You Must Encourage Family Days Out There are lots of parents who are more likely to spend their time at work and lesser time with their children due to burdensome and stressful work schedule as well as lack of finances. Previous researchers suggest that families of today spend as little as 49 minutes per day together. Family days out could provide lots of benefits for each and every member of the family whether you believe it or not. Below, I have cited some benefits that you and your family can enjoy when engaging in such activity. Create family bonds – your family is basically your first support network and you can create a sense of security by strengthening your bond with them. With this, everyone would be connected emotionally to each other and prevent arguments to take place. Improving academic performance – the beauty of having family days out is the fact that it is packed with opportunities to learn and new experiences. Getting your children to be interested in nature, science, history, reading and so on could have a huge impact on how they are going to cope up with their academics. Your children will see you as their first teacher so everything that you do from how you communicate and behave, they will do it as well. You can actually extend this by having family days out. Options: 10 Mistakes that Most People Make Less behavioral problems – if you give much importance to the communication and collaboration of your family, then your kids will have less issues with their behavior. The most effective way to battle problems and make us to express ourselves is through communication. Building social skills can help your children to know how they can deal with issues that they are facing in the future. It can open up the opportunities to talk about important conversations with family days out. Smart Ideas: Events Revisited Parental fun – what’s basically the point to have a child if he/she does not give you excuse to act one? Days out provide the chance for parents and their kids as well to unwind, focus on the stress of life and have fun. In an effort to catch up with them and make new memories too, it is essential that you use your time wisely. When they live independently, for sure you would be happy that you made lots of pictures and memories those days. Keeping active – there are many different activities done in family days out. It is vitally important to get out of your home as it promotes physical health of everyone. Having a sedentary way of living can lead to negative impact for you and for your kids. A wonderful way to stay active and have fun at the same time is by exploring new places and going for a walk. Recent Posts Recent Comments Archives Categories Sitemap	2,761	1,362	5,530.108664
warc	201704	This Guest Post is brought to you by Geordon Omand, a University of Victoria graduate who has recently returned from a five week trip exploring Morocco. Follow him as he endures the truly unique experience of being thoroughly scrubbed down and exfoliated at a Moroccan bathhouse by a very enthusiastic elderly man. Yikes! Traveling truly is one of life’s greatest joys. Most of us would agree that immersing ourselves wholesale in an exotic environment can be an educational, even revelatory, experience. At times, however, the benefits accrued during these brief ‘emigrations’ from our comfort zone are most easily appreciated post-facto – through the rosy lens of hindsight. Especially when such an encounter involves being held captive, scalded, flayed, and beaten in Morocco. Sado-masochistic eroticism, you might ask? No, far worse – a Moroccan hammam. Read on, brave reader, read on. As a recent university graduate, traveling on a shoe-string budget was something of a necessity during a recent venture through Morocco. My opted-for mode de voyager posed particular challenges. One such issue arose from the dearth of sanitary shower facilities in the, shall we say, negative star establishments which I chose to frequent. Not having been afforded a good wash for nigh a week, I decided the time had come to make the much-anticipated visit to one of Morocco’s renowned hammams. A Moroccan hammam is essentially a public bath, a modern-day descendent of Roman predecessors. Not only popular but also of practical necessity in a world where many homes lack washrooms, hammams are a ubiquity of Moroccan city life. All sources had strongly recommended them to me as cleansing experiences par excellence. I had little trouble locating a local hammam as I wandered through the winding medina streets of the Rif Mountain city of Chefchaouen one particularly chilly evening. The doorway, pointed out by a helpful passerby, was exclusively in Arabic, assuring me of an authentic bathhouse experience. If only I could have anticipated then what was in store. This particular hammam alternated as male-only and female-only throughout the day. Eight o’clock had just rolled around; men’s time had come. Entering the noticeably humid antechamber, I undressed down to my underwear and handed the front desk clerk the rest of my affairs. The cost of admission was 10 dirham – the equivalent of $1.25 CAD. For an additional 40 dirham I could receive a gommage: the full-body spa works at the hands of a seasoned hammam attendant. Six dollars for a wash and massage from an absolute stranger? When in Rome, err, Morocco, as they say… Agreeing, I stepped further inside. My attendant was a petite, elderly man of an obscurely ancient age and of uncertain dental endowment. A hammam is traditionally divided into rooms of differing temperatures and he was taking me straight for the steamiest option. My initial doubts arose virtually immediately, as several buckets of scalding water were poured in quick succession over my head. Fortunately, the shock to my system halted me long enough for my expressionless attendant to begin applying soap to my newly-minted burns, assuaging the most acute of my concerns. A discrete, cursory inspection revealed no peeling flesh – always a good sign. Viscous, moist, and the colour of tepid sewage water, Moroccan soap is derived from olives and is purported to be an excellent exfoliant. Thus ensconced in a copious layer of soothing, suds-less slime, I was left to marinate and afforded the opportunity to better appreciate my surroundings. The room itself – one of a total of three – measured approximately 10×30 meters. Its floor was composed of rudimentary tile work, as were the lower half of its walls, which rose sharply before tapering into an unadorned, rounded, cylindrical ceiling. The only light available was admitted through a series of opaque and steamed skylights, likely a sage feature given the incompatibility of electricity in this decidedly aqueous environment. An ever-running fountain spouted steaming water into a large basin located in the room’s far corner. As places of socialization, hammams play an important civic role in Moroccan culture. My current establishment was no exception. The house was alive with the echoing sound of lively adult discussion and the roughhousing of youngsters. The cavernous splashing of bodies in animated exchange and bubbly discourse could be heard from all around. With my soap-seasoning complete, my ever-straight faced attendant returned to guide me to the second of the hammam’s three chambers. Virtually identical to the one room I had just vacated – although almost imperceptibly cooler – a mat had been unrolled for me in the corner. Hot dang, bring on the spa treatment! Stretching myself face up on the still very hard tile floor, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity for my seemingly melancholic masseuse. I wondered how often he was made to run through this very routine, and what sort of toll it must be taking on his diminished form and aging muscles. That sympathy would soon to evaporate. The first order of business involved the removing of my dead skin. This was achieved using a specialized scrubbing glove. Imagine a standard winter mitten. Now picture a square of rough-grade sandpaper, or a ball of steel wool, or even a generous handful of glass shards embedded into a mat of razor wire – whatever evokes the most vivid imagery. Now combine these two mental manifestations and you will have something of an approximation of the instrument of torture used to scour virtually every square inch of my body over the course of a quarter hour (or was it several?). A certain loosening of terms would by useful here: as it was most certainly not only dead skin but a great deal of healthy, living, happy flesh that was removed. The “scrub glove” was so effective, blackened rolls of skin were beginning to cover my reddening flesh, like traitorous earthworms emerging from the sanctified soils of my skin. They rained down to the floor, abandoning me to my gruesome fate. It would appear that I had passed premature judgment on my dungeon-master’s physical faculties, as his unassuming, wiry, oh-so-underestimated frame stretched me to his will. Completing one of my sides he would conclude by stretching me out and providing a firm (and dare I say wholly unnecessary) slap to my unprotected ribs, before rolling my wheezing form over and recommencing my desquamation in earnest. Protest proved to be a challenge with the wind constantly knocked out of me. At length my tormentor arose from my pitiful, pink, prostrate self, his sadistic inclinations presumably requited. No such luck. My hopes for salvation were dashed when a sharp pain suddenly shot through my left calf. Then my right. Wrenching my head around, I realized with horror that my maleficent masseuse was standing fully supported on my lower legs. Fortunately, my bruised flesh was able to provide his feet with ample cushioning. Apparently, it was massage time. I may have been delirious, but I could have sworn I witnessed a one scrub-gloved Arab Michael Jackson moon-walking up my thighs. My already damaged body was contorted into positions I did not know I was even capable of achieving (in all likelihood I wasn’t). I was folded in half, full-nelsoned, leg-locked, and in general wrenched across the wet and unforgiving bathhouse floor. Fortunately, my falls were cushioned in part by a mat consisting of rivulets of my own recently-removed skin. (Although that may be somewhat of a moot point, given that they would doubtless have been as effective still covering my body.) I probably owe something to the paper-thin bath mat as well. Something, but not much. Socially, I fared about as well. The acoustics provided by the rounded ceiling of the hammam interior ensured that no one was saved from my whimpering groans. Apparently the tap-out and cry of ‘uncle’ are not as universally understood symbols for mercy and surrender as would have been helpful. Finally, after what felt an eternity of abuse, my apparently sated ‘benefactor’ released me to the third and final room to rinse off and lick my wounds. And a few minutes later, clothed, dazed, and in repossession of my belongings and the shredded remains of my dignity, I found myself once again in the cool night air. Pausing outside the bathhouse entrance, I took stock of the ordeal. It was at this point, however, that a curious thing began to happen. Already the memories were starting to morph and fade. Reflecting anew on my recent trial, I began to realize all the pros of what I had just endured: I had not only witnessed but been an active participant in an ageless and purifying North African experience; I had honestly never felt as clean and fresh; and to boot, I had even received a free undergarment laundering – a pro not to be underappreciated in a backpacker’s world. As my hitherto dour attitude gave way to a newfound positivity, I even found myself planning for my next hammam visit. Notwithstanding my emergent optimism, as I strolled down the brisk, medina streets, squeaky clean and culturally enriched, one fact remained absolutely irrefutable: cleanliness, in Morocco, is clearly taken very seriously. Do you have a travel story to tell? Find out more about how you can contribute and have your travel writing featured on Global Goose!	9,584	4,749	18,970.225311
warc	201704	The final result will be a healthy growing economy and that is what we all need. We also have ample time now to establish long term trade arrangements as well. . Chinese Stocks Crash, Why Is Anybody Surprised? Western commentators complain that China’s 7 percent stock crash on Jan.4 is a dreadful start to the new year. Well, technically speaking, the Chinese still can hope their new year is going to be better than the old one, since Chinese New Year isn’t until February 8. The Shanghai composite slipped 6.9 percent to 3296 on Jan. 4, triggering circuit breakers. The onshore yuan dropped 0.37 percent against the dollar. Official GDP numbers come out on Jan. 19, but whatever the official number, real growth won’t be good judging from data on the ground. Market commentators blame recent weak manufacturing data and new IPOs, but analysts knew all of this beforehand. In fact, if you look at any data coming out of China, whether it’s official or unofficial, all of it is pointing south. Research Firm Capital Economics compiled a chart book of important indicators for the Chinese economy based on official data, showing firmly established downtrends. The currency will devalue further against the dollar because it has actually gotten stronger in trade weighted terms in 2015 and that’s what China cares about. This is the only reason why China launched a trade weighted index for the yuan, so it has a justification to devalue further against the dollar. Official GDP growth slowed to 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015, but Capital Economic’s own activity proxy indicates growth of only 4 percent. Electricity consumption, one of the best economic indicators, is not growing at all. Retail sales are still growing at 10 percent, but retail is not a large share of the economy and growth fell from a peak of almost 20 percent right after the financial crisis. Trade has collapsed, firmly trending down. Producer and commodity prices are deep in deflationary territory. Capital Economics is optimistic this will change soon though. Credit is still growing, but also trending down. Also, the ratio of output per unit of credit decreased dramatically over the years. Knowing all this, how can traders be surprised by weak manufacturing data? Hope dies last.	2,305	1,176	4,449.277211
warc	201704	From Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts), http://www.mbaadmit.com Ask about our Buy-1-Get-1-Free Gold Package Special - Valid through June 5, 2013. MBA Admit.com: Proudly, one of the most affordable top-quality MBA admissions consulting companies, with prices nearly 50% lower than our direct competitors.Is My GPA Good Enough? Many MBA applicants write to me highly concerned about their undergraduate GPAs and ask, “Do you think my GPA is too low?” In many cases, there is no cut-and-dry answer to this question. Certainly, statistics about each business school’s average GPA for matriculating students can help you gain a sense of your chances for admission. But beyond this, specifics matter a great deal. For example: Where did you attend college? If your school was a top-ranked college in its country, your GPA likely can be lower than the GPA of a candidate who attended a much lower-ranked college. What is your gender? Sorry guys – gals do sometimes have an easier time because, for many business schools, fewer women apply. As a result, women sometimes receive a little more leeway on their GPA. Are you an overrepresented profile or an underrepresented profile? If you are overrepresented (that is, lots of candidates with your profile – country, ethnicity, industry – apply to business school), your GPA will likely need to be higher. If you are an underrepresented profile, you can usually have latitude to have a GPA that is lower than the average for matriculating students. Did you have to work your way through school financially? The admissions committee will often cut you some slack if they realize you were juggling work with your academics. What was your major? Some majors are known to be very difficult, and so what might look like a low GPA in a much “softer” major may be perceived by the admissions committee as a relatively high GPA for your major. Did you participate in a varsity-level sport in college? If so, most admissions committees will realize that you were diverting a lot of time to the sport, and they might cut you a little slack on your GPA. Representing a school in a varsity-level sport is generally seen as very admirable and an indication of multifaceted talent. (Many MBA candidates might be hopeful that this same reasoning applies to other types of extracurricular activities, yet on the whole it does not. For most other types of extracurricular activities, the committee will feel you had more control over how much time you devoted and will think you should have prioritized well and therefore have maintained a good GPA.) Other factors beyond these also affect the GPA assessment. If you are concerned about your GPA, try to evaluate how these and other mitigating factors might affect the way admission committees will view your GPA. These simple methods can help you understand whether your GPA will be seen as a strength or weakness of your MBA application. Best wishes,Dr. Shel (Shelly Watts) President, MBA Admit.comhttp://www.mbaadmit.com Email: [email protected] _________________ MBA Admit.com offers comprehensive service for approx. $1495-$1795 for the first application and approximately $700-975 for subsequent MBA applications. Basic editing available for $985 for 1 application. Restrictions apply. Contact Dr. Watts for details. Dr. Shel Watts, the Founder and CEO of MBA Admit,.com, is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford who has Harvard admissions experience. Clients can opt to work directly with Dr. Shel in the admissions process. At MBAAdmit.com, "Dr. Shel" provides--at nearly 50% lower pricing than many comparable competitors--excellent MBA essay editing services and comprehensive admissions consulting, including one-to-one strategizing, essay development, school selection, GMAT advice, interview preparation, and recommendation advice. http://www.mbaadmit.com Direct email address: [email protected]	3,924	1,869	8,114.638844
warc	201704	Why do people act and perceive the way they do? This can be explained by Charles Taylor’s social imaginary. There are underlying thoughts and rules in society that shape the way people think. Sometimes topics such as sexuality, which most people view only in one way, may not be so clear after all. The social imaginary is what enables the practices of a society. This is done though making sense of ideas and expectations. It is “how they [people] fit together with others, how things go on between them and their fellows, the expectations that are normally met, and the deeper normative notions and images that underlie these expectations” (Taylor pg. 23). Charles Taylor seems to focus on how people envision their social settings. Our social imaginary is “shared by large groups of people,” and “is that common understanding that makes possible common practices and a widely shared sense of legitimacy” (Taylor pg. 23). In other words, the social imaginary is what makes common practices and ideals socially acceptable. Without it, no one would know how to interact with others. It is like a complex, unsaid law, given to people that allows them to carry out their social lives. Taylor relates his idea to government elections where he explains, “Part of the background understanding that makes sense of our act of voting for each one of us is our awareness of the whole action… this kind of macrodecision, in other words, has to meet certain norms if it is to be what it is meant to be” (Taylor pg. 4). However, only relevant backgrounds can apply to an act or scenario for it to make sense. It is also explained that understanding different practices, makes them possible. While at the same time, the practice itself is what carries the understanding. These practices are implicit in society; people know how to act in different situations, and with whom, without being told. A social imaginary has always been in existence, even before humans started theorizing about it. Taylor has explained three different types of social imaginary: explicit, symbolic, and tacit. The explicit level of the social imaginary is the level that anyone can overtly talk about, it is obvious. Take a stop sign, for instance, this is something that everyone can see and talk about. When people see a stop sign it is a known rule to come to a complete stop. This is an example of the explicit social imaginary. The tacit dimension consists of the implied rules of the social imaginary. If a teacher came into class and started baking a cake, this would not be normal. Students would perceive the teacher in a confused way, as this is not something a teacher should be doing in class. The idea that a teacher is supposed to teach and not bake is one of the unsaid rules of the tacit social imaginary. Symbolic social imaginary is the level that involves both explicit and tacit traits. For example, blue is for boys and pink is for girls. These are just colors; however they are recognized symbolically as things for girls or things for boys. Anne Fausto-Sterling is someone who does not see sex as clearly black and white. She believes there is more than just male and female sexes, and that this gray area should not be looked down upon. In her article, “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,” she describes the five sexes in which she has categorized these people who do not fall under male or female. The medical language uses the term “intersex” to group all intersexual bodies. However, Fausto-Sterling breaks this group down into three groups. Hermaphrodites, or herms, “possess one testis and one ovary (the sperm and egg-producing vessels, or gonads)” (Fausto-Serling pg34). Herms can technically become pregnant and also impregnate someone else. Male pseudohermaphrodites (the “merms”), have testes and some aspects of the female genitalia but no ovaries” (Fausto-Sterling pg34). Merms are not able to become pregnant. “Female pseudohermaphrodites (the “ferms”), have ovaries and some aspects of the male genitalia but lack testes” (Fausto-Sterling pg34). Ferms are able to become pregnant. Fausto-Sterling believes in the idea that these three categories of human sexes should be considered additional sexes, along with male and female. It seems crazy that people like this exist in our world, yet we don’t even have names to identify them. Even language refuses other possibilities; … I have had to invent conventions –s/he and his/her- to denote someone who is clearly neither male nor female or who is perhaps both sexes at once” (Fausto-Sterling pg 33). Although the concept of intersexuality has existed long before our time, people still view this is as a controversial subject. Some doctors perform surgeries on intersexual infants in order to make them “normal. ” But who is to say what normal is? Doctors say their policy reflects the “wish that people be able to ‘fit in’ both physically and sychologically” (Fausto-Sterling pg34). However, Fausto-Sterling states cases where children growing up as intersexual “adjusted to their unusual status,” and found that “there is not a psychotic or a suicide in the lot” (Fausto-Sterling pg38). Therefore maybe being a transsexual isn’t as bad as society makes it seem; maybe doctors should not be performing surgeries on infants while they are not yet able to make decisions for themselves. Charles Taylor’s social imaginary plays hand in hand with Anne Fausto-Sterling’s five sexes. The fact that most of society today does not accept intersexes just because it is not the norm is a social imaginary. It makes people act is if the only sexes that exist are male or female. Fausto-Sterling says, “Scientific dogma has held fast to the assumption that without medical care hermaphrodites are doomed to a life of misery” (Fausto-Sterling pg37). Although there is evidence to prove this otherwise, the social and scientific stigma holds this statement as true. Many believe that both intersexes and their parents will suffer in life, if they do not change their physiology. This social imaginary is made up from the idea that there are two and only two sexes: male and female. “Why should we care if there are people whose biological equipment enables them to have sex ‘naturally’ with both men and women” (Fausto-Sterling pg37)? Fausto-Sterling is talking about the inability for society to see people different from themselves as acceptable human beings. A tacit part of this social imaginary would be defining a person by their intersexuality, or thinking that “normal” males and females are superior to intersexes. As well as affecting judgments and medical practices, the perspective on sexuality that the social imaginary creates also affects laws. In some states in the U. S. , the sex of a child on their birth certificate is able to be changed if a doctor has performed the surgery on the child. However in other states, it is illegal to change the sex of a child; they are still seen as their original sex based on their chromosomal makeup. “Modern Anglo- Saxon legal systems require that newborns be registered as either male or female” (Fausto-Sterling pg35). There is no category of intersex to be registered under. The social imaginary creates skewed perspectives on sexuality in society. In the court case of Littleton vs. Prange, Christie Lee Littleton was a transsexual female, born male. She was “diagnosed psychologically and psychiatrically as a genuine male to female transsexual” (Littleton vs. Prange pg68). Christie’s doctors believed that this meant Christie, and any similar case, is “psychologically and psychiatrically female before and after the sex reassignment surgery” (Littleton vs. Prange pg68). Christie went through with her sex reassignment surgery and continued her life by marrying a man. It is stated that “Texas (and Kentucky, for that matter), like most other states, does not permit marriages between persons of the same sex” (Littleton vs. Prange pg69). Therefore, in my mind, Christie was legally looked at as a female at her time of marriage, since she and her husband had a ceremonial marriage ritual. However, the judge did not share the same views as me. Christie Littleton was found legally male and her marriage was found invalid. Therefore, in the event of her husband’s death, “Christie cannot bring a cause of action as his surviving spouse. ” Christie lost her case. It is stated that “the majority assumes that gender is accurately determined at birth,” in the dissenting opinion by Alma Lopez (Littleton vs. Prange pg71). This leads me to believe that social imaginary did in fact play a role in the decision of the Littleton vs. Prange case. When Christie’s gender on her birth certificate was changed, and lawfully corrected, only the original birth certificate was taken into account in the hearing. It seems to me that the social imaginary on sexuality influenced the judge’s decision. Although Christie was not biologically female, she was told, and doctors testified, that she was medically female. This leads me to believe that maybe the judge did not view Christie’s marriage to her husband as legitimate, since it is not a typical marriage. I do not agree with the judge’s decision. I believe that since Christie was legally married to her husband, she should be found as the surviving spouse of her husband. Although gay marriage is illegal in Texas, she is technically now female. The marriage should never been accepted in the first place if it was to be questioned later on. As you can see, the social imaginary can create controversies and flaws in our practices, judgments, and laws. Who is to determine what sexuality someone is, and how? Most people view sexuality as male or female, but there are more possibilities. The five sexes and the social imaginary are things that can and should be changed and/or considered in the future of society. Works Cited Fausto-Sterling, Anne. The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough. The Sciences, March/April 1993. Print. Taylor, Charles. Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2004. Print. Christie Lee Littleton, Appellant v. Dr. Mark Prange, Appellee (excerpts). Bexar County, Texas: 288th Judicial District Court, 1999. Print.	10,576	4,364	24,821.125573
warc	201704	Helicobacter pylori chronically infect the human stomach of 50% of the population worldwide. Ten to 30% of those infected will present with severe disease including peptic ulcers and gastric cancers15. H. pylori associated diseases cannot be attributed solely to expression of particular bacterial toxins. Instead, our overall working hypothesis is that H. pylori disease is a by-product of the interaction between bacterial factors necessary for establishing and maintaining infection and the resultant host defenses. This interaction is dynamic with both the bacteria and host changing over decades of infection. To study this complex process, we utilize a mouse model of infection and study genetic variation among isolates from human clinical populations. Our in vivo screen for H. pylori colonization genes in the previous funding period showed 29% of genes tested had a colonization defect and 60% of our colonization genes showed strain specific phenotypes16. This analysis, of over half of the genome, confirmed pathways previously implicated, but also identified unexpected and less well studied classes of genes, including genes involved in DNA uptake and modification plus a large number of hypothetical proteins (81). In our renewal we focus on completing our global analysis of genes contributing to stomach colonization and explore the mechanisms by which genes involved in natural competence for DNA transformation and recombination-based DNA repair promote infection. H. pylori's natural competence allows recombination between super-infecting strains to generate new genotypes during infection and spread of new alleles generated within a strain population. We will explore the roles DNA exchange and recombination-based repair may play during infection of a single strain including 1.) repair of DNA damage encountered during infection 2.) generation of adaptive genetic variation and 3). catalysis of genetic switching events affecting the expression of genes promoting (or limiting) colonization. Our efforts to fully map the genes contributing to virulence will identify the mediators of persistent infection and studies of genetic variation in the clinical population will show how these mediators adapt during chronic inflammation that is associated with infection and leads to severe disease (ulcer, cancer). Our study of the mechanisms by which H. pylori promotes genetic exchange and diversification should also increase understanding of the spread of antimicrobial resistance, an increasing clinical problem in the treatment of H. pylori. This fits the mission of NIAID to understand and treat infectious diseases. Helicobacter pylori infect the human stomach of 50% of the world's population where it can cause mild inflammation, ulcer disease and even gastric cancer, depending in part on the genetic diversity of the infecting strain. In this project we ask which genes are necessary for persistent colonization and test whether the ability to diversify the genome through genetic exchange and recombination with other bacteria is in fact required for successful colonization. Our work will identify targets for developing antimicrobial therapies and, through the study of genetic exchange, bring new knowledge on the mechanisms by which antimicrobial resistance is spread through bacterial populations. Dorer, Marion S; Cohen, Ilana E; Sessler, Tate H et al. (2013) Natural competence promotes Helicobacter pylori chronic infection. Infect Immun 81:209-15 Belogolova, Elena; Bauer, Bianca; Pompaiah, Malvika et al. (2013) Helicobacter pylori outer membrane protein HopQ identified as a novel T4SS-associated virulence factor. Cell Microbiol 15:1896-912 Salama, Nina R; Hartung, Mara L; Muller, Anne (2013) Life in the human stomach: persistence strategies of the bacterial pathogen Helicobacter pylori. Nat Rev Microbiol 11:385-99 Sycuro, Laura K; Rule, Chelsea S; Petersen, Timothy W et al. (2013) Flow cytometry-based enrichment for cell shape mutants identifies multiple genes that influence Helicobacter pylori morphology. Mol Microbiol 90:869-83 Talarico, Sarah; Whitefield, Shawn E; Fero, Jutta et al. (2012) Regulation of Helicobacter pylori adherence by gene conversion. Mol Microbiol 84:1050-61 Sycuro, Laura K; Wyckoff, Timna J; Biboy, Jacob et al. (2012) Multiple peptidoglycan modification networks modulate Helicobacter pylori's cell shape, motility, and colonization potential. PLoS Pathog 8:e1002603 Dorer, Marion S; Sessler, Tate H; Salama, Nina R (2011) Recombination and DNA repair in Helicobacter pylori. Annu Rev Microbiol 65:329-48 Humbert, Olivier; Dorer, Marion S; Salama, Nina R (2011) Characterization of Helicobacter pylori factors that control transformation frequency and integration length during inter-strain DNA recombination. Mol Microbiol 79:387-401 Sycuro, Laura K; Pincus, Zachary; Gutierrez, Kimberley D et al. (2010) Peptidoglycan crosslinking relaxation promotes Helicobacter pylori's helical shape and stomach colonization. Cell 141:822-33 Dorer, Marion S; Fero, Jutta; Salama, Nina R (2010) DNA damage triggers genetic exchange in Helicobacter pylori. PLoS Pathog 6:e1001026 Showing the most recent 10 out of 24 publications	5,200	2,298	11,755.439513
warc	201704	EUGENE, Ore. — The USGBC awarded the University of Oregon’s (UO) Robert and Beverly Lewis Integrative Science Building LEED Platinum Certification. The building, which was completed in July 2013, is one of the only laboratory buildings in the U.S to receive such a certification. Designed by HDR Architecture and THA Architecture, both of which have offices in Portland, the $51 million building is an interdisciplinary research hub. Though the majority of the building is dedicated to cognitive neurosciences, systems neurosciences and genetics research, the building also houses the Support Network for Research and Innovation in Solar Energy and the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry. The 103,000-square-foot science building was constructed by Lease Crutcher Lewis, which also holds offices in Portland, and is the first to gain LEED Platinum certification on the UO campus. "Science buildings present numerous sustainable design challenges that are difficult to solve, mainly because of their complex equipment and stringent ventilation requirements," said Regina Filipowicz, senior laboratory planner with HDR Architecture, in a statement. "But due to the University of Oregon’s commitment to environmental responsibility, our integrated team was able to develop some truly innovative sustainable strategies — some that I’ve never before seen in my 26 years as a planner." One remarkably innovative method is the building’s use of reverse osmosis–treated water from a zebra fish research facility. The water is used to flush urinals and toilets. All storm water is also treated on site and solar hot water panels heat all domestic water. The building uses approximately 62 percent less energy than a building of its likeness. Energy conservation efforts include natural ventilation in spaces other than labs, solar shading, daylighting, night flush cooling variable flow chemical fume hoods with automatic closing sashes and heat is recovered from a utility tunnel below the building to serve laboratory re-heat requirements. Building materials were largely local, and bamboo was used as a finish in the atrium and laboratory spaces. "The daylight in a building with such a deep footprint is especially impressive," said Laurie Canup, project manager with THA Architecture, in a statement. "We actually worked with University of Oregon’s lighting laboratory to ensure that the size and placement of the skylight in the atrium would provide optimal daylight levels while controlling glare. The natural daylight allows the lights to be turned off during the day and the reduction in lighting power density delivers significant energy savings, not to mention that ample windows create views which support a dynamic working environment."	2,803	1,395	5,521.608602
warc	201704	Teen Driving & Alcohol The automobile has profoundly impacted our country; it has affected where we live, where we work, and how we spend our free time. However, teen driving also brings with it a great deal of responsibility and risk. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among young people 15-24 years of age. Underage drinking is implicated in a many of these deaths. Get the facts.	404	283	572.452297
warc	201704	More than half of Americans believe that patients in the US receive better quality of care than elsewhere in the world, but only 45% say that the US has the best healthcare system in the world. In a previous post, I took a quick look at the US healthcare system and compared it to other developed countries on cost, quality and access. A recent report examines the latest scientific evidence available in comparing the US to other countries on quality of care. Quality of care, for starters, is defined as “doing the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right person and having the best results possible.” The most important indicators of quality include life expectancy, amenable mortality, screening rates, vaccination rates, disease-specific morbidity and mortality rates, cancer survival rates, and medical error rates. It is well known that US does not perform well on life expectancy at birth. However, when life expectancy at age 65 is considered, the US is above the average of most developed countries (the reason being that all Americans over 65 have good coverage under Medicare). On “amenable mortality,” a measure of deaths that could have been prevented with good healthcare, the US ranks dead last among 19 developed nations. On preventative care, the evidence is a bit mixed. One study reported that the US has higher percentages of women reporting having had a pap smear and a mammography in the last two years than five other countries. Also, the US has the highest rate of cervical cancer screening rate among 22 developed countries, and above-average flu vaccination rates for senior citizens among 30 developed countries. However, childhood vaccination rates in the US are lower than the average for all developed countries. On chronic conditions, adult hospital admission rates for asthma (an indicator of low quality care) was the second highest in the US among 17 other countries, while US-asthma mortality rates was double the average observed 25 countries. On the other hand, US diabetic patients rank high compared to other countries on receiving recommended services for their conditions. One of the brightest spots on the American quality report card comes from cancer care. Compared to 17 European countries, the US is #1 on survival rates for cancer of the colon, rectum, breast and prostate, and among the highest on survival rates for melanoma, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer and Hodgkin’s-disease and non-Hodgkin’s disease lymphoma. International comparisons on patient safety are problematic due to differences in reporting of errors between the countries, but some evidence suggests that the US may have more medical mishaps. In summary, debates on whether quality of care in the US system is the best in the world should be based on more scientific and disease-specific data. On some areas, such as cancer care, we do really well. On other areas such as mortality from conditions that could be prevented and treated, we do less well.	3,029	1,362	6,647.342878
warc	201704	“Government has considered to set up a structured central regulatory regime for AYUSH medicines,” Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik said in a written reply. Department of Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H) was created in March 1995 and re-named as Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) in November 2003. It was created with a view to providing focused attention to development of education and research in Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy systems. The Department has been elevated to an independent Ministry with effect from November, 2014. Naik said that the current proposal is to have a vertical structure for AYUSH medicines in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). “Government has initiated procedural steps for setting up the vertical structure for AYUSH in the CDSCO and the need for creation of a separate drug Controller General for AYUSH may be assessed subsequently, the time frame for which cannot be specified at this stage,” Naik said. Replying to another question, he said that the Ministry had constituted a committee in August 2014 to explore the possibility of promoting the concept of Holistic Health in the country in order to optimise the utilisation of available manpower in the health sector. He said that the committee recommended the introduction of a National Holistic Public Health System (NHPHS) which integrates AYUSH at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, reforming medical education, research and legal framework to support NHPHS and others. He said that the AYUSH intervention for preservation and control of non-communicable diseases has already been initiated while significant part of the AYUSH budget is spent on research.	1,811	931	3,464.437164
warc	201704	Based on your past medical history, physical exam and current symptoms, your doctor is recommending a diagnostic procedure called Cardiac Catheterization. Through cardiac catheterization, your doctor is able to study the condition of your heart, including the muscle, valves and arteries. If you have been experiencing symptoms such as chest pain, lightheadedness, breathing problems or fainting spells, because of a heart condition - this procedure allows for problems, such as blocked or narrowed arteries, to be identified. If any problems are discovered, your doctor can recommend ways to treat them.	607	353	1,038.606232
warc	201704	INTRODUCTION Indian temples have been centers of art and architecture since ancient times. Each temple according to geographic locations has their own art style, motifs, representation of deities and their stories. Clothes of the deities, their adornments and vibrant temple hangings have intensified the ambience of these temples. The main textile art that evolves from the temples are depicted in the temple hangings. These pieces of cloth are embroidered or painted with stories about the relevant God. Although Gujarat is known for its exquisite embroidery, the lesser known art of Kalamkari is equally appealing and unique. Kalamkari refers to a method of painting natural dyes onto cotton or silk fabric with a bamboo pen or kalam. When one thinks of Kalamkari it is usually associated with the one that is done in the South of the country (Andhra Pradesh) predominately portraying a variety of Hindu narrative themes, including the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Shiva Purana. Kalamkari in Gujarat differs from that done in South with its central theme – the Mataji. Mata Ni Pachedi, as we researched, was a sparsely known art practice by Vaghri community in Ahmedabad. This heightened our curiosity and as the opportunity came along we decided to pursue our quest in researching more about this beautiful this beautiful but obscure art form. Mata ni Pachedi represents the art history, creativity and cultural heritage of the Vaghri community now settled in Ahmadabad. REVIEW OF LITERATURE The Vaghri Harijans settled in Ahmadabad make their living by block printing and painting shrine cloth known as Mata ni Pachedi or Mata no Chandarvo. These imposing textiles are used as canopies over the image of the mother Goddess. Traditionally the shrine cloths were made by the Vaghri Harijan community who were not allowed to enter the temples. They made the Pachedis as an offering to the Goddesses. The cloth has a formal patterned quality, strong and bold, reinforced by the starkness of red and black. Pachedis are used in religious ceremonies and record the myths and legends associated with the living traditions of the people. Always, the goddess is the destroyer of evil with weapons in all her ten arms looking fierce and commanding, invoking awe and fear in the onlooker. She is at the center, the focus of the painting with motifs of deities, priests, devotees, angels and animals drawn around her. Often they are performing garba, a traditional dance in the honor of the mother goddess. These are narratives from epics arranged in columns around her. The themes, stories, dimensions and proportions of the motifs are interpreted differently according to the artist’s sensibility and visualization. Many legends are depicted in these Pachedis. They are usually derived from Puranic myths. What remains constant is the Mataji, who according to the Vaghri tribes, protects and helps people. Traditionally maroon and black were the colors used, with the surface of the material as the third color. The maroon and black colors were natural dyes sourced from alizarin and oxidized metal. To meet contemporary tastes, the Vaghris have started using other natural colours adding yellow, blue orange, rust, grey and even pink to the colour palette. Contrasts between positive and negative spaces formed an important balancer to the work. The maroon and black colors were natural dyes sourced from alizarin and oxidized metal Maroon was associated with the color of the Earth mother or Gaea and believed to possess healing powers. White was considered the color for purity and contact with ancestral spirits, deities and other unknown spiritual entities. The color black was meant to repel malevolent spirits and intensify spiritual energy. As time went by the community got introduced to pigment dyes which had begun arriving in Gujarat for a fledging textile industry. Exposure to a. wider palette meant a riot of color and shade in the Pachedi. These are however not used for religious purposes and are purely decorative. The most common motifs, apart from Mataji astride a bull or a tiger, include lady with a flower, trumpeters, angels, flowers, the tree of life and animals such as peacock, tiger, parrot etc. All the materials used in the creation of Mata ni Pachedi are organic. The dyes, the fabrics (such as cotton, khadi, silk etc), the bamboo stick kalams are all made up of naturally available products. Extremely eco-friendly in its nature, Mata ni Pachedi reinforces the use of non-polluting, wholesome materials which do not compromise in making outstanding aesthetic pieces. OUR MENTOR Our teacher and mentor Mr. Sanjay Manubhai Chitara lives in Jivraj Park, Ahmadabad. The main and only occupation of him and his family is making the pachedis. The government has recognized the art and given due to the artisans for their skill and mastery by awarding them both state level and national level awards. Sanjaybhai realizes the importance of marketing and selling the craft. He tries to travel as much as possible to create awareness and introduce his art to a wider audience. CREATIVE USAGE OF MATA NI PACHEDI Mata ni Pachedi is a textile art so the most obvious ways in which it can be displayed are wall hangings, bed sheets and table linen. But these require big pieces and therefore it becomes too expensive for the consumer to buy. Our main aim was to dilute the immense cost of creating the art piece so that quantity could be achieved at a shorter span of time. And also making interesting ready to use products that would excite customers from all age groups; such as shoes, pocket patches, buttons etc for youngsters, religious book stands for elders. Bags, belts, playing cards, vanity boxes and diary covers are other options. In order to keep the authenticity of the art alive and yet make it look contemporary, motifs remained the same but different mediums were tried out. Due to religious beliefs, motifs of Mataji cannot be used on articles such as shoes and pocket patches but animals and flowers can be used generously. CONCLUSION The common trait that binds all dying arts is that the new generation lacks the patience to invest time and effort in an art that is an unpredictable form of income relying on the patronage of a few who have the knowledge and deep pockets to pay for the masterpieces. Every aspect of the Pachedi evokes awe, trance and even fear. All in all, Mata ni Pachedi is an exquisite form of art whose splendor can not be ignored. Some products that we made with the help of Sanjaybhai: Quoted from Mr. Vaghela Bharat's e-mail : I am in high spirits to read your Article of " Mata Ni Pachhedi" which is very important in our cast people. People are praying to "Mata Ni Pachhedi" . They can not see it until next "Matadi Yagna". But I am unhappywith your Language used for our CAST word Vaghari Harizan. This word was Vaghari before in 20th Sanctuary, not Vaghari Harizan. But upon Request by Social Leaders with the help of our public unity , BJP Government in 21st Sanctuary changed our cast from VAGHARI to DEVIPUJAK.So , After 20st Sanctuary NO BODY is Allowedto say " VAGHARI"; but only "DEVIPUJAK" . And we are allowed to enter in any temple of God /Goddess , no body can restrict our people to enter in any Temple. You had been used a wrong sentence in your Article that " Our People restricted to enter in temple". Note: I apologize for causing any kind of offense to anyone at all. This article was purely meant to promote the art of Mata ni Pachedi. Kindly forgive me for not clarifying certain details.	7,621	3,592	16,056.717149
warc	201704	So you're stuck.................... Wow seems like the little server error reconnected me with a lot of people. It was nice to hear from you. It is also nice to be missed. However, it is also time to accept the fact that Rich is not coming back to WW; but I still continue to write on the subject of weight loss and weight management. Now with that, the underlying theme to so many of the emails I received was....................... You're stuck. Hit a wall. Can't get over a hump. Question:What do you do? Answer:You go around it. Now for those of you who need the long version of that answer here you go................ I'm talking about taking a different approach. Such as change your foods change up your meals; larger breakfasts and lunches exercise more exercise less buy yourself a new tool to motivate yourself (Click here for a good idea if i don't say so myself); a new book, exercise accessory, kitchen tool Get involved in a new activity - join a club of some sort Start hanging around with new people Go to a different WW meeting; get the perspective of a new leader and new people Tighten the belt for 5 days and act a bit irresponsible on the weekend; that works for many; I know it did for me when I lost my weight Take a break. Yes, can you maintain just for now and pick it up when you're ready Get the crap out of the house - I know it is there. I know all. Try a new food Have a little talk with yourself, an honest one; and ask why things have changed all of a sudden. Look in the mirror while you have this conversation. I am serious. I am sure some stuff will come out. Yes, the truth will hurt. Get over it . Or should I say the truth will help you get over it - the hump that is. Find an online peer group to complement your existing weight loss approach And always remember getting stuck is like constipation. However, if you were constipated would you make the decision that you would never crap again? No, you would do something. So if you're stuck, go do something. And let me know when you're unstuck. And please leave comments and your ideas here as well. We can all get skinny, healthy and happy by helping each other. ---------------------------------------------------- Want this 31 day e-workbook for free? CLICK HERE RIGHT NOW	2,277	1,167	4,417.419023
warc	201704	Forever and Ever hydrangeas are a series of big-leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) that, unlike the standard old-fashioned garden favorite that blooms only on old wood, blooms on both old and new wood. Like the better-known Endless Summer hydrangeas, Forever and Ever hydrangeas also rebloom for a longer flowering season. There are 10 varieties of Forever and Ever hydrangea, including white, blue, pink, purple, red and even yellow cultivars. Hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9, cold doesn't often threaten Forever and Ever hydrangeas in mild climates, but issues other than than temperature can impact the plants over the winter dormant season. 1 Prune back stems by one-half with bypass pruners in midsummer when the first flush of flowers fade, both to encourage new growth with more flower buds on these re-bloomers and to make the plant more compact. Prune the plant back by as much as one-third to shape the plant after blooms fade in early fall. Avoid pruning any later than early fall, as late fall pruning encourages new growth that is more easily damaged when temperatures drop. Blooms may be left to dry on the plant if desired. 2 Rake up any dead foliage around the plant in late fall. Removal of fallen leaves eliminates habitat for overwintering insects and disease. 3 Apply a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch around the plant after temperatures have cooled for the season, or refresh mulch placed around the plant earlier in the season. Hydrangeas benefit from the way the mulch keeps in moisture and helps the soil maintain an even temperature. It is more important to protect the hydrangea from unseasonably warm weather in late winter, which can prompt new growth that can be damaged when cold returns. While buds damaged over the winter don't make the season a complete loss as with other big-leaf hydrangeas, it does push back bloom to later in the season. 4 Plant evergreen shrubs to block your Forever and Ever hydrangea from prevailing late winter and early spring winds, which can damage flower buds and any early foliage. A lattice fence or temporary burlap-and-bamboo-pole shelter will also serve to protect your hydrangea from cold, drying wind. 5 Cover the entire plant with a bedsheet or row cover all the way to the ground if temperatures below freezing are forecast in late winter or early spring when buds are swelling or new foliage has emerged. Secure the cover with bricks, stones or garden staples, as heat from the ground helps keep the plant from freezing. Things You Will Need Bypass pruners Rake Mulch Evergreen shrubs Lattice fence or burlap and bamboo poles Bedsheet or row-cover fabric Bricks or garden staples University of California Extension: Pruning Hydrangeas Forever & Ever Plants: Forever & Ever Hydrangeas Wilkerson Mill Gardens: Hydrangea Care Through Winter Cold Ensures Summer Glory University of California Extension Marin County Master Gardeners: Putting the Garden to Bed for the Winter Fine Gardening: Winter Care for Hydrangeas University of California Extension Marin County Master Gardeners: Hydrangea How-Tos Photo Credits Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images	3,176	1,469	6,838.45337
warc	201704	Article This article responds to Jonathan Lear's piece in THE NEW REPUBLIC. At one point in my new book, THE MEMORY WARS: FREUD'S LEGACY IN DISPUTE (New York Review), to which Jonathan Lear alludes in his woolly defense of psychoanalysis ("The Shrink Is In," NEW REPUBLIC 25 December 1995), I pause to wonder at the curious eagerness of some people to glorify Freud as the discoverer of vague general truths about human deviousness. "It is hard to dispute any of these statements about 'humans,'" I wrote, "but it is also hard to see why they couldn't be credited as easily to Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, or Nietzsche--if not indeed to Jesus or Saint Paul--as to Freud. Was it really Freud who first disclosed such commonplaces? Or, rather, has the vast cultural sway of Freud's system caused us to lose focus on his more specific, highly idiosyncratic, assertions, to presume that a number of them must have been scientifically corroborated by now, and to transform him retrospectively into the very personification of 'human' complexity and depth?" I couldn't have known that I was pinpointing the strategy of Lear's essay-to-be. His Freud is a godlike figure who, despite some lapses into fallibility, somehow presides over all modern awareness of what Lear calls "human irrationality" and "the complexity, depth and darkness of human life." For Lear, then, debate about Freud can only be understood as struggle over "our culture's image of the human soul." And thus the choice for or against psychoanalysis becomes a no-brainer, a mere matter of reaffirming a suitably tragic worldview: "Are we to see humans as having depth--as complex psychological organisms who generate layers of meaning which lie beneath the surface of their own understanding? Or are we to take ourselves as transparent to ourselves?" Lear himself cites Plato, Saint Augustine, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, and Proust as sharing Freud's insistence "that there are significant meanings for human well-being which are obscured from immediate awareness," but he fails to pose the obvious question implied by such a list. What did Freud add to the previously garnered pearls of wisdom, and do his innovations constitute actual knowledge or merely a set of overweening speculations? If, for example, Nietzsche anticipated Freud's ideas of unconscious self-interest and unconscious guilt, of repression, of sublimation, and of dream sym- bolism--and he did all that--have we gained anything by Freud's incorporation of such notions into a pseudo-quantitative, hydraulically operated, dogmatically deterministic "mental apparatus" that teems with undetectable drives, mythic elves, phylogenetic memory traces, and mysteriously sexualized and desexualized energies? To maintain as much would be like declaring Rube Goldberg the prince of engineers. Self-evidently, the public is entitled to know which distinctive claims of Freud's, if any, have received significant confirmation outside the Freudian belief system. The answer is: not a single one. Readers who find that result hard to believe could consult Edward Erwin's just-published book, A FINAL ACCOUNTING: PHILOSOPHICAL AND EMPIRICAL ISSUES IN FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGY (MIT Press). Erwin soberly reviews all relevant studies and concludes, with impeccable logic, that the entirety of psychoanalytic theory, along with the Freudian claim to special therapeutic efficacy, remains devoid of any appreciable corroboration. It is easy to foresee, however, that Lear will have none of this. For him, the subjective and intuitive nature of psychoanalytic interpretations exempts them from evidential accountability. Indeed, "it is a sign of psychoanalysis's success as an interpretive science that its causal claims cannot be validated in the same way as those of the physical sciences" (italics as found). This paradox--one of several in Lear's tremulously irrationalist article--rests on a fundamental confusion of categories. Although interpretation may preoccupy the analytic hour, the claims of psychoanalytic theory are not interpretations but determinate propositions about how the mind regularly works. Those propositions have to do, for example, with the function and meaning of dreams, the nature of drives, the defense mechanisms, the fantasies of the nursing infant, and the ubiquity of the Oedipus complex--all of which folklore is treated as established fact in Lear's vitalistic "summa Freudiana" of 1990, LOVE AND ITS PLACE IN NATURE (Farrar Straus & Giroux). Such ideas demand considerably more validation than Lear's banal reminder that people do not "always and everywhere act in rational and transparently explicable ways." But Lear has still another escape route handy, the contention (borrowed from Richard Wollheim) that Freudian propositions need no proof because they are merely "an extension of our ordinary psycho- logical ways of interpreting people in terms of their beliefs, desires, hopes and fears." If we can guess why someone heads for the refrigerator, Lear believes, then we ought to be able to guess why, let us say, Freud's Little Hans developed a horse phobia. But think about it. Little Hans became afraid of horses after a huge horse tripped and crashed to the street before his eyes. Not a very puzzling connection, after all. According to both Freud in his case history and Lear in his book, however, Hans's phobia came about because he was repressing a fear of his own oedipal aggression, which had unconsciously "caused" the felling of this big-penised father surrogate. Which of the two explanations comports with common sense? The fanciful Freud/Lear version would be comparable to saying that a trip to the refrigerator must be motivated by an obsession with Mommy's closed and frigid "box." Lear is such a thoroughly indoctrinated Freudian that he can't even perceive adherence to psychoanalysis as a commitment to one theory among others. In his reverent view, psychoanalysis sets out not from an array of contested premises but from sheer "wonder that the unintelligibility of the events that surround one do not cause more wonder." Freudianism, in other words, is just curiosity in its most receptive and unbiased form. That is why Lear fails to register the difference between particular interpretations and general Freudian tenets: the latter are simply his window on reality. This same blindness prompts Lear to assert that it was only "on occasion" that Freud suggested conclusions to his patients. That claim would be mistaken even if it pertained only to Freud's explicit and habitual "reconstructions" of his analysands' infantile traumas. But more drastically, it overlooks the well-established fact--established chiefly by Adolf Grunbaum, whom Lear dismisses with a haughty harumph--that suggestion pervades every feature of the Freudian clinical exchange, from the production and glossing of "free" associations through the causal inferences that the patient is then coaxed into accepting. Whereas Lear asserts, pathetically, that "the proper attitude for an analyst is one of profound humility in the face of the infinite complexity of another human being," the only sure result of a "successful" Freudian treatment is that it will turn out another Freudian. "It was Freud," claims Lear, "who first set the avoidance of suggestion as a therapeutic ideal--and it is Freud who devised the first therapeutic technique aimed at achieving it." Freud never doubted, however, that any suggestive hints by an analyst would always be opposed and overridden by the pure emanations of the repressed unconscious. Indeed, in a late paper he brazenly declared that no patient of his had ever been induced by suggestion to reach a false belief (Standard Edition, 23:262). Yet the features of the analytic transaction that Lear doubtless considers to be safeguards against suggestion--the therapist's icy "neutrality" and the tortuously expensive ritual of "analyzing the transference" and "analyzing the countertransference"--serve in actuality as perfect tools for foisting off doctrine as insight. By casting each party in the therapeutic dyad as reenacting fixed childhood roles and by promoting the illusion of impartial data collection, psychoanalysis discounts the relatively malleable patient's vulnerability to the therapist's general beliefs and specific hunches. Lear's obtuseness about suggestion, combined with his evident ignorance of recent Freud scholarship, also prevents him from seeing what is wrong with the classic Freud/Jones/Gay account of the birth of psychoanalysis. The received legend is good enough for him: Freud realized he had been "credulous" in taking his patients' stories of very early sexual abuse at face value, and thus he stumbled upon what Lear calls "the discovery of unconscious fantasy." By now, however, any number of Freud historians--including among others Frank Cioffi, Malcolm Macmillan, Jean Schimek, Morton Schatzman, Han Israels, Max Scharnberg, Allen Esterson, Russell Powell, and Robert Wilcocks--have established from Freud's papers of 1896 that the "stories" were told to Freud's patients by Freud himself, who had fallen victim to a typically monomaniacal idea that all "hysteria" results from repressed memories of abuse that the therapist must coax forth with severe and unwavering insistence. Thus Freud's subsequent "discovery of fantasy" was nothing more than a craven rescue maneuver for his imperiled concept of repression. Psychoanalysis as we know it blossomed when Freud, instead of admitting that he had tried to browbeat his patients into believing they had been molested, turned his own misdiagnosis into "false memories" supposedly generated by them in childhood to cover up their shameful and noxious practice of masturbation. Only later did he add his still more grotesque signature touch: the "memory" of having been abused could in most cases be regarded as an unconscious screen for the child's desire to fornicate with one or both parents. Instead of discovering such dubious unconscious fantasies, Freud posited them to disguise the fact that his blatantly sug- gestive and question-begging investigative method, which he would continue to employ in much the same coercive manner, was getting him nowhere. This scholarly correction of Freud's retrospective propaganda about the "seduction theory" supplies part of the answer to Lear's question, "why doesn't Crews lionize Freud as the first person to call the veracity of [abuse] memories into question?" To judge from Lear's article, one would think that the post-1896 Freud devoted himself to smoking out false memories in a spirit of rational skepticism. On the contrary: not only did Freud himself concoct the "memories" that he is praised for having debunked, he also invented further ones to put in their place. It is now widely recognized that the pre-1897 Freud was a recovered memory therapist in the worst modern sense of that term, but Lear and other Freudians cannot grasp that he remained one thereafter, only substituting relatively trivial primal scenes and oedipal wishes for the molestations that formerly made up the content of the repressed. Was it a watchdog against false memories who told the Wolf Man that a dream from age four about wolves in a tree, recounted in adulthood, proved that at age one he had watched his parents copulating from the rear three times in a row? Lear professes to be scandalized that I could assert any link whatsoever between classic Freudian theory and the recovered memory movement of the past decade. He fails to take note of my detailed arguments at several junctures in THE MEMORY WARS or even of a one- sentence summation on (p. 274) that puts the case very plainly. The scientific pretensions of recovered memory, I wrote, derive from a number of unwarranted beliefs that were directly propagated by Freud: that repression is the normal human response to trauma; that experiences in infancy produce long-term memories that can be accurately retrieved decades later; that adult psychological difficulties can be reliably ascribed to certain forgotten events in early childhood and not to others; that sexual traumas are incomparably more susceptible to repression and to the formation of neurosis than any other kind; that symptoms are themselves "memories" that can yield up the story of their origin; that dream interpretation, too, can disclose the repressed past; that memory retrieval is necessary for symptom removal; and that psychotherapists can confidently trace their clinical findings to the patient's unconscious without allowing for the contaminating influence of their own diagnostic system, imparted directly or through suggestion. Could Lear be unaware of this passage? Hardly; I read it aloud to him in a live debate about THE MEMORY WARS in New York City on November 13, 1995. As my introduction to that book makes clear, the psychoanalytic genealogy of recent witchhunts is only the theoretical side of an alarming story that truly deserves to be regarded as a scandal. If Lear had been reading his own psychoanalytic journals between 1990 and now, he would have learned that a number of psychoanalysts have become full converts to recovered memory, tossing out infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex and replacing them with the 1896 vintage of Freudian fanaticism: repressed molestation is back in style. Interested readers should watch for the second 1996 issue of Psychoanalytic Dialogues, where analysts, joined by me, variously welcome and express misgivings about this turn of events. The mostly young, mostly feminist advocates of psychoanalytic recovered memory are waging what I have called a war of succession for control of the otherwise moribund Freudian tradition. Like so much else, however, it has escaped the notice of Jonathan Lear. Frederick Crews Books by (or with a contribution by) Frederick Crews Anthology ofAmerican Literature : Colonial Through Romantic Vol 1 George L. McMichael (Editor), et al / Paperback / Published 1997 Anthologyof American Literature : Realism to the Present Vol 2George McMichael (Editor), et al / Paperback / Published 1997 The Human Nature Review © Ian Pitchford and Robert M. Young - Last updated: 28 May, 2005 02:29 PM	14,339	6,869	29,723.834765
warc	201704	APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Adams County; the Hon. FRED W. REITHER, Judge, presiding. MR. JUSTICE CRAVEN DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT: Defendant was indicted for armed robbery and subsequently convicted at a jury trial on that charge. The trial court entered judgment on the verdict and sentenced defendant to a term of 7 to 12 years. Defendant appeals. Defendant urges the following on appeal. The trial court erred in denying his motion for a continuance in order for him to obtain his principal witness; the identification testimony of the State's witnesses should have been suppressed because it resulted from an unnecessarily suggestive show-up; and, finally, his sentence should be reduced because of his serious illness. The trial of this cause was first set for June 11. On June 8, however, the defense moved for a continuance because its alibi witness, Wilma Buckner, was in the hospital and would not be available for trial. This motion was granted. On August 6, the defendant was notified that his case was being reset for September 10. The first attempt to serve Ms. Buckner was on September 4. When service was unsuccessful, defendant filed another motion for a continuance. The trial court denied the motion and noted that the witness was apparently aware of the necessity of her testimony and that there was no indication that diligence was used in securing her attendance. Nevertheless, the court assured the defendant that his case would not be called until September 13 at the earliest. Two more attempts were subsequently made to serve the witness. Both failed and the trial began on September 14. • 1 The granting or denying of a motion for continuance to procure a witness is a question within the discretion of the trial court, and will not be disturbed unless there has been a clear abuse. (People v. Arndt, 50 Ill.2d 390, 280 N.E.2d 230.) If there is no reasonable expectation that the witness will be available in the foreseeable future, the motion will be denied. (People v. Hudson, 97 Ill. App.2d 362, 240 N.E.2d 156, cert. denied, 394 U.S. 1005, 22 L.Ed.2d 783, 89 S.Ct. 1603.) The motion will also be denied where the defendant fails to exercise diligence to insure that his witness will be available to testify. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 38, par. 114-4(e); People v. Goodrich, 73 Ill. App.2d 196, 218 N.E.2d 794 (abstract opinion). • 2 We do not find an abuse of discretion in this case. The record discloses neither diligence on the part of the defendant in securing the witness, nor any reasonable expectation that the witness would be available in the foreseeable future. Defendant was in contact with the witness as early as June and a number of times thereafter. He was given more than a months' notice as to the date of his trial in order to prepare his case. The trial itself took place 3 days after the scheduled date, yet defendant was still unable to produce his witness. No reason was ever given for the failure to produce the witness, and no assurance was given that Ms. Buckner would ever be available. On these facts we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in denying defendant's motion for a continuance. • 3 Next, defendant contends that the identification testimony of the State's witnesses should have been suppressed because it resulted from an unnecessarily suggestive show-up. The evidence shows that after the offense, the two victims, co-owners of the grocery store that was robbed, accompanied the police in their search for the suspect. The defendant was subsequently arrested at a roadblock. There he was taken from a vehicle at gunpoint, handcuffed, and surrounded by police officers. At this point, one of the victims identified the defendant as the offender. Later, at the police station, both victims identified the defendant as he was being led through the station in handcuffs. Defendant's contention has been expressly rejected by the supreme court in People v. Bey, 51 Ill.2d 262, 281 N.E.2d 638. There a defendant was returned by the police to the building where the alleged burglary took place shortly after the crime. He was then identified by the victim. The supreme court held that this was not an unnecessarily suggestive show-up and stated that such procedures were important to the rapid and effective solution of crimes. In the instant case, the victims were taken to the defendant shortly after the crime. This did not constitute an unnecessarily suggestive show-up. The identification testimony was, therefore, properly admitted. Were we to assume that the show-up was unnecessarily suggestive, defendant's contention must still fail. In-court identification of a defendant is proper if it is based on an origin independent of an unlawful show-up. (People v. Blumenshine, 42 Ill.2d 508, 250 N.E.2d 152.) Here, the record reveals that both victims had an excellent opportunity to observe the defendant during the robbery. Also, both men had seen defendant in their store on prior occasions. This evidence removes any doubt about the reliability of the in-court identification of the defendant. Such testimony was properly admitted. Finally, defendant urges that his sentence be reduced from 7 to 12 years to 4 to 12 years because he is suffering from leukemia. • 4 Defendant has prior convictions for robbery, theft, and twice for burglary. Defendant was paroled from the second burglary conviction because he was suffering from leukemia. While on this parole, defendant committed the acts which gave rise to the present offense. Among those acts was the use of a shotgun to commit the robbery. We see no reason to disturb the sentence on appeal. People v. Taylor, 33 Ill.2d 417, 211 N.E.2d 673. The judgment of the circuit court of Adams ...	5,780	2,525	13,148.641584
warc	201704	The opinion of the court was delivered by: Reagan, District Judge Trial is set to commence in this case on February 28, 2011. The sole remaining issue is whether the Defendants used excessive force against Plaintiff in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Before the Court is Plaintiff Richard G. Titus's Motion in Limine, aimed at excerpting the first four minutes of the videotape capturing the cell extraction at issue in this case (Doc. 107). Plaintiff asserts that the initial four minute segment of the video does not contain relevant evidence, or to the extent the segment is relevant, it is unfairly prejudicial and should be excluded pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 403, due to unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues (see Docs. 107 and 120). Plaintiff contends that his conduct prior to his removal provides absolutely no defense to the use of excessive force. In response, Defendants counter that the initial four minute segment is relevant to establishing the need for the cell extraction, the degree of force necessary to restore discipline, and Plaintiff's and Defendants' respective mental states (see Doc. 116). The purpose of a motion in limine is to allow the trial court to rule on the relevance and admissibility of evidence before it is offered at trial. See Luce v. United States, 469 U.S. 38, 41, n.4 (1984)("although the Federal Rules of Evidence do not explicitly authorize in limine rulings, the practice has developed pursuant to the district court's inherent authority to manage the course of trials");Fed. R. Evid. 104(a)("Preliminary questions concerning the qualification of a person to be a witness ... or the admissibility of evidence shall be determined by the court...."). Although found neither in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure nor in the Federal Rules of Evidence, Deghand v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 980 F. Supp. 1176, 1179 (D. Kan. 1997), motions in limine aid the trial process "by enabling the Court to rule in advance of trial on the relevance of certain forecasted evidence, as to issues that are definitely set for trial, without lengthy argument at, or interruption of, the trial." Palmieri v. Defaria, 88 F.3d 136, 141 (2d Cir. 1996). Motions in limine also may save the parties time, effort and cost in preparing and presenting their cases. Pivot Point Intern., Inc. v. Charlene Products, Inc., 932 F. Supp. 220, 222 (N.D. Ill. 1996). Often, however, the better practice is to wait until trial to rule on objections, particularly when admissibility substantially depends upon facts which may be developed there. See Sperberg v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 519 F.2d 708, 712 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 987 (1975). The movant has the burden of demonstrating that the evidence is inadmissible on any relevant ground, "for any purpose." Plair v. E.J. Brach & Sons, Inc., 864 F. Supp. 67, 69 (N.D. Ill. 1994). The court may deny a motion in limine when it "lacks the necessary specificity with respect to the evidence to be excluded." Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh v. L.E. Myers Co. Group, 937 F. Supp. 276, 287 (S.D.N.Y. 1996). Moreover, the court may alter an limine ruling based on developments at trial or sound judicial discretion. Luce, 469 U.S. at 41. Plaintiff premises his objection upon Federal Rule of Evidence 403, which provides: "Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence." Fed.R.Evid. 403. " 'Rule 403 was never intended to exclude relevant evidence simply because it is detrimental to one party's case.' " United States v. Perkins, 548 F.3d 510, 515 (7th Cir.2008) (quoting United States v. Dennis, 497 F.3d 765, 769 (7th Cir.2007)). Rather, the relevant inquiry is whether any unfair prejudice from the evidence substantially outweighs its probative value such that the jury may be induced to decide the case on emotional grounds or some other improper basis. See id.; United States v. Harris, 536 F.3d 798, 809 (7th Cir.2008). Evidence is relevant if it possesses "any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence ." Fed.R.Evid. 401. The inquiry that must be performed for a claim of excessive force is "whether the force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm." Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 6-7(1992). Factors to be considered include: "the need for an application of force, the relationship between that need and the force applied, the threat reasonably perceived by the responsible officers, the efforts made to temper the severity of the force employed, and the extent of the injury suffered by the prisoner." DeWalt v. Carter, 224 F.3d 607, 619-620 (7th Cir. 2000). Seventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instruction 7.15, setting forth the elements of an Eighth Amendment excessive force claim, provides that the jury may consider, among other things, the need to use force, the relationship between the need to use force and the amount of force used, and whether the defendant reasonably believed there was a threat to the safety of staff or prisoners. The first four minutes of the videotape show Plaintiff's and Defendants' words and actions, which bear on the factors the jury must consider. By viewing the time period leading up to the extraction, the jury will be able to assess whether the treat perceived by Defendants and their reactions were reasonable in context. Therefore, the video is relevant. Although the video could be perceived as depicting Plaintiff in an antagonistic and threatening manner, the Court does not perceive that any resulting prejudice is unfair. The Court does not perceive that watching the initial four minutes of video will invite or cause jurors to ignore limiting and/or cautionary instructions, or instructions regarding the burden of proof. Jurors are presumed to follow instructions, absent something that one could not reasonably be expected to be able to put out of one's mind. See Serafinn v. Local 722, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, 597 F.3d 908, 916 (7th Cir. 2010). IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Plaintiff Richard G. Titus's Motion in Limine (Doc. 107) is DENIED; the first four minutes of the videotape capturing the cell extraction at issue in this case will not be excerpted. MICHAEL J. REAGAN UNITED STATES ...	6,683	3,101	14,331.489842
warc	201704	United States District Court, S.D. Illinois BLUE TEE CORP. and GOLD FIELDS MINING, LLC., Plaintiffs, v. XTRA INTERMODAL, INC., X-L-CO., INC., XTRA LLC, XTRA COMPANIES, INC., and XTRA CORPORATION, Defendants. ORDER DONALD G. WILKERSON, Magistrate Judge. Now pending before the Court is the Motion for Leave to File Amended Affirmative Defenses filed by Defendants on August 29, 2014 (Doc. 84), the response filed by Plaintiffs on September 11, 2014 (Doc. 85), and the reply thereto filed by Defendants on October 29, 2014 (Doc. 96). For the reasons set forth below, the Motion is GRANTED. BACKGROUND In a Second Amended Complaint filed on February 13, 2014 (Doc. 69) pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9601, et seq., Plaintiffs allege that Defendants are liable for the costs associated with remediation at the Old American Zinc plant site located in Fairmont City, Illinois (hereinafter "property"). Blue Tee is the successor-in-interest to the American Zinc Company of Illinois, which operated a smelter on the property from 1916 to 1953. Gold Fields, through a 1993 contract, has agreed to indemnify and hold harmless Blue Tee for any remediation costs associated with the property. Defendants are interrelated corporations: Plaintiff alleges that XTRA Intermodal Inc., and X-L-Co., Inc. are subsidiaries of XTRA LLC; that XTRA LLC is a subsidiary of XTRA Companies, Inc.; and that XTRA Companies, Inc. is a subsidiary of XTRA Corporation. XTRA Corporation is further a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Plaintiff further alleges that each of Defendants, except for XTRA Corporation, are shell companies - the only asset of these companies is the property at issue which was purchased by Defendants in 1979. Plaintiffs allege that a by-product of the smelter operations located on the property (which was in operation from 1911 to 1953) included "slag" or "clinker" that was kept in piles on the northern part of the property. When Defendants purchased the property, they spread the clinker throughout the property, causing nuisance dust on neighboring properties and contributing to the contamination of the soil and groundwater. Beginning in 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") began an investigation of the site and Blue Tee conducted certain pre-remediation acts/studies/sampling from 2002 to 2009. Defendants allegedly did not participate in the remediation effort and did not cooperate with the requests or orders of the EPA. In 2012, the EPA developed a remediation plan, to be executed by Blue Tee, that would cost in excess of $11.4 million - Blue Tee (via Gold Fields) already has expended $4.5 million in performing tasks required by the EPA to remediate the property. Plaintiffs allege that the spreading the clinker throughout the property by Defendants magnified the costs associated with remediation and that Defendants must contribute to the costs. Defendants X-L-Co., Inc. and Xtra Intermodal, Inc. filed Answers to the Second Amended Complaint on March 3, 2014 (Docs. 70 and 71, respectively). Each Answer included 10 identical affirmative defenses. Defendants XTRA Companies, Inc., XTRA LLC, and XTRA Corporation filed their Answers on June 2, 2014 (after a ruling on a Motion to Dismiss) (Docs. 77, 78, and 79, respectively). Each of these answers include 13 identical affirmative defenses. None of the affirmative defenses asserted a statute of limitations defense. Defendants, collectively, now seek to amend their affirmative defenses to add the additional defense, among other things, of statute of limitations. Defendants allege that a claim of contribution under CERCLA must be made within 3 to 6 years of a "date of judgment or from the administrative order, or settlement that resolved the party's liability." Defendants further allege that while Blue Tee entered into a "tolling agreement" with XTRA Intermodal (and its predecessor X-L-Co., Inc.), no such agreement has been entered into with respect to the other Defendants or with Plaintiff Gold Fields. Thus, Defendants argue that the statute of limitations bars Plaintiffs' action. In opposition (Doc. 85), Plaintiffs focus on the statute of limitations defense, arguing that the defense is untimely because Defendants knew of the tolling agreement since its inception, in 2008, and that Gold Fields was added to this suit on November 14, 2013. Plaintiffs also claim that substantial prejudice would occur if the defense is allowed. Plaintiffs indicate that substantial discovery had occurred and that, at the fling of the motion, the parties were engaged in expert discovery. Discovery would need to be reopened at this stage of the litigation to "address all of the Defendants' theories concerning the statute of limitations." In light of the substantial argument made by Plaintiffs, Defendants were directed to respond and likewise focused on the statute of limitations defense (Doc. 96). Defendants note that, at the time the Motion was filed, there was still 5 months left to conduct discovery, that any discovery that may be necessary would be limited in nature, and that delay alone should not warrant denial of the motion. DISCUSSION Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c) provides that the defense of statute of limitations must be affirmatively pled in a responsive pleading. The purpose of the rule is to "avoid surprise and undue prejudice to the plaintiff by providing her notice and the opportunity to demonstrate why the defense should not prevail." Venters v. City of Delphi, 123 F.3d 956, 967 (7th Cir. 1997). However, Rule 15(a) permits a party to amend its pleading with the Court's leave, and leave is freely to be given "when justice so requires." Generally, leave would be denied if there is undue delay, bad faith, a dilatory motive, or when the amendment would unduly prejudice the non-moving party. See King v. Kramer, 763 F.3d 635, 643-644 (7th Cir. 2014). In the context of an affirmative defense: "Once the availability of an affirmative defense is reasonably apparent, the defendant must alert the parties and the court to his intent to pursue that defense. A defendant should not be permitted to lie behind a log and ambush a plaintiff with an unexpected defense." Venter, 123 F.3d at 967-968 (citations and quotation marks omitted). Nonetheless, if the Plaintiff allowed a meaningful response to the defense, undue prejudice will not be found. See Williams v. Lampe, 399 F.3d 867, 871 (7th Cir. 2005). Plaintiffs point out that Defendants should have been aware of their statute of limitations defense at least by the time that Gold Fields was added to this suit in November, 2013. They did not seek to add the defense until almost a year later. Certainly, such delay would not promote the speedy resolution of this matter. However delay alone is insufficient to justify denying a motion to amend. Dubicz v. Commonwealth Edison Co., 377 F.3d 787, 792-793 (7th Cir. 2004). Plaintiff further argue that they would be prejudiced because, at the time the motions were filed, fact discovery was almost completed and the parties were engaged in expert discovery. Since the motion was filed, however, the parties were still in the grips of fact discovery, as evidenced by the numerous discovery dispute conferences. And, again when the motion was filed, the discovery deadline was 5 months away. It is unclear to the Court was additional discovery would be required to counter a statutory defense that is partially based on a contract. Moreover, just as Defendants should have been aware of the defense prior, Plaintiffs cannot claim total surprise because Blue Tee also was a signatory to the contract at issue. Defendants shall be allowed to amend their Answers to include their affirmative defenses. As of the date of this Order, the discovery deadline has passed and the dispositive motion filing deadline is April 3, 2015 (Plaintiff has filed one motion for summary judgment as to two defendants on March 19, 2015 (Doc. 127)). Any prejudice that may be occasioned by the untimeliness of the defense can be remedied by allowing Plaintiffs a limited extension of time to meaningfully respond to the defense. The dispositive motion filing deadline (and Daubert Motion deadline) is STAYED and this matter is SET for a telephonic status conference on April 2, 2015 at 2:30 p.m. Defendants to initiate the conference call. The parties should be prepared ...	8,524	3,705	19,505.120648
warc	201704	Primary links About Us Research MEG Brain Imaging Ready Mind Project Outreach Support Us News & Events A new discovery to be published in the journal Developmental Science reports that speech directed to 11- to 14-month-old infants predicts both their concurrent and future language accomplishments, and points to practical information useful for parents. The first factor linked to success in language is the use of “parentese” (rather than standard adult-directed speech). The second factor predicting success is the “social context” in which language occurs: the more adults addressed infants in one-on-one social contexts the greater their language skills. The data suggest that quality not simply the quantity makes a difference. In the study, audio input to 26 children aged 11- to-14-months was recorded over a period of 4 days at home. Infants wore lightweight vests containing high quality mini recorders. The recordings captured everything the infants heard over a 4-day period. Specially designed software allowed I-LABS researchers to locate periods on the recordings during which language was addressed to the child. Children came to I-LABS at age 2 to assess their language skills. The results show that both the amount of babbling recorded at home in the 11-14 period and language at the age of 2 was advanced in children who heard more parentese and who were spoken to in one-on-one conversations. The study is the first to examine the use of parentese in home settings, and also the first to suggest that the social context in which learning occurs matters. Multimedia Print Media	1,624	847	3,062.016529
warc	201704	Happy New Year! We hope you all had an enjoyable holiday with friends and family as we say goodbye to the dusty, long hours of 2015 and welcome the shiny, new year of 2016. As we begin our fourth year of existence, we would like to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to all of you — our loyal readers and writers who provide lifeblood to the corpus that is in-Training. On behalf of Pager Publications, Inc. and the staff of in-Training, we are proud to announce the official launch of in-House, the online magazine for residents and fellows. in-House aims to build a community for new physicians as they navigate the monumental transitions in learning and personal growth in their graduate medical education. Back in April of this year, we came across an article published in JAMA Psychiatry that called to attention the poor state of mental health for many physicians-in-training. We were excited by the publication of this seminal piece, an opportunity for medical educators, students and institutions to have an earnest conversation about the ugly stain of burnout and suicide that tarnishes the healing profession. Anyone who has watched a newborn mature into a toddler — or has memorized the early developmental milestones in First Aid — can attest that immense transformation occurs in the first two years of life. Children are decidedly unaware of these formative years, oblivious to their own metamorphosis and only recognizing their transitional changes through photos, stories and their family’s fond memories. In a surprisingly similar fashion, medical students may also transition from their time as MS1s to MS3s to … He stood at the window, gazing out into the bleak, foggy morning. His fingers slowly traced words and symbols on the frost and then quickly wiped them away. His hands looked different he noted—the skin like tissue paper, thin and crisscrossed with fine lines. His veins raised and pulsing. He clenched his fist, wincing at the stiffness. He couldn’t remember when his hands changed. When they were last full and firm, strong enough to pick … A year and a half ago, we sat in a fancy restaurant in downtown Atlanta, grabbing a late dinner and jabbering excitedly about the sights and sounds of our first national conference. in-Training was barely a few hours old, little more than a few notes hastily scribbled on napkins. We joked that one day we would host our own conference, with medical students all over the country flying in to discuss shared experiences in medical education and … As we traveled back to Albany from our presentation at the American Association for Medical Colleges (AAMC) regional meeting in foggy Atlantic City, we reflected on our past year with in-Training in this update, the ceremonial 100th article on in-training.org. Just two weeks ago, on April 5, we celebrated our first birthday. One year since our official founding and 99 articles, 7,500 unique visitors and 65,000 pageviews later, in-Training has grown leaps and bounds, from a skeleton … My name is Aleena Paul, and I am a member of the Albany Medical College Class of 2016. I graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY, with an interdisciplinary major in biology and sociology, and am currently completing my MBA in Healthcare Management from Union Graduate College. During my time at Union, I developed my enthusiasm for journalism while serving as the managing editor of the college’s official newspaper, the Concordiensis, and as editor-in-chief of the sociology department’s Newsletter. I enter the medical field with special interests in bioethics, women’s health, and addressing the medical needs of our underserved communities. We are more than just medical students. The members of the medical student body are not scholars merely fixated on the long-sought title of “MD” or “DO.” We are distinct individuals with passions, curiosities and insurmountable complexity. As future physicians, to share these complexities with each other is to engage with the broader medical community. in-Training, the online newspaper for medical students, will be a forum for this collaboration.	4,219	2,137	8,141.860552
warc	201704	I learned to see the world through words. Words I picked over all day at school then curled up with long after I was supposed to be asleep. I reflect through writing, turn to all 1124 pages of my worn The Lord of the Rings in every difficult time, and dream best with my head pillowed on a book. Yet I never realized how fully these words and stories shape my experience of the world until I entered medical school, a space where the world is not often viewed through the lens of stories. In college, I took pre-med classes as a means to end: becoming a doctor. However, as a creative writing concentration English major, I really flourished in my writing courses. I immersed myself in the minds of book characters and authors, learning to understand myself and the people around me through fictional beings. My English courses were the land of “no right answers,” where every discussion centers on a “why” question. Why would a character take a certain action? Why would an author describe the character this way? Stories and poetry create worlds of ambiguities and shifting perspectives, inspiring and challenging each other. To appreciate these nuanced worlds, one must pay attention to details: their building blocks of words and punctuation. Like English, medical education requires attention to minute details. Take the stark white on black of X-rays or the gradients of darkness in ultrasound. First, we learn which parts of the body will show up as bright or opaque, what it would mean for a line to be sharp or blurry. Then using this information, we build an image of the body. Suddenly, a shadow in the ultrasound field, one I may not even have seen a second ago, is called a gallbladder. There is often strange dissociation between how these body parts are viewed in medical school versus the “outside” world. On the outside, blood gushes forth red and panic-inducing. But in my life right now, blood exists as the shades of pink and blue polka dots on pathology images. Those tiny cells, smeared onto glass and fluorochrome-stained, now huge on the projection screen. This language consists of shape and color: which cell is pinker, denser or has nuclei off-center? We use these details to name what we see, normal process or disease. This progression from learning to read these images to understanding them seems linear, yet, for me, it’s fraught with difficulty. While reading stories, I easily build myself mental bridges from the mechanics of language to its grander purposes. I savor words and turns of phrase for pleasure. I expand my view of the world by being in someone else’s head. I travel, crossing continents or scoping out imaginary societies. I dissect stories, interpreting those building blocks of style, word choice, even spelling — but all this leads towards understanding, towards absorbing the words and applying them to the world I live in. Whether my sense of justice, honor, spirituality or love, each has been filtered through the words of countless authors. I miss this in medicine. I learn to read CT scans and X-rays and turn their myriad shades into coherent diagnoses. Yet as I do so, it remains hard for me to build to their grander purposes. After all, learning to navigate these multivariate languages of medicine is a feat in itself, one our medical education revolves around. One day, we may be studying the (literal) Latin of anatomy terms. Another, we may start listening for the sound of an irregular heartbeat. With all the effort learning each of these skills requires, interpreting them becomes an end in itself. This cloudy gray shadow is a pleural effusion on X-ray. That bright spot is a tumor on MRI. But why are we learning these things? If I am looking for a larger meaning, then I am seeking the reason behind these diagnoses. Where is the patient in our medicine? Stories draw me closer to people: author, narrator, character or — in happy times — someone else reading the same work. Yet, in medicine, we learn many of our skills in a vacuum. Eventually we may read an X-ray to help treat a patient, but right now it does not apply to anyone needing treatment. The pathology slide we examine has no connection with the full constellation of a person’s existence, and perhaps it never will. After all, we are not expected to interpret every kind of test once we graduate medical school. We are destined to sub-divide and specialize. Pathologists will immerse themselves in their slides, radiologists in their scans, and so forth. So, what does learning all these methods teach us? I hope to learn from these medical methods again what reading taught me without my knowing it: there exist countless ways to understand people. A poetic stanza, a phrase of prose, a word in a foreign language or one made up — each exposes humanity differently. As doctors, we are meant to treat our patients, to heal their bodies. To do this and understand someone else’s body, we examine it with our tools. X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs, physical exams, blood tests or pathology slides — none is an end in itself. Each is a different lens placed over the body to show us something not otherwise apparent. I hope we recognize these lenses as such: mechanisms refracting a portion of a patient’s reality for us to see. None can reflect a patient or her body in totality. Instead, each becomes another way we could learn about ourselves or those who surround us, another story we can read.	5,515	2,675	11,186.68785
warc	201704	Web Only / Features » January 4, 2016 The Bankruptcy of India’s Economic and Political “Miracle” India is neither the vibrant global South democracy nor the poster child for globalization’s benefits that global political elites have insisted it is for over a decade. Hiro’s work provides a stunning indictment of the fashionable idea echoed endlessly by mainstream pundits of a politically and economically healthy, thriving, democratic India. In 2008, under the aegis of a Congress Party-led coalition government in India, the country was rocked by one of the biggest scandals of graft and corruption it had ever seen. The scandal was led by Andimuthu Raja, a member of a regional party that had formed a coalition with the old dynastic Congress Party, who became the minister of communications in 2007. The scandal, the “2G spectrum” scam, involved the sale of bandwidth licenses to select telecom companies at underpriced rates. In exchange, Raja received millions of rupees in kickbacks. The loss to the Indian government due to the 2G spectrum scandal was estimated between US$8-10 billion. In 2011, Time ranked the scandal second on an “Abuses of Power” list—right behind Watergate. Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided Raj’s residence, finding bank notes in pillowcases and suitcases, it became clear that the corruption scandal implicated not just one minister but India’s political system as a whole. Raja was immediately arrested but the court cases—and insistent calls by opposition parties to investigate the role in the scandal of then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—rumbled on for years. The 2G spectrum may be one of the most egregious cases of graft the country has ever seen, but such scandals are now a routine feature of politics in modern India. Without fail, with each scam, corruption is revealed as extending all the way to the uppermost echelons of the Indian political establishment. This India, depicted in elaborate detail in Dilip Hiro’s The Age of Aspiration, is neither the vibrant global South democracy nor the beneficiary of globalization par excellence that global political elites have insisted it is for over a decade. Instead, it is a country mired in a corrupt nexus of businessmen and politicians, spectacular wealth juxtaposed to ever-deepening penury and the brutal suppression of all those opposed to India’s neoliberal path. As such, Hiro’s work serves as a much-needed rejoinder to the global image of “India Shining,” an electoral marketing slogan invented by India’s ruling political party. Today, the ruling political party, the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), garners much negative publicity because of the rising culture of intolerance of minorities its rule has ushered in. International spectators are surprised by the extreme turns they see India taking of late. But in Hiro’s account, the business-friendly policies of successive Congress and BJP governments have for decades been fashioning an Indian image of gleaming new cities and thriving IT infrastructures that hides the deep corruption and poverty that have accompanied India’s pro-business policies. In turn, the brutal suppression of dissent and deepening inequality have long accompanied these reforms. The Modi government only deepens the rot and ruin that previous governments accomplished. Hiro begins his account with the city of Gurgaon, which he calls “New India in miniature, with all its achievements and failures. … But scrape the surface ever so slightly and you discover a dark, Dickensian underbelly.” Hiro’s focused narrative elucidates how corporate executives jet to and from their Western multinational offices in Gurgaon, a city built upon an underclass that populates the slums dotting the periphery of Gurgaon. It is a vivid account of the concerted effort on the part of Indian politicians to give wide, often illegal, berths to corporations in Gurgaon and facilitate massive construction projects that enabled the return and settlement of wealthy expatriate Indians to Gurgaon to helm its many corporations. Appropriately, The Age of Aspirations is replete with colorful and sordid tales of sleaze and corruption that follow politicians and businessmen alike—characters who Hiro unfailingly introduces with flamboyant physical descriptions. (He describes the CEO of a large steel plant as a ”slight man with a skinny, tapered face … jug-eared.” Later on, the populist social activist Anna Hazare is introduced as a man with ”fat, crumpling cheeks.”) Many of Hiro’s stories are traced back to the reverberations of Delhi’s 1991 introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP). A set of pro-corporate reforms that followed after India was granted an IMF loan requiring the reduction of the fiscal deficit, the NEP is seen by many who follow the political economy of India as the main driver for the precipitous economic growth that India saw towards the end of the century. The twin moves of providing the private sector untrammeled access to public licenses and resources like coal and steel, and disinvestment from the public sector allowed India to join the ranks of the “emerging economies,” but did little but make things worse for the immensely poor. As Hiro describes in detail, the NEP put India on what the country’s elites saw as a righteously neoliberal path—one in which few other than the wealthy and connected would gain. Two decades after the introduction of the NEP, income inequality in India had doubled. The structure of Hiro’s narrative provides a compelling case for just how distorted of a “democracy” India has become. The book begins with tales of colossal wealth and segues to an in-depth chronicling of immense corruption scandals brought to the fore by intrepid Indian journalists. In a subsequent section of the book that deals with the anticorruption activist Anna Hazare, whose Gandhi-inspired civil disobedience tactics to force an anticorruption bill through parliament inspired a larger anticorruption movement, Hiro is entirely justified when he writes: “Team Anna’s statements echoed what Maoists had been saying for a long while. At their core, there was no difference between political parties, and politicians of all hues were united in safeguarding the privileges that the political class enjoyed.” Hiro’s major achievement is his exhaustive account of the development of an all-powerful political class. His broader arguments, however, hold up less well in his discussion of the decades-long Maoist insurgency in India. A splinter group from the Communist Party of India, Maoist guerillas (the Communist Part of India [Maoist] or colloquially, the Naxalites) have held de facto control of parts of the Indian mainland; in 1967, the Naxalite movement spread from a peasant uprising in Naxalbari, northern Bengal, to the countryside and cities of southern and eastern India. Clashing regularly with Indian paramilitary agencies and the army over the years, Maoist guerillas have consistently waged armed struggle, Mao’s “people’s war” against the Indian establishment in response to exploitation of India’s mineral-rich heartland by private mining companies—companies essentially given blank checks by political parties at the cost of mass displacement, disenfranchisement and brutal repression of the indigenous Adivasi population. Hiro’s foray into the oft-neglected Naxalite strongholds is evocative and important, given the lack of critical writing on the Naxalite insurgency. He seems largely sympathetic to the Naxalite cause, which feels warranted given the broad impact that pro-corporate policies and the privatization of natural resources have had on the Adivasi population. But his tendency to gloss over the diversity of leftist politics in India as well as the conditions that have led the Indian Left in to deep crisis leaves his narrative woefully incomplete. When the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) formed in 1969, it subsequently splintered into numerous groups, which today form a vast continuum of left groups. Some of these groups have allied with far-right groups like the BJP in order to better jockey for political power; others, like the CPI (M) are seen as centrist, to have lost their revolutionary credentials because of a stubborn faith in electoral politics; yet others like the Naxalites, with a strong Adivasi and rural base in the peasant population, are perceived by many in the Indian Left to be blind to criticism. The modus operandi of the Naxalite insurgents has had a powerful effect on fragmenting the Indian Left in recent years, largely due to an over-reliance on the use of shockingly violent insurgency tactics. Despite this, today due to brutal onslaughts by the army, paramilitary forces and local forces, the Naxalite insurgency is restricted mainly to the forests of eastern India. Meanwhile, CPI (M) governments in West Bengal and Kerala, quite apart from the mainstream Indian political parties, have their own history of violent reprisals against the Naxalite movement, while in no small way doing their own part to institute economic liberalization policies where in power, while being ostensibly “Communist.” Though there is clearly a great deal of room for nuanced analysis in the history of the Indian Left, particularly in any discussion of armed insurrections of dispossessed rural and indigenous populations, Hiro does not seem to want to tackle the subject head-on. Instead, he saves the bulk of his invective for the powers that allow mining giants like Tata Steel and Jindal Steel to lay waste to huge segments of northeast India. But today, with the even more business-friendly Modi government setting the stage for a broader confrontation with the Naxalities by relaxing environmental and regulatory rules to allow unrestrained private activity, an honest reckoning of the history of CPI factions and the state of the Indian Left—one which Hiro is entirely capable of doing justice to—is vital. The question of how to build popular support and connect the plethora of leftist and progressive groups is a pertinent one. In April 2014, the CPI (M) announced the formation of an 11-party front for the imminent elections. The deep divisions within left-wing splinter groups briefly seemed as if they might be overcome by the coalition, but the merger lasted a mere two weeks, mainly as a consequence of internal discord. Progressive forces that can provide a bulwark against the far-right forces that have ravaged India over the last few decades with rapacious neoliberal policies, provide a remarkable counterpoint to the prevailing international narrative of India as a free-market success story. The Age of Aspirations is meticulously researched and exhaustively detailed, but it fails to draw together Hiro’s powerful narrative with an overarching analysis about the possibilities for social progress—a weakness most obvious when the story of the Naxalites comes in to focus. Still, Hiro’s work provides a stunning indictment of the fashionable idea echoed endlessly by mainstream pundits of a politically and economically healthy, thriving, democratic India. The Modi government, led by a man involved in one of the worst state-sponsored sectarian massacres of the last few decades, brings to the fore right-wing bigotry, a pro-business mindset and a stunning insensitivity to the plight of India’s poor like perhaps none before. Particularly now, many a clarion call is required to remind Western observers that India has neither the wholesome democratic traditions nor the unblemished socioeconomic prospects it has long been touted to have. Fortunately, Hiro’s work serves as just that. Never has independent journalism mattered more. Help hold power to account: Subscribe to In These Times magazine, or make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting. Kamil Ahsan Kamil Ahsan is a doctoral student in developmental biology at the University of Chicago and a freelancer writer. Follow him on Twitter: @kamuleosaurus.	12,351	5,597	26,500.475076
warc	201704	Sowing the seeds of dissent The IPKat has found a curiosity on BAILII. This is a decision of the Court of Appeal (Lords/Ladies Justices Ward, Arden and Moore-Bick) last Wednesday in Gorne v Scales, Taylor and Bill, an extraordinarily rare split decision on how to assess damages for breach of a duty of confidentiality in respect of material held on a database. The information in question was customer information that was stored in a card index and computer database belonging to a business called Seeds Direct. Gorne was a partner in the first business that owned the data, but not in a subsequent partnership - set up after the original one was dissolved - which actually used the card index data commercially. The trial judge (Kevin Garnett QC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the Chancery Division) directed that there be an inquiry as to the damage suffered by Gorne on the assumption that her loss be measured by reference to the value of the confidential information. The Court of Appeal (Arden LJ dissenting) allowed the appeal and ordered a fresh inquiry. In the Court's opinion * the method adopted by the master proceeded on the erroneous assumption that the former partnership was a well established business that could be valued as a going concern. In truth its only real asset was the card index, but the dissolved partnership was in no position to make any use of it other than by selling it on the open market. This being so, Gorne's loss had to be assessed by reference to the value of the index on the open market at the time of its removal, not by reference to the use to which it was subsequently put by the new partnership.The IPKat notes that "willing seller/willing buyer" is still a permissible. He got the impression that a differently-constituted Court of Appeal in Reed v Reed was not so enthusiastic about it. * the master's approach was not so much to inquire into the damage suffered by Gorne as to create an account of the profits wrongfully gained through the misuse of the information. * the correct measure of damages in this sort of case was to establish the market value of the confidential information on a sale between a willing seller and a willing buyer at the time of the dissolution of the former partnership. Secret seeds here Primal seeds here Wimbledon seeds here	2,316	1,109	4,817.864743
warc	201704	تجزیه و تحلیل هزینه و سود اجتماعی از سرمایه گذاری درون کانکتور الکتریسیته: ارزیابی انتقادی کد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات 23491 2011 10 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید محاسبه نشده Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت) Journal : Energy Policy, Volume 39, Issue 6, June 2011, Pages 3096–3105 چکیده انگلیسی This paper examines the economic analysis (social cost-benefit analysis) underlying two decisions to build an interconnector (NorNed and the East–West interconnector) in Europe. The main conclusion is that current interconnector and transmission investment decisions in Europe are unlikely to maximize social welfare. The arguments are as follows. (i) It is unclear how much demand for transmission capacity and interconnectors actually exists, and thus the benefits of investment are unclear. (ii) Both analyses underlying the investments studied are incorrect, to the point where, in one case, even the sign may be wrong. (iii) The main criticism concerns the fact that they do not take the resulting changes in generator investment plans into account and ignore the (potential) benefits of increased competition. (iv) Several smaller issues can be improved, such as the discount rate used. (v) Decisions at the European level are taken very differently, and approval may depend on which authority grants approval. (vi) Interconnector decisions receive the most attention, although most money goes to transmission investments. Two research recommendations for future improvements are formulated. مقدمه انگلیسی Transmission and interconnection capacity between different markets or TSO regions should be increased and investment is insufficient according to many including the European Commission and the European TSO's (EC: European Commission, 2007b and EC: European Commission, 2008b; ERGEG, 2009, p. 8; ENTSO-E 2010; see also ECF: European Climate Foundation, 2010 and PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2010).1 This new capacity should increase trade between cheap and expensive production areas, fight the market dominance of incumbents and increase competition, connect more renewable energy sources to the grid and increase security of supply (EC: European Commission, 2007b, EC: European Commission, 2008b and ERGEG: European Regulators' Group for Electricity and Gas, 2009). Consentec and Frontier Economics (2008, p. 7) estimate transmission investments needed to exceed €100 billion.2ENTSO-E (2010, p. 126) estimates the investment required up to 2020 to cost between €57 and €64 billion for about 42,100 km of new or refurbished network routes; this is about 14% of the total ENTSO-E transmission network of 300,000 km. About 25% of these new network routes will be new DC links, like the two cases studied here (ENTSO-E, 2010, p. 15). Given the vast amounts of investment at stake, careful decisions are necessary. Therefore, this paper focuses at two European cost-benefit analysis used to underpin actual investments, to test whether CBAs currently made are delivering efficient and adequate investments. In a social cost-benefit analysis (CBA),3 costs and benefits measure all differences in society with and without a project. Not only effects for the decision maker are included but also the externalities. This is done for all potentially good project alternatives. Methodologically there are two alternative methods: more limited cost-benefit calculations, and multi-criteria analysis (MCA). Sometimes, a cost-benefit calculation is made without including all of social costs and benefits; for example, in PJM the investment decision is based on reliability reasons or solely on congestion revenues in the case of market investment (see Joskow, 2005a and Joskow, 2005b). This is unlikely to lead to socially optimal investment if external effects are important, or if both congestion and reliability benefit from a single investment. In an MCA, projects are scored on various criteria, such as physical quantities, money and expert judgements. Weights are allocated to the criteria before the scores are combined into an overall rating for each project. The basis for the allocated weights is not always clear but often includes the preferences of policy makers or researchers involved. The double-counting of effects is more difficult to avoid than with a CBA because strict criteria for the inclusion of effects are lacking (Eijgenraam et al., 2000). An example of an MCA is the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (CESI, 2009). The criteria used are the benefit/cost ratio, where benefits refer only to market benefits and costs refer to investment costs, timing for the authorization and construction, and risks. Because it was impossible to determine the weights, CESI used equal weights. This has the drawback that relatively unimportant criteria or overlapping criteria (like the time required to realize a project, which is also included in the discounted value of the future benefits) are overrated. The strength of a CBA is that all the effects need to be formulated precisely. A downside is that it is hard to determine how to use each factor in the CBA (such as the uncertainties related to quantifying the costs and benefits). MCA can deal with less strict criteria more easily. MCA and CBA both try to determine what the (physical) consequences of a specific project will be. While the MCA leaves it to the decision maker in dialog/debate with society to make the trade off, CBA tries to infer the weights by establishing how citizens make these trade-offs by expressing all effects in monetary terms. Therefore CBA is likely to get closer to answering the question of what happens to welfare than MCA. Therefore this article focuses on CBA. A CBA also seems to be in line with ERGEG and ENTSO-E policy. The European Regulators' Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG 2010, p. 2) uses several criteria to judge the work of ENTSO-E on the desirability of new transmission capacity. ERGEG uses technical criteria (including a thermal criterion, stability criterion, voltage and reactive power criteria and short-circuit criterion) and several economic criteria to assess the social welfare arising from possible investment. The socio-economic evaluation should include a CBA, which should include investment costs, project risk analysis, change in losses and possible synergies and dependencies between the projects. It also includes socio-economic criteria such as: the exchange of ancillary services; the value of a more integrated market, for example by managing price differentials effectively across congested areas; the improved welfare of end-customers within the European market; the risk and costs of energy and/or power shortages (security of supply) and generation optimization (generation according to the merit order). How these various criteria should be weighted is not specified. ENTSO-E (2010, pp. 16–17) states that TSOs must use the following four criteria to evaluate investments in new transmission projects. (i) The investment should maintain or improve current high reliability to which end-users are accustomed. (ii) Investment should positively address social welfare. To this aim, cost-benefit analyses are undertaken by TSOs for every transmission project. (iii) New technological advances are taken into account. (iv) Grid planning should anticipate long-run perspectives beyond the following 10 years. This is an analysis of CBAs as mentioned by ENTSO-E under (ii). This paper focuses at two large investments to increase interconnection capacity. However, capacity can also increase because of smaller measures, like changes in the operation, the allocation mechanism, congestion management,4 the relaxation of reliability standards and investment in IT systems or small investment (see Hirst, 2000, Joskow, 2005b, Léautier and Thelen, 2009, Turvey, 2006 and Kirschen and Stribac, 2004). Some of the objectives of more interconnection (i.e. more competition between generators) can also be reached with other measures like favouring entry (Küpper et al., 2009), or breaking up the largest companies (Tanaka, 2009). Although it is important for a CBA also to include low-cost solutions, this article does not discuss this in more detail. To illustrate its importance two examples follow. In 2004 capacity worth almost €50 million was not utilized on the Dutch–German border, almost half the total value of this interconnector capacity (EC, 2007a, p. 185). Under-using and misusing of the UK–France interconnector amounted to €289 million from 2002 to 2005 (Bunn and Zachmann, 2010). The importance of improving the use of existing interconnectors has been seen and improvements are underway. For example, market coupling between Belgium, the Netherlands and France reduced congestion: the percentage of time the prices between the Netherlands and France differed fell from 90% to 37% after market coupling in 2007 was established (see ERGEG: European Regulators' Group for Electricity and Gas, 2009 and Küpper et al., 2009). In a CBA, all costs and benefits are relevant. The costs include investment costs, operational and maintenance costs, environmental impact, real options, the impact on electricity loss and other system costs (frequency control, spinning reserve and other ancillary services costs). The costs mainly follow directly from calculations made by engineers. On the benefit side, two benefits stand out: efficiency benefits and security of supply benefits (or reliability benefits).5 Efficiency benefits, including trade and competition benefits, can arise from investing in interconnection and transmission because an extended network increases the possibilities for trade and competition between generators. In the short run, this can increase allocative efficiency (the electricity goes to the consumer with the greatest willingness to pay; redistribution cannot improve welfare) and productive efficiency (the same electricity cannot be made at a lower cost by having some producers produce more and others less). Allocative and productive efficiency also include the absence of mark-ups over the marginal cost based on market power, since these mark-ups distort the optimal allocation of goods among consumers, of production among producers and the optimal quantity produced. More competition may also reduce x-inefficiency (where firms could produce at a lower cost than they actually do)6 and it may influence dynamic efficiency (through investments in R&D and new technologies). Increase in reliability is often the main reason behind grid investments (Joskow, 2005b). Valuing increased reliability requires (i) an estimate of the increase of reliability (e.g. the decrease in MWH of electricity not delivered due to interruptions) and (ii) a valuation of increased reliability (difficult, but possible, see de Nooij et al., 2007). Often a distinction is made between investments necessary to maintain reliability (by meeting certain engineering reliability criteria) and investments to facilitate the market (including all non-reliability benefits; see, for example AER, 2007). Joskow (2005b, p. 2,3) asserts that this is ‘nonsense’: reliability investments can have significant effects on trading opportunities and on the use of operating reserves.7 The 42,100 km of new network routes needed in Europe ENTSO-E (2010, p. 15) gives three reasons why they are needed: connecting renewable to the grid accounts for 20,000 km, security of supply for 26,000 km and the internal energy market for 28,500 km. The sum total being larger than 42,100 km indicates that lines are built for several reasons. This article investigates the underpinning of investment decisions in interconnectors in more detail, using CBA as a reference point. I use two case studies to shed more light on this issue. 2 and 3 study the economic underpinning of two decisions to build an interconnector in Europe: NorNed between the Netherlands and Norway, and the East–West Interconnector between Ireland and the UK. These cases were selected since they are published (in English) in more detail than other cases, allowing a detailed analysis.8 The aim of this article is to critically assess the argumentation used to support the investment decision in these two cases, using CBA as the reference point to establish the effects of the investment on economic welfare. Section 4 discusses the lessons for evaluating investment decisions in international interconnections in general and offers recommendations for further research. نتیجه گیری انگلیسی Several lessons arise in the comparison of the business case for the Irish East–West interconnector with the CBA approach. First, the largest benefit is an increase in the security of supply, estimated in terms of avoiding the expense of a new generator, which would otherwise be needed to maintain security of supply at the same level. Imports from the UK are assumed to be always possible. However, the non-dispatchable capacity in the UK has neither been taken into account, nor has the fact that UK generators will invest less to reduce abundant capacity, reducing the possibility for low-cost imports. Second, competition benefits were cited as important, but are not quantified. Third, the benefits of reduced wind curtailment are crucially dependent on new investment in wind energy and the extent to which the system can handle it, as well as the correlation between wind in Ireland and in the UK. Fourth, the business case overestimates the benefits of reduced carbon credit payments on imported electricity because now the Irish power importers will have to buy these permits in the UK instead of in Ireland. Fifth, the discounting seems to be too negative; the social benefits are calculated using the pre-tax WACC instead of the post-tax WACC. Sixth, the calculation available is less detailed than the one available for the NorNed cable. But like in the Dutch case, the interconnector investment is published in more detail than domestic investment although this latter requires more money.20 The main conclusion is that EirGrid's conclusion that the East–West Interconnector is socially attractive does not stand up to scrutiny, the true conclusion could be negative instead of positive.	15,364	6,436	34,019.944686
warc	201704	تنزیل استفاده از خویشتن داری، مدیریت رفتار مشکل و خطر ابتلا به اوتیسم شدید کد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات 31526 2013 10 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید محاسبه نشده Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت) Journal : Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 7, Issue 10, October 2013, Pages 1211–1220 چکیده انگلیسی The current study examined whether a history of experience with children with autism affected the rate of discounting of a delayed or probable consequence. Experiment 1 utilized a temporal discounting task to compare the discounting rates of adults who have worked in an autism service setting and have experience with physical restraints to that of adults who have little or no experience with these populations. The results showed that adults with a history of contact with autism made less optimal choices and discounted restraint responsibilities more steeply than adults with no such history, indicating increased avoidance of engaging in restraints. Experiment 2 investigated how the same groups discounted child problem behavior, and showed that those with experience with autism preferred to delay working with children with severe problem behavior and discounted the student's problem behavior more steeply, again demonstrating increased avoidance. Experiment 3 examined risk tendencies in relation to having children with diminished functioning in parents who have children with autism and those who have only worked with them. Results showed that parents made riskier choices than non-parents. Overall, all 3 experiments showed that those with increased experience with children with autism tended toward more impulsive and risky choices. مقدمه انگلیسی Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have increased at an alarming rate in recent years. Now approximately 1 in every 88 children receives the diagnosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). With the rapid rise in diagnoses, families with children with autism will also seek treatment at increasing rates. Beyond understanding the behavior of the children with autism, then, a further analysis of the decision making and behavior of service providers will become increasingly important. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported a turnover rate of approximately 50% for direct support professionals serving individuals with intellectual disabilities or other developmental disabilities in vocational programs and residential programs. Additionally, an estimated 96% of all direct support professionals hired in this area will be hired to replace those leaving their current positions. Skinner (1972) suggested that the positive behavior of even the most compassionate care workers will not last if the environment is not supportive of these behaviors, and the facts on turnover appear to support this position in regard to those who work with children with disabilities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006). An analysis of factors relating to these problems is warranted so that the environment of these service providers may be effectively altered and the future of effective services is not compromised. Relative to the vast body of research on treatment and assessment of autism populations, investigations of staff behavior and choices are relatively few. For example, working with children with frequent challenging behavior and/or administering physical restraints may be burdensome tasks for staff who work with aggressive populations. An analysis of interviews with staff following engagement in a physical restraint demonstrated that staff primarily report negative emotions and discomfort (Hawkins, Allen, & Jenkins, 2005). Also, when working with clients with challenging behavior, brief training packages with instruction, role play, and rehearsal have been shown to increase confidence working with these populations, though no effects were observed for coping or perceived control (McDonnell et al., 2008), and staff who avoid such training exercises are unlikely to improve (Campbell, 2007). Much of the research in this area has identified problems such as these, and further variables must be examined to determine their influence to form a more comprehensive account of staff behavior and choices. One particular area that may be troublesome for staff in the field of autism services is the delay to consequences. For example, intervention or other effective treatments may require an extended exposure before problem behavior is significantly reduced, or the child may require a large number of trials before demonstrating mastery in an academic task or demonstrating independence in a skill. The effects of delay to consequences or the probability that a consequence will be contacted following a certain choice can have major influences on decision making and current behavior. In order to quantify the effect that a delayed or probabilistic outcome will have on current behavior, a discounting task is often employed. In tasks of this type, participants are often presented hypothetical choices between a consequence available immediately (or for sure) versus a consequence that is often more advantageous, but is available only after a certain delay (or will be received at a certain probability). Those who more readily choose the immediate consequences of lesser value are then deemed impulsive, while those who make more optimal choices and choose to wait for a consequence of larger value are deemed self-controlled (Critchfield & Kollins, 2001). Once a discounting task has been completed, the devaluation of rewards to be received after a delay can be predicted by a hyperbolic discounting function: equation(1) View the MathML sourceV=A1+bXS Turn MathJax on In the previous equation, V is the subjective value of the reward, A is the maximum reward amount available, X is the delay to the reward or the odds against earning the reward, b is the discounting rate, and s is a non-linear scaling parameter (e.g., Holt, Green, & Myerson, 2003). Once the data obtained from a discounting task is plotted using this equation, responding toward delayed or probabilistic rewards can be predicted. These models of impulsivity have shown high consistency in comparison to scenarios where actual outcomes were available as choices ( Johnson & Bickel, 2002), have been found to produce an accurate model of responding (e.g., Dixon et al., 2006, Johnson and Bickel, 2002 and Kirby and Marakovic, 1995), and show strong reliability when a variety of commodities are used such as body image, dating, retirement, or money ( Weatherly, Derenne, & Terrell, 2011). Examinations of delay discounting in various populations or clinical groups have provided behavioral researchers and service providers with knowledge and tools to further understand the behavior and choices of members of these populations and create interventions or programs that will more effectively remedy problems related to delayed consequences and risk. For example, Reed and Martens (2011) administered a brief delay discounting task in an elementary school classroom where children were asked to choose between a small amount of a reward available immediately and a larger amount of a reward that they could have later. After this assessment, students were rewarded during instruction with tokens for on-task behavior that could be traded for access to items after a short delay. Later, students were rewarded with tokens that could only be exchanged before instruction the next day. Overall, the responses to the delay discounting task predicted the children's adaptability to the newly implemented schedules. That is, more impulsive children were observed to be more on-task when reinforcement was available after minimal delays, and the behavior of students deemed more self-controlled in the assessment improved even under the conditions where the rewards were delayed. Further, insights into impulsivity and self-control have led to the development of methods to train more self-controlled decision making and tolerance to delay through the manipulation of reward quality and effort (Neef, Bicard, & Endo, 2001), experience with progressive delays (Schweitzer & Sulzer-Azaroff, 1988), and the availability of other activities to “bridge the gap” to the final reward (Dixon & Cummings, 2001). Discounting studies have produced similar understanding of behavior and decision making in other clinical populations such as problem and pathological gamblers (Dixon et al., 2006 and Dixon and Holton, 2009) adult smokers (Reynolds, Richards, Horn, & Karraker, 2004), adolescent smokers (Reynolds, Karraker, Horn, & Richards, 2003), children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Wilson, Mitchell, Musser, Schmitt, & Nigg, 2011) and so on. Due to the frequency of delays to reinforcement involved in work in the field of autism, researchers may wish to employ similar methods of investigation to determine how delayed consequences affect staff behavior and decision making and how impulsive behavior may develop through contact with children with autism. Similar to staff who work with clients with autism, the choice behavior of parents may be an important area for investigation in the future construction of a comprehensive treatment model. For example, Hastings et al. (2005) examined choice of coping strategies for parents with children with ASD, and found that parents frequently choose avoidance, denial, problem-focused, or positive coping methods to deal with their parenting responsibilities. Further, parents with avoidance or denial strategies reported significantly greater anxiety and depression, which may warrant consideration if parents are to provide daily care or continue a treatment regimen in the home setting. Probability discounting, or an examination of risk and avoidance tendencies, may also have applications in the field of autism, but are rarely utilized to investigate the responses of parents. First, for example, parents of children with autism may encounter a probabilistic choice scenario when selecting among treatment options. There exist several empirically supported treatment regimens, such as behavioral therapy or other highly structured educational practices, demonstrated to be higher probability solutions. However, despite the frequently reported success of such intensive interventions, no single form of therapy will produce the same outcomes for every child due to idiosyncrasies of the environment, problem behaviors, or family configuration so outcomes always remain probabilistic to a certain degree. Still, some parents continue to choose unproven, lower probability solutions, such as facilitated communication or fad diets, despite the frequent availability of more advantageous options (Schreibman, 2000). Last, causes of autism such as vaccinations or poor parenting practices that lack empirical support still circulate and affect behavior (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). An analysis of probabilistic outcomes may further our understanding of how adults or parents with children with autism behave and make choices, so that choice scenarios may be manipulated to promote better decision making. Overall, both probability and delay discounting research may provide a useful methodology with which to build the necessary knowledge base to be able to more fully understand and predict behavior and to more effectively manipulate the environment to promote more optimal choice making for parents and staff. Further, investigations outside of typical delay discounting involving hypothetical amounts of money may provide further insight as to whether impulsivity and self-control are state variables that can change due to context or whether these variables are a trait or personality characteristic. The argument is currently unresolved. For example, pathological gamblers completing a delay discounting task in a neutral location will demonstrate more self-controlled choices than when completing the same task in a gambling context where triggers related to their gambling problems are prevalent suggesting that one's level of impulsivity may be subject to context and easily influenced by the immediate environment (Dixon et al., 2006). However, studies involving repeated measures or discounting of various commodities provide evidence that impulsivity is pervasive in one's repertoire (Odum, 2011) and recent neurological evidence shows that impulsivity may be associated with activation of brain regions involved in executive control and mental stimulation (Yu, 2012), which may suggest a more permanent trait-like tendency to behave impulsively. Thus, the purposes of the current study are to apply delay and probability discounting methodology in areas related to autism to build a further understanding of choice behavior by service staff and parents, how experience with children with ASD shapes those decisions, and to provide a basic foundation on which to build interventions to support the positive behavior of staff and parents. In addition, the study proposes to examine novel commodities rarely examined with discounting methodology to provide further evidence in the argument of whether impulsivity is a state or trait variable. Experiment 1 examined patterns of discounting of adults in the field of rehabilitation and adults with little or no interaction with children with ASD by employing a delay discounting task to assess decision making in regard to administration of physical restraints to children engaging in aggressive behaviors. Experiment 2 compared the responding of the same groups, but in regard to the delayed provision of services to children with ASD demonstrating varying severity of problem behavior. Experiment 3 examined the choice behavior of parents of children with ASD and other adults who have only worked with these children and how the risk of giving birth to a child with ASD affects choice.	14,873	5,982	34,775.769141
warc	201704	I’m used to working from anyplace and (sigh) anytime. Getting to work usually involves guzzling coffee rather than driving my gas-guzzler to the office. But I am employed by a publishing company that was born in the digital age and produces content for online consumption. When a business the size and maturity of Kraft Foods ($49 billion in revenue, 108 years old, operations in 75 countries) decides that it’s in the company’s best interest to untether its employees with mobile devices and virtual communities, how we work in the digital age is no longer about some future state of knowledge workers. It’s mainstream. If you have any doubts, this maker of real things (Oreos, Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Trident and Tang) is trying to turn this digital state of working into a commodity with its own internal brand name and slogan — as you’ll read about in my story next week on SearchCIO.com. Roberta Cadieux, director for information systems service delivery at Kraft, recounts the IT department’s efforts to harness the mobile gadgets and ubiquitous networks that employees increasingly take for granted into a coherent IT-business strategy — and the difficulty of selling the strategy (as opposed to the gadgets) to employees. The transformation of how work gets done at Kraft extends to its physical offices, where “open innovative spaces” are replacing traditional cubicles and offices. The rank and file no longer are assigned desks. Employees can work from wherever when they are in the office. Wall-huggers — people who have worked at Kraft for years and feel they’ve earned the right to a corner office — have been given glassed-in rooms — fishbowls — but the occupants are increasingly “being challenged why they need them,” Cadieux said. Persuading people to change how they work has been hard, she added — so much so that she said she would like to go into the change management field. One of the aspects of Cadieux’s job that does not get much play in my upcoming piece is her involvement with Kraft’s facilities people. She told me she worked hand-in-glove with Steelcase, the office furniture giant, to design the space, even walking into the office on Fridays to see how many people were there (usually almost half empty). As Cadieux was telling me about working with office designers, it occurred to me that one interesting spin-off is that IT will play a bigger role in the design of not only the IT architecture but also the physical space that employees inhabit.	2,586	1,347	4,761.158129
warc	201704	Serological investigation of Leptospira infection and its circulation in one intensive-type water buffalo farm in the Philippines , Villanueva, Marvin A. , Mingala, Claro N. , Gloriani, Nina G. , Yanagihara, Yasutake , Isoda, Norikazu Nakajima, Chie , Suzuki, Yasuhiko , Koizumi, Nobuo Japanese Journal of Veterinary Research 64 ( 1 ) , pp.15 - 24 , 2016-02 , Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University ISSN:0047-1917 NCID:AA0069128X Description Water buffalo is an indispensable livestock in the Philippines. Leptospirosis is a serious zoonosis that can be fatal to humans and cause reproductive problems in livestock. Leptospirosis has been reported in some countries where water buffaloes are commercially raised, highlighting the Leptospira prevalence in this farming system, but information on leptospirosis in water buffalo farms in the Philippines is limited. In this study, we collected blood samples from rats (n ＝ 21), and water buffaloes (n ＝ 170) from different groups and locations in one intensive-type buffalo farm in the Philippines. Serum was analyzed by microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Anti-Leptospira antibodies reacting with serogroups Canicola, Icterohaemorrhagiae and Pomona were found in sera of 30% tested rats, and 48% of water buffalo sera tested positive for at least one Leptospira strain, in which serogroups Mini, Hebdomadis, Tarassovi and Pyrogenes were predominantly agglutinated. The number of seropositive young water buffaloes (＜1 year-old) was lower than that of older seropositive ones. Furthermore, sera from younger water buffaloes were reactive with single serotypes with low MAT titers, but older animals were reactive with multiple Leptospira strains with variable MAT titers. In addition, antibodies against serogroups Icterohaemorrhagiae and Pomona were detected in both animals. Finally, Leptospira infection was found associated with age and animal grouping, highlighting the impact of management in the persistence of leptospirosis at intensive-type buffalo farm settings in the Philippines. Further investigation and appropriate control strategies are required to prevent leptospirosis from causing risks to public health and economic losses to the water buffalo farming industry. Full-Text http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/61036/3/02_Villanueva%20Supplementary%20Figure%201.pdf http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/61036/1/02_Villanueva_Full.pdf	2,484	1,243	4,910.046661
warc	201704	From the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine (Drs Holmes and Slap), Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Drs Holmes and Slap), Leonard Davis Institute (Drs Holmes and Slap), and the Craig-Dalsimer Program in Adolescent Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics (Dr Slap), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia. Objective.— To clarify the definition of sexual abuse of boys, update estimates of its prevalence, and explore critically its reported correlates, sequelae, and management. Data Sources.— Studies from 1985 to 1997 were identified using OVID-MEDLINE and OVID-CINAHL. The search terms used were sexual abuse, sexual victimization, and sexual assault. Constraints applied included English language, human male subjects, age younger than 19 years, and North American samples. Study Selection.— Publications were included for review if they appeared in peer-reviewed journals; had clear research designs; reported results for at least 20 male subjects; and were not reviews, perspectives, theoretical treatises, editorials, or letters. Data Extraction.— Study types and sampling methods were categorized using well-established definitions. Preference was given to studies with large samples, with case-control or cohort designs, and/or with adjustment for effect modifiers or confounders. Data Synthesis.— We identified 166 studies representing 149 sexual abuse samples. Studies were methodologically limited and definitions of sexual abuse varied widely. Prevalence estimates varied widely (by definition used and population studied), ranging from 4% to 76%. Boys at highest risk were younger than 13 years, nonwhite, of low socioeconomic status, and not living with their fathers. Perpetrators tended to be known but unrelated males. Abuse frequently occurred outside the home, involved penetration, and occurred more than once. Sequelae included psychological distress, substance abuse, and sexually related problems. Evaluation of management strategies was limited. Conclusions.— Sexual abuse of boys appears to be common, underreported, underrecognized, and undertreated. Future study requires clearer definitions of abuse, improved sampling, more rigorous data collection, more sophisticated data analyses, and better assessment of management and treatment strategies. Regardless, health care professionals should be more aware of and sensitive to the possibility of sexual abuse in their male patients. Holmes WC, Slap GB. Sexual Abuse of BoysDefinition, Prevalence, Correlates, Sequelae, and Management. JAMA. 1998;280(21):1855-1862. doi:10.1001/jama.280.21.1855 © 2017	2,770	1,440	5,187.979167
warc	201704	I spent today conducting breeding bird atlas work in the hinterlands of west-central Ohio; probably the last day of the season for atlassing. At first light, there's lots of singing and I found many things, but activity tapers off rapidly as morning progresses. Luckily for me, the area I am working on harbors several of the best remaining remnants of the formerly vast Darby Plains prairie. So as the heat of the day set in, I visited two of these sites and found numerous interesting things and made quite a few photos. To me, visiting these prairie scraps brings mixed emotions. On the one hand, I revel in the explosion of biodiversity that erupts in these botanical hotspots; a complete counterpoint to the desolation of the surrounding corn and bean fields. On the other hand, I always am forced to reflect upon the near complete destruction of Ohio's - and much of the Midwest's - prairies. I'd say 99% + of Ohio's original prairie has been scrubbed off the map - lost to development and agriculture. But we will focus on the positive. Ratibida pinnata, are a sure eye-catcher. Even though I have plenty, I couldn't resist making more photos. This is a fabulous species to grow in the garden, too. Like most native prairie plants, it is tough and takes little care, and even the brownest of thumbs should do well with it. I'm sure some of the vendors at the Midwest Native Plant Conference will have Prairie Coneflower on hand. A compelling reason to plant natives is because of the bugs that they attract. This is ecological ground zero, and native plants and bugs support the other life forms such as birds. And Prairie Coneflower attracts scores of insects. Synchlora aerata. This is a VERY cool cat! They attempt to mask themselves by taking plant fragments and attaching them to their body, and it works pretty well. This one has taken scraps of the central disc flowers of this Prairie Coneflower and used them quite effectively. Even so covered, when it moves the caterpillar proceeds in the classic inchworm or looper gait, as seen here. Verbesina alternifolia. I found several of these interesting loopers with little effort, and if you start checking appropriate flowers, I'll bet you do too. The adult moth is a pretty thing; sort of faint emerald-green in color and the wings are striped with pale white lines. But like most moths, that of the Camouflaged Looper is nocturnal and hard to see. Alypia octomaculata. It's a day flyer, and like many of the other diurnal moths it is rather bright and showy, unlike its often drab brown night time relatives. Vitis), and Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia. Atteva aurea(formerly A. punctella). They look like beetles at a glance. These day-flyers aren't native here, but have capitalized on the widespread establishment of Tree-of-heaven, Ailanthus altissima, which they use as a host.	2,871	1,499	5,479.607071
warc	201704	IEA change tack slightly This is an interesting article referring to the International Energy Agency starting to resile from their prediction of peak oil being about 2030. They are arguing a case that: “It should be noted, too, that there does not tend to be great interest in new types of resources among service and supply-sector players…they need to have ready customers for their new products and cannot easily justify developing products for a market that does not yet exist. Furthermore, private industry cannot be relied upon to invest in research on technologies that are too far from being economical.” This economic argument ignores the issue of EROEI - Energy Returned on Energy Invested . I heard an argument once that if people eat celery the energy taken to consume the celery is more than is obtained from the celery. I never liked celery anyway so as a dieting mechanism it never attracted me. However, EROEI always trumps the laws of economics being as it is the law of conservation of energy. Extracting oil consumes energy (the marginal return of which comes from oil and gas). The harder to extract elements consume more energy. So as the cost of extraction goes up as energy costs go up the merit of trying to extract the oil goes down. In the big Gharwar field in Saudi Arabia seawater is being injected to get oil out. This takes energy, but there is still a massively positive energy return. Converting from one source of energy to another is another important issue. If hydrocarbons are burnt then there is a limit (the Carnot limit) set by the laws of conservation of Entropy as to the amount of energy that can be extracted. As a rule of thumb two thirds or so gets wasted in most car engines before transmission losses. Combined Cycle Natural Gas generators can convert about 50-60% of the energy inbuilt in the gas. Additionally Combined Heat and Power systems can be used to warm up cool locations although we really should look at insulation for this. It is these matters that human ingenuity cannot get around because they are theoretical limits (much like the reason why the patent office won't accept patents for perpetual motion engines (although perpetual motion does exist particularly at very low temperatures)). [in this instance perpetual motion is the concept of something that makes energy out of nothing]	2,373	1,233	4,516.975669
warc	201704	But the question of whether the miracle of eight days of oil actually happened is of little concern to me. Even assuming there was little sanctified olive oil left at the time they lit the temple’s menorah – a safe bet, since the Greeks had been on a defiling spree – for me the miracle was not how long it lasted, but that the Jews had the faith to light the menorah at all. They knew full well that the resource was scarce but somehow they defied the odds and believed that it might just last – and it is that faith, as much as the flame itself, that filled with the temple, and all of Zion, with a new light. It is the same faith that led Joseph, in this week’s portion, to manage the most precious economic resources of the Egyptians, their crops, during the seven years of plenty. The returns were tremendous, but he stored the excess away safely. Then, during the seven years of famine that followed, enough remained to feed not only the entire population of Egypt, but also those of surrounding nations, in their version of a global economy. Joseph was a sound, visionary and responsible money manager. The miracle of Egyptian and Israelite survival depended on it. It was a miracle forged in faith. The people had faith in him, his vision and his wisdom, and he did not abuse it. What Bernard Madoff did was revealed only over the past few weeks, but it comes on the heels of numerous other blows to our faith in the people who handle our resources. We’ve lost faith in the ability of our leaders and companies to handle money responsibly. We’ve lost faith in our future. And now, in large part because of Madoff, we’ve lost faith even in the goodness and purity of tzedakkahitself. In Jewish law, this breach of faith is considered a form of stealing, (called G’neivat Da’at), the stealing of one’s hopes, the theft of trust. Of course in this case, it also involves the actual theft of money. But it is the less tangible form of stealing that is perhaps the most damaging. All forms of cheating fall under this category. Detailed discussions of the subject can be found at http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/geneivatdaat.html and http://www.chaburas.org/daat.html. Click on http://www.getreligion.org/?p=5052 for a nice survey of recent articles (in the NY Times and elsewhere) where people discuss how Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was indeed G’neivat Da’atof an almost inconceivable and unprecedented degree. I’ve discussed elsewhere my feelings of disgust about Madoff. Rarely have we been so in need of a communal cleansing. But it seems pointless to focus totally on the negative, on distancing ourselves from Madoff and him from civilized society. Yesterday I saw the timely and transcendent film “Doubt,” in which deception plays a big role. A key idea expressed by the Meryl Streep character is she understood that her deceitful actions necessarily distanced herself from God (even though she felt the ends ultimately justified the means). We need to recognize that here, as well, our focus should not simply be to distance ourselves from Madoff so much as to recognize how, through his breach of faith, we all feel much more distant now from God. Where there is no trust, God is distant. Where miracles cease, cynicism begins. We’re feeling very cynical about things right now. So we light the candles tonight, and more tomorrow, and more yet the next day, until our homes are glowing with wall to wall light, enough to light up the world outside. For now, maybe it’s best to channel our anger and frustration into more positive energy. Who cares about the amount of oil that burned or its cost per barrel! The miracle is that we continue to produce light at all – that, after all that has happened, we still have enough faith to ignite that next match.	3,873	1,912	7,612.308577
warc	201704	Accelerometer Use with Children, Older Adults, and Adults with Functional LimitationsSTRATH, SCOTT J.1; PFEIFFER, KARIN A.2; WHITT-GLOVER, MELICIA C.3Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: January 2012 - Volume 44 - Issue 1S - p S77–S85 doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3182399eb1 Original Articles Abstract Author Information Abstract ABSTRACT: Accurately assessing physical activity behavior in children, older adults, and adults with functional limitations is essential to further our understanding of determinants of physical activity behavior in these populations and to design, implement, and evaluate interventions designed to increase physical activity participation. Objective methods to assess physical activity behavior, owing to improvements in accuracy and precision over self-report measures, have become common in research and practice settings. This article reviews the current use of objective methods to assess physical activity in observational, determinant, and intervention studies for children, older adults, and adults with functional limitations. Important considerations are presented when adopting prediction algorithms developed on one population, and using in another population that is markedly different in age, health, and functional status. Best practices are presented, along with future recommendations for research to advance this area of scientific inquiry. Author Information 1University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI; 2Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; and 3Gramercy Research Group, Winston-Salem, NC Address for correspondence: Scott J. Strath, Ph.D., Department of Human Movement Sciences, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Enderis Hall Room 449, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413; E-mail: [email protected]. ©2012The American College of Sports Medicine	1,822	981	3,361.692151
warc	201704	By: Justin M. Smigelsky, Esq. Pursuant to N.J.S.A.2A:34-23(j)(2), Where the obligor seeks to retire prior to attaining the full retirement age as defined in this section [eligible to receive benefits under section 216 of the Social Security Act], the obligor shall have the burden of demonstrating by a preponderance of the evidence that the prospective or actual retirement is reasonable and made in good faith. Both the obligor’s application to the court for modification or termination of alimony and the obligee’s response to the application shall be accompanied by current Case Information Statements or other relevant documents as required by the Rules of Court, as well as the Case Information Statements or other documents from the date of entry of the original alimony award and from the date of any subsequent modification.The statute then lists several factors for the Court to consider in determining whether the alimony obligor has met his or her burden to demonstrate that his or her prospective or actual retirement prior to attaining full retirement age is “reasonable and made in good faith.” In a recent, published decision of the Ocean County Superior Court, the Honorable Lawrence R. Jones, J.S.C., addressed when and how an alimony obligor may seek to modify or terminate his or her alimony obligation based upon prospective retirement. In Mueller v. Mueller, Judge Jones reasoned that, although the amended alimony statute does not set a specific minimum or maximum time period for obtaining an advance ruling on a prospective retirement, “the spirit of the amended statute…inherently contemplates that the prospective retirement will take effect within reasonable proximity to the application itself, rather than several years in advance of same.” Judge Jones went on to explain that when an obligor reasonably approaches retirement age, and files a motion setting forth a specific proposed plan for a prospective and projective retirement in the near future, a court may now address and consider the merits of same under the amended alimony statute, and render a ruling regarding a proposed termination or modification of alimony, to take effect upon the obligor’s actual retirement in accordance with the proposed plan.In Mueller, Judge Jones determined that an application filed five (5) years in advance of the contemplated retirement, without a detailed plan for retirement in the near future, constituted speculation and a “general desire to someday retire” which is insufficient under the statute. Although a Chancery Division case and, therefore, not binding precedent, Judge Jones’ well-reasoned decision is helpful in guiding the alimony obligor and family law attorney as to modification and termination of alimony based upon prospective retirement. If you have any questions in regards to divorce in New Jersey, alimony, child support, equitable distribution, or family law, you may wish to consult with an experienced family law attorney. This article is for information purposes only, and is neither legal advice nor the creation of an attorney client relationship. Justin M. Smigelsky, Esq. / Timothy J. Little, P.C. / 2017 – All Rights Reserved Timothy J. Little, P.C. is a full-service law firm with offices in Woodbridge and Chesterfield, New Jersey. Timothy J. Little, P.C. offers specialized legal assistance to individuals, families and businesses throughout New Jersey including Middlesex County (Old Bridge, Woodbridge, Sayreville, East Brunswick, Spotswood, Perth Amboy, Dunellen, Colonia, Sewaren, Iselin, Avenel, Fords, Keasbey, Menlo Park, Port Reading, South Amboy, Monroe, Edison, Carteret, Cranbury, Helmetta, South River, Milltown, Highland Park, Jamesburg, Laurence Harbor), Monmouth County (Hazlet, Aberdeen, Matawan, Middletown, Freehold), Union County, Ocean County, Somerset County, and Burlington County. If you have any questions or concerns regarding family law or divorce, please contact the attorneys at Timothy J. Little, P.C. Family Law Practice Specialties: Divorce, equitable distribution of assets and liabilities, alimony, domestic violence, child custody, child support, parenting time, emancipation applications, removal applications, Marital Settlement Agreements, post-judgment enforcement and modification applications http://timothyjlittlelaw.com/firm/attorneys/justin-m-smigelsky-esq/ http://timothyjlittlelaw.com/practice-areas/family-law/	4,491	2,039	9,728.664541
warc	201704	We’ve got two eyes, two ears, and only one mouth. I believe it’s for a reason. As a white woman who desires to be an ally to my black community, I feel that it is crucially important to take watch and learn first. You’ve got to assess a situation and take notice before you can help. Here’s what I’ve read so far. I’ll continue to add to this list (open to suggestions!), but I think this is a decent place to start if your heart beats for racial reconciliation and you want to learn more. *edit – almost immediately after publishing this post, I received critically important and helpful feedback from some kind folks on Twitter. So I changed the title and made a few edits, because this election DOES matter. The future of America DOES matter. I tried to keep things vague and tidy the first time around, but vague and tidy just doesn’t work during election season. So I took things in a different direction, a topic on which I’m pretty proficient and a direction in which I feel safe leading my readers. Thanks for being such a part of this process! I love politics. I discovered NPR my freshman year of college and I haven’t recovered since. I’ve always had this desire to know a little bit about a lot of things. I’m almost positive it stems from sin – fear of failure, and desire for approval, and maybe a little pride thrown in. But the genuine thirst for knowledge is real and I’m grateful the Lord put that in me. So I listen, and I read, and how many times do I have to say I love Twitter? I’m a millennial – of COURSE I get my news from social media! I’ve voted Republican and I’ve voted Democrat, and I’ve never been totally satisfied with either party’s platforms. And that’s okay. Nobody gets it perfectly. No party gets it perfectly. We are sinful and greedy and easily corrupted. This world began falling apart the moment sin entered the world and it won’t stop decaying until Jesus comes back to fix it once and for all. Even in the waiting, I’m still grateful to be an American who loves the democratic process. I know elections are exhausting to watch. Your brain hurts from all of the ads and your Facebook feeds are probably tired. But here’s why I think it matters to follow politics and current events, both in America and around the world – because God says to look. Both the Old and the New Testaments are filled with examples of God’s desire for us to keep our eyes open. To perceive what he’s doing. To be in this world while not of it. To fight for truth and justice as he defines it. To bind up broken hearts and set people free. And so we listen, and we read, and we talk about it, and we rally, and we vote. But there’s a catch. It’s easy to get burnt out. It’s easy to succumb to fear or feelings of overwhelm or hopelessness. Self-care is important. I could say I don’t get caught up in the frenzy, because I know who wins in the end and I know the God I serve cares about truth and justice even more than I do. But there’s more to it than that, on a daily, micro level. I guess when it comes down to it, I have an election self-care regimen. I refuse to engage in conversations that involve hateful, damaging, fear-mongering language about the direction in which this country is headed. I thank God that I live with a black President and a woman Presidential candidate. I fact check a lot. I open my Bible each morning and look for clues on how to love people better and what God says about leadership. I click through several funny political memes per day. My favorites were from the second debate. I gather my kids around the table and teach them how to look at the world through a viewfinder that says a man named Jesus died for it. I remind them that this includes every single person, all of the genders and all of the colors, with all of the baggage anyone cares to bring to the table. I stay off of social media at least one day per week, sometimes two. I practice saying things like, “You might be right” (thanks, Jess). I pray for more humility and wisdom. I bite my tongue more now than I ever have in my life. I also speak up more than I ever have in my life. Because there is a time for everything, and this matters. I knew it was coming. I’d already heard the word discipline from the Lord several times throughout the month of January, as if he was asking me to put in the work now so I could reap the harvest later. When I finally had some clarity, I told my husband about the stirring in my heart. Some stuff is going to hit the fan for us this year. I think someone might get sick, or we might lose an income, or there might be new relational chaos in our family. I want to be prepared when it happens. Ever supportive of my spiritual gifts, my dear husband gave me some serious side eye and told me to pipe down. Then he closed his eyes and nodded. And shook his head, at the same time. If my man could figure out a way to build a house in the clouds, he would move our family to the sky in a heartbeat. Chris could literally get punched in the face and he’d pull himself out of the dirt, dust himself off, smile, and make some comment about how there’s nowhere to go but up from there. In that moment at our kitchen table, he knew I’d heard from God, but he didn’t want to think about our lives being turned upside-down. And eight months later, upside-down they went! In the course of just a few weeks, our family has experienced significant sickness, loss of income, and relational chaos. I’m trying my hardest to compare it to other times my life has felt dark and hopeless, because these are some of the most extreme events to ever happen to us. And yet, this is the most at peace I’ve ever felt. I don’t feel dark and heavy. I feel light and hopeful, excited even. Because we’ve been preparing for this all year. Mere weeks after my word from the Lord in January, I sat at the IF:gathering and listened to Katherine describe her life-changing stroke and subsequent recovery. She said that in her darkest moments, she reminded herself that THIS IS NOT A DRILL. This is what she’d been training for, in a spiritual sense. All of the Scripture, all of the prayers, all of the diligent times spent with Jesus, they came flooding back to her and kept her company while she lay in a hospital bed, unable to communicate with anyone. As I listened to her words, I felt God again remind me of our conversations a month prior. It almost felt as if he was nudging me to stop wasting time. No need to be flailing about and trying to remember a random Psalm when the bottom drops out. And so I got ready. I got after healthy rhythms and relationships like my life depended on it. I started reading my Bible every morning, and not just when I remembered to or on a phone app in the car. When people ask, I try not to sound blunt in my reply. I just read it. No reading plans, no journals. I pick one book at a time, and I read one chapter per day until that book is done. Throughout the day, I ask the Lord to remind me things from my morning’s reading. What does he want to tell me about himself, myself, and the world? I also started going to the gym every day. Not just a few times per month for yoga classes, or on a Saturday morning when I had some free time. I work out five days a week, for twenty minutes each morning. This is another question I get a lot, about how I make it work. I just go. The answer might seem unrealistic to some, but it took so much time and work to get to this place as a family. We literally changed jobs and moved things around in our budget to get the morning routine we have today. And now my husband and I start our days together while apart (how couples do the same workout next to each other, I might never know), moving our bodies and asking God how he wants to use us today. Lastly, I really started to let people in. I feel like I went to my best friend Jess and my husband and blurted out I HAVE A PRIDE PROBLEM, but I know it was more nuanced than that (I hate nuance. Even the word. It feels wimpy to me. I’m so stinkin’ black and white). I basically asked them to speak life AND truth over me, and I practiced receiving correction. I got used to the idea that I’m busted and broken even WITH Jesus, and I learned to guzzle grace. I’m still working on the “extending it others” part, but the Lord is kind and gentle while he teaches me. And so here we are. The actual bottom is trying to fall out, and I’m still standing. There is healing here. This is a story of redemption. A few years ago when things got rough, I wanted out. Out of my marriage, out of motherhood, out of this world. And this time, I’m smiling (weakly, tightly sometimes) and whispering under my breath that this is not a drill. I can take heart. He’s already overcome the world. And I’m not alone. God looks at some of these worldly circumstances of mine and he enters into the pain with me. It ought not be, he whispers. I get it. This is bad. But can we go back to all of those things I promised you? All of the things you’ve read about me in Scripture, bragged about me to your friends and people online? Let’s camp out on those. Stand on my promises. The bottom never falls out here.	9,450	4,421	19,551.945261
warc	201704	Our addiction to technology trumps caffeine, chocolate and alcohol This probably sounds familiar: You're out to dinner with friends, and everything's fun, until you get that itch. It's been 20 minutes, and you really want to check Facebook, or Twitter, or Foursquare or email. Forget about wanting; this is needing. You finally give in to the urge and sneakily check your phone under the table -- or fake an urgent visit to the bathroom, where you'll take a hit of the Internet while huddling in a stall. Anecdotally, our Internet use seems to have spawned real addictions. And according to several recently released surveys, we've got it bad. More than half of Americans would rather give up chocolate, alcohol and caffeine for a week before parting temporarily with their phones, according to a recent survey by technology firm TeleNav. One-third would give up sex, 22% would give up their toothbrushes (versus 40% of iPhone users, who evidently love their phone more than clean teeth) and 21% would rather go shoeless before separating from a mobile phone. Sixty-six percent sleep with their smartphones by their side. Our addiction is so severe that people described going 24 hours without Internet akin to quitting an alcohol or cigarette habit, according to a report from British company Intersperience. About 40% of those surveyed reported feeling lonely without the Internet, and 53% felt upset at being deprived. One person described unplugging to "having my hand chopped off." University students who faced a sudden Internet and media blackout began to display withdrawal symptoms, during another survey conducted by the University of Maryland. At least it's universal. One American said she was "itching like a crackhead" after going cold-turkey for 24 hours, and an Argentine student reported feeling "dead" without media, while a Lebanese student described the whole experience as "sickening." The students recognized that there are joys in life besides browsing the web and curating their social networks, according to the survey, but all nevertheless reported feeling distress, sadness, boredom or paranoia. "Media is my drug; without it I was lost," said a British student. "I am an addict. How could I survive 24 hours without it?" One wrote: "Emptiness overwhelmed me." Another said he "felt incomplete." RELATED: -- Shan Li Top photo: Cigarette breaks become social media breaks at work. Credit: Mark Smiciklas / Intersection Consulting via Flickr Bottom photo: The addiction tree map. Credit: Susan Moeller and Rebecca Goldberg / University of Maryland	2,603	1,373	4,876.12236
warc	201704	Residents in North Central have a chance to provide their input on what they want for their neighbourhood. Wednesday evening, the North Central Community Association is hosting community-wide meeting at the Albert Scott Community Centre beginning at 6 p.m. Michael Parker, NCCA executive director, said it is all part of the NCCA’s overall plan for the community. “We have been actively doing this since June,” he said. NCCA is working with a consulting firm on the project, “The goal is to engage 1,000 community members and stakeholders to hear what people’s priorities, hopes, dreams and aspiration are for the community, ” said Parker. “At the end of it, we want to put that into a document that we can use to communicate and validate what we know are some of the concerns are with different levels of government and other agencies to improve services.” He believes such a vision is necessary to help all those living and working in the neighbourhood understand what the goals are for the neighbourhood. “For this event, we are really gearing it towards residents and the neighbourhood,” said Parker. The association hopes many residents will find the time to provide their input and to make it easier it is providing supper and child care. “People can come without having to worry about those things,” said Parker. “As a parent of young children, it’s very hard to get to evening meetings.” He said the association wants the people to be at the forefront of the planning process. The consulting group will facilitate the process and the list of outcomes for the meeting include defining a clear vision for the future of the neighbourhood, buiding capacity in the neighbourhood, defining actions on how to achieve the broader goals and to help develop comprehensive policies to ensure the implementation of the plan. Parker said it was important to hire an outside party to do the information gathering so the members of the community association, who also live in the neighbourhood, could participate. “Also, you can never see the fishbowl you are in so it’s good to have a third party,” he said. Parker said it’s very important to have a comprehensive plan and vision for the future because it will have give a voice for the residents. “We know in North Central, specifically, there are a lot of serious issues that are concerning like violence, housing and crime,” he said. Parker said the final report is expected to be released in the spring of 2017.	2,582	1,207	5,260.263463
warc	201704	It's not often that we get to report on positive developments in our dysfunctional justice system. But I think we might finally have one. Sal Esposito, a Boston resident, recently received a summons to report for jury service. But Sal is not your standard New Englander, called to perform his civic duty. He's a cat. Sal's owners aren't sure how he wound up on the jurors' list. They tried to get him an exemption, claiming he doesn't speak English. But it was denied! Thankfully for Sal, it looks like he won't have to go through the tedium of being questioned by lawyers about his likes and dislikes. His veterinarian wrote a letter to court officials, explaining that Sal's a cat, not a human. Here's an update about Sal's brush with the court system: Why could this be a positive development? Well, I've witnessed two juries in action, from start to finish of trials. In one case I was a party, in the other an observer. In both cases, the juries got their findings hopelessly wrong, based on the facts and the law. I strongly suspect both juries were tainted--or members of the juries were on some serious opiates. One of the great myths of American justice is that our jury system is somehow sacrosanct. In fact, I suspect many Americans would be shocked at how often juries are corrupted--and how easy it is to corrupt them. Based on my observations, I would say if you can somehow get the jury foreman in your hip pocket, you've probably got the whole jury. I wonder how often foremen are swayed--with a gift, a favor, an out-and-out bribe--in order to push juries in a certain direction. It probably happens way more than most people would dream. And here's another theory of mine: I suspect much courthouse corruption originates in clerks' offices--at both the state and federal levels. Clerks' offices decide which judges get which cases, who gets into jury pools, etc. In other words, some of the most important decisions that determine the outcomes of cases originate in clerks' offices. Do powerful law firms in certain jurisdictions have the wherewithal--and the utter lack of ethics--to sway actions of courthouse clerks? My guess is--yes, they have that power, and yes, they use it. How do we get around this dilemma? I think Sal Esposito has helped provide an answer: We start having animals on jury duty. Animals are much more honest than people anyway. And think about it: How could a corrupt lawyer manage to bribe a cat? And how could a slimy judge improperly influence a jury full of cats? Heck, our cats, Baxter and Chloe, don't listen to me--and I control their food supply. Why would they listen to a judge, one who wears a scary black robe and probably smells bad. I asked Baxter if he would like to serve on a jury, and he seemed up for it. "Will I actually have to pay attention?" he asked. "Nope," I told him. "I've seen human juries that obviously didn't pay attention." "Is it OK if I fall off to sleep?" "Perfectly fine. I've seen human jurors do that." "Is it OK if I lick myself from time to time?" "I've seen human jurors do that, too." "What about noms?" "You get plenty of time for lunch. And taxpayers pick up the tab." "Is it OK if I entertain the other jurors during breaks with some of my leaping, tumbling, and roll-over tricks?" "Heck, that kind of thing is encouraged in Alabama. During the Don Siegelman case, a juror did back flips for her fellow panel mates. They called her "Flipper" because of her gymnastics skills. I'm sure you can pull off tricks that she never dreamed of. And you're probably cuter than she is, too." "I'm a high-tech guy. I've got to be able to send texts and e-mails to my buddies on the jury." "Not a problem. Again, in the Don Siegelman case, that kind of behavior among jurors was perfectly fine." "That sounds great, dude. Count me in." "Good deal. I'll call the clerk's office right now." While I'm on the phone with the clerk, I'm going to suggest they contact "Sammy the Cat" in Notasulga, Alabama. He already hangs around a post office all day, so he probably can learn the ropes of a courthouse. Here's the latest on Sammy. If I were involved in a case, I would take my chances with Sammy, over a human, any day.	4,231	2,116	8,386.017958
warc	201704	Conference Information Full Title: DGfS 2014 Workshop: Grammatical Categories in Macro- and Microcomparative Linguistics Location: Marburg, Germany Start Date: 05-Mar-2014 - 07-Mar-2014 Contact: Aria Adli Meeting Email: click here to access email Meeting URL: http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/2014_DGfS/ Meeting Description: Workshop Coordinators: Aria Adli (Humboldt University Berlin) Andreas Dufter (LMU Munich) Martin Haspelmath (MPI-EVA Leipzig) Invited Speaker: Balthasar Bickel (U Zurich) Description: This workshop will address the question which categories can be used to compare languages. The older practice of describing all languages with the categories of European languages has been discredited since the early 20th century: We know that languages have very different categories, and Boas (1911) urged linguists to describe each language in its own terms, i.e. with its own categories. This view was widespread in the structuralist period around the middle of the 20th century (e.g. Glinz 1952), but it also meant that is was no longer clear how to compare languages if each has different categories. With the advent of generative grammar, the prevailing view since the 1960s came to be that the categories of different languages are after all much more similar than claimed by the structuralists, and it was often assumed without discussion that categories like verb, noun, determiner, complementizer, 3rd person, plural, subject, specifier, wh-element, anaphor (or the features that constitute these categories) are universal or universally available. At the same time, successes in empirical world-wide comparison such as Greenberg (1963), Keenan & Comrie (1977) and Dahl (1985) seemed to confirm that languages again and again show the same categories. But the last years have seen a resurgence of the controversy: While Newmeyer (2007) defends the standard view of generative grammar, others such as Dryer (1997), Croft (2001) and Haspelmath (2007, 2010) returned to the Boasian view that each language has its own categories, so that language comparison must make use of a special set of comparative concepts. These can be typological grammatical concepts (such as S, A, P for the ergative-accusative distinction), or nonverbal stimuli like pictures and videos which are often used in lexical typology. Linguistic Subfield: Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Typology LL Issue: 24.2617 Back Calls and Conferences main page	2,487	1,324	4,647.15861
warc	201704	Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading Mycobacterium isolates: their association with plant roots First Online: Received: Revised: Accepted: DOI: 10.1007/s00253-007-0840-0 Cite this article as: Child, R., Miller, C.D., Liang, Y. et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2007) 75: 655. doi:10.1007/s00253-007-0840-0 Citations 217 Downloads Abstract Five environmental mycobacterium isolates that degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were associated with barley root surfaces after growth of the seedlings from inoculated seed. Mycobacterium cells were detected along the total root length for four of these isolates. These PAH-degrading mycobacterium strains had hydrophilic cell surfaces, whereas one strain, MCS, that was hydrophobic had reduced association along the root length with no cells being detected from the root tips. The root-tip-competent strain, KMS, was competitive for its root association in the presence of the root-colonizing pseudomonad, Pseudomonas putida KT2440. All mycobacterium strains utilized simple sugars (fructose, glucose) and the trisaccharide 6-kestose, present in barley root washes, for planktonic growth, but they differed in their potential for biofilm formation under in vitro conditions. Mineralization of pyrene by the KMS strain occurred when the components in the barley root wash were amended with labeled pyrene suggesting to us that mineralization could occur in plant rhizospheres containing such mycobacterium strains.	1,479	796	2,736.893216
warc	201704	Abstract The crustal-scale Karakoram shear zone structurally distinguishes the western Himalaya from—and provides an opportunity to compare to—the central and eastern portions of the orogen. To evaluate the tectonic evolution of the western Himalaya, this paper presents granite U/Th-Pb ages and zircon Hf isotopic signatures along the two major structures in northern India: the Karakoram shear zone and the Zanskar shear zone, the westernmost limb of the South Tibetan detachment system. Leucogranites in Zanskar crystallized 27–20 Ma and exhibit Precambrian to Paleozoic inheritance and predominantly negative ε Hf( t) values typical of the Greater Himalayan Sequence. Karakoram shear zone leucogranites have igneous crystallization ages over a prolonged period from 22 Ma to <13 Ma, contain Late Cretaceous through Paleocene inherited cores, and have ε Hf( t) values from +1 to +9. These inherited ages and mostly positive ε Hf( t) values compare closely to the adjacent Ladakh batholith, but low ε Hf( t) values along the Karakoram shear zone suggest an input of older crustal material from the proximal Karakoram terrane or subducted Indian crust. The Zanskar Greater Himalayan Sequence contains two suites of Paleozoic granites: (1) Pan-African Cambrian–Ordovician granites at the cores of gneiss domes and (2) Mississippian–Permian granites related to magmatism associated with the Panjal Traps. Monazite ages record peak through retrograde metamorphic conditions from 27.3 ± 1.2 Ma to 17.2 ± 0.9 Ma concurrent with anatectic leucogranite crystallization. Cenozoic partial melting in the Greater Himalayan Sequence occurred contemporaneously across the Himalayan orogen, but lower degrees of partial melting and ubiquitous doming distinguish the westernmost Greater Himalayan Sequence in Zanskar. Received 20 March 2012. Revision received 20 February 2013. Accepted 3 March 2013. © 2013 Geological Society of America	1,988	988	3,871.368421
warc	201704	Tire pressure is crucial for safety in cars, and bicycles are no different. Since your tire is your contact point to the road, maintaining the proper pressure determines the handling and performance of the bicycle, which in turn impacts your speed and your ability to control the bike. Riding on a tire that is too flat can even cause damage to the tire and rim. Understanding how to determine the proper PSI for your tire is an important skill for any cyclist. Bicycle Tires The standard tire type found on most road and mountain bikes is a clincher tire. Clincher tires have two metal hoops running on the inside edge of the tire, with an open bottom that nests inside the rim. The tire is usually made from a mesh of nylon coated in rubber. The tire contacts the rim on the bead, which forms a tight seal between the rim and the outer tire. Inside of this outer tire is a tube, which is what holds the air. Tubes are inexpensive and easily replaceable, making most flat tires a quick fix. Tire Pressure A bicycle tube can expand like a balloon to many times its size when inflated, but when it rests inside a clincher tire, it provides outward force to the inside of the tire that is stronger than the weight of the bicycle and rider. PSI, or pounds per square inch, is a measure of this pressure. Since different tires, bicycles, and loads exert different forces on a bicycle tire, the optimal PSI is different for every bike. Contact Patch Air in a bicycle tube pushes outward equally on all sides of the tire and rim. Because of this, the base of the tire where it contacts the road is where the air is pushing directly downward against the road surface. This point is called the contact patch, where the tire is flat against the road surface. The PSI of the tire must equal the weight placed against the tire, so the size of the contact patch will be the weight load divided by the air pressure, approximately. If the bicycle and rider weigh 200 pounds, each tire supports 100 pounds of weight. Thus, a 1-inch wide tire inflated to 100 PSI will have a contact patch of about 1 inch. Wider tires require lower PSI to maintain a contact patch since there's more contact width-wise. Determining Optimal PSI An optimally inflated tire will give a visual cue for the best inflation. After filling a standard 700c tire to a low PSI of around 50, check the tire under the weight of the bicycle and rider. The tire should bulge visibly under the weight of the rider and bicycle. If it doesn't deflect at all above the contact patch, it's over-inflated. An over-inflated tire gives a harsher ride and is prone to bouncing on rough terrain, interrupting traction. An under-inflated tire will deflect too much, allowing the rim to contact the inside of the tire or place pressure on the sidewalls. An under-inflated tire is prone to pinch flats and can even come off the rim while cornering. Follow the manufacturer's guidelines for PSI, but use visual cues while riding to determine if your tires are over- or under-inflated. Photo Credits Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images	3,082	1,419	6,670.064834
warc	201704	I'm oft asked how pros do earnings analysis and trades using options - Often generating 50% returns in a day... Well, here's the secret sauce... sort of... The company has traded ~ 5,800 contracts today in the first two hours surpassing its total daily average option volume of 5,388. The Stats Tab and Day's biggest trades snapshots are included (click either image to enlarge). For what it's worth, the largest trades have been Apr 34 and Apr 36 put purchases. A few things we probablyknow with earnings vol: (1) Vol will rise into the event (2) Vol wil drop after the event (3) The stock will move that day more than average What we don't know: Will the underlying move be large enough to make the vol a purchase... Or, put another way, since the vol is most likely going to collapse after the announcement, shouldn't it be an auto sale? Let's use FDO as our case study, it has earnings tomorrow BMO and presents an interesting case. We'll start simple - the Charts Tab (just the Vol; with IV30™ (red line) vs HV10™ (white line)). What we're lookin' at: (1) The first earnings cycle highlighted (Jul '09) we see the white line (HV10™) spiking past the red line (IV30™). In this case, the ATM straddle the day before earnings was a purchase - i.e. it was worth more the next day. Details to come... (2) The second earnings cycle (Oct '09) showed the opposite. The the white line (HV10™) stayed below the red line (IV30™) - though note that the red line did dip (as expected) and the white line did rise (as expected). (3) The third earnings cycle (Jan '10) was just like the cycle in Jul '09 - but even more pronounced. Vol was a super purchase as the stock gapped up on earnings more than the implied vol "forecasted." Now to the details - the Earnings & Dividends Tab snapshot is included (click to enlarge). What we're lookin' at: (1) The top ROW is FDO stock price 5 trading days before earnings through 5 trading days after. (2) The second ROW are the front 2 month ATM straddles for the same period - focus on purple - the front month. (3) The third ROW is the implied vol for those straddles - focus on the red - the front month. NOTE: The red line always collapses after earnings - this is called the vol crush after earnings. What do we see? For the far left earnings cycle (Jul '09) we see specifically vol went from 59 --> 39 after earnings. 20 vol point drop! So clearly vol was a sale right?... Sell high / buy low?... No?... In fact it wasn'ta sale... The straddle went from $2.15 ---> $3.63; a whopping 68% one day move on the stock gap. A perfect example of how dipping implied vol does not guarantee a good a sale. The implied vol dropped b/c the event (news) was over. Following similar analysis we can see Oct '09 earnings were a sale: Straddle went from $2.35 ---> $1.32 for a 43% one day drop. The most recent cycle was a purchase: $1.78 --> $3.42 for a 92% one day gain. So - what's the point?... There are pro-traders on this floor that only trade earnings. They find companies which have significant odds of being either a sale or a purchase - they play that one day game, and make millions a year. As you see, you're looking at 40% - 90% one day changes in FDO. Of course, if you do it badly, you're out of cash and broke really fast. What do they look for? Companies with huge pre-dispositions to be sales or purchases... i.e. 10/10 or 9/10 times where one side was a winner. For the record, FDO isn't one of them... This is trade analysis, not a recommendation. Legal Stuff: http://www.livevolpro.com/help/disclaimer_legal.html	3,620	1,782	7,223.748597
warc	201704	Many homeowners aspire to have a home interior that exuberates style, personality and quality, however due to budget limitations scores are often discouraged. Preconceptions can make you believe that Home improvement television programs, such as 60 MinuteMmakeover, could be the only answer to satisfy your interior design ideals. Well that’s where you’re wrong! Although having a large disposable budget and the help of experts can be advantageous to any plans, one should remember that a stunning home interior can be attained with realistic amounts of capital and plenty of creativity. As seen in the picture above simplicity can be truly beautiful and create a homely feel that is warm and comforting. Therefore, depending upon your tastes, remember “less can certainly be more” when it comes to interior improvements. One of the best places to start when improving interior décor is to assess the current furnishings within the property. Dated, tired and old furniture can defiantly dampen the image a room is attempting to convey. Therefore before any improvements are conducted one should formalize plans that will aid decisions to be made in regards to which furniture is worth keeping and what style is to be portrayed. Although the aim will be to keep spending to a minimum, unfortunately changing furniture can be an expensive but necessary process; however such expense presents validity when new furniture additions provide a stunning focal point that adds longevity and personality. However, before the process of buying new furniture and accessories begins consideration should be first given to the desired colour scheme as this will prevent the purchase of items that look nice but don’t fit the final interior theme. Once the theme is decided upon personalisation can commence through the acquisition of furnishings and accessories. When shopping for new furniture it is wise to opt for furniture that is durable and classical in design as this improves the chances of the piece standing the test of time in regards to fashion tastes and functional lifespan. Furthermore, always seek for high quality items as these are less likely to deteriorate quickly, cheaper low quality products are more likely to become worn and damaged, therefore leading to replacement sooner. Alternatively, if buying new furniture is completely out of the question due to budgeting reasons, there are many ways to bring current furnishings “back to life” through simple but effective techniques. For example wooden furniture can be easily given a new lease of life with an added layer of paint and simple finishing techniques. This easy and cheap way of recycling old furniture is now increasingly popular, which has resulted in numerous “help guides” and video tutorials becoming accessible online. About the author: Chris Algar writes on behalf The Furniture Market who are specialists in high quality furniture ideal for the perfect home interior. Please visit http://www.thefurnituremarket.co.uk/ to view the extensive range of beautiful furniture. Sponsored Guest Post	3,129	1,528	6,284.621073
warc	201704	Patient Preparation Collect Lavender (EDTA). Specimen Preparation Transfer 7 mL whole blood to ARUP Standard Transport Tubes. (Min: 2 mL) Specimen must be labeled with patient's name, date of birth, and date and time of draw. Storage/Transport Temperature Refrigerated. Unacceptable Conditions Frozen specimens. Remarks Stability Ambient: 72 hours; Refrigerated: 2 weeks; Frozen: Unacceptable This testing is recommended for the following situations: 1. Recently transfused individuals who have circulating RBCs of donor origin that interfere with the typing of self RBCs. 2. Individuals with conditions requiring frequent transfusions (eg, sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia) who develop antibodies to low-immunogenicity antigens that are present on donor RBCs. Although these antigens are usually not typed by standard serology because of their low immunogenicity, they can lead to hemolytic reactions after multiple transfusions. 3. Individuals with RhD variants with low antigen expression or with reduced numbers of antigenic epitopes (eg, weak D, D elute, partial D) where serotyping may yield inconclusive calls. Component Test Code* Component Chart Name LOINC 2004740 Blood Group, ABO/8 Minor Ag, Microarray Bloodchip Reference Performed at Novartis	1,268	748	2,135.935829
warc	201704	Community development The key to this interventionAt the heart of community development is a commitment to equality. Sustainable networks of social, physical and emotional support provide the foundations upon which HIV prevention interventions for MSM are built and delivered. What is the activity? The term community is often used to describe groups of people those who share a range of characteristics such as sexual identity, race or ethnicity, culture, age or geographical location. Community development describes a process of developing and supporting active and sustainable networks based on social justice and mutual respect. It is about enabling and empowering people to directly inﬂuence the things that affect their lives. Making it Count has 14 over-arching community development aims that constituted the strategic priorities of the CHAPS partnership in 2011-12. A document produced by the last Labour government, Communities in control: real people, real power (2008) contains a number of initiatives and ideas to help boost community development with the aim of increasing participatory democracy and direct advocacy. The current coalition government’s proposed increase in community engagement through the notion of ‘Big Society’ has still not been fully articulated, but this can be regarded as an opportunity for voluntary sector agencies to devise their own vision of the Big Society. The Making it Count approach asserts that interventions that work to improve networks of social support among communities will help to reduce power inequalities, which in turn reduces the likelihood of HIV exposure and transmission. HIV prevention interventions do not occur in a vacuum, and it is vital to connect programme aims and objectives with local realities. The local knowledge possessed by gay community groups is a key tool in shaping the context of local HIV prevention interventions. Helping to ensure that those who are the targets of future HIV prevention activities are engaged in their development and evaluation will improve their feasibility and acceptability. Providing resources for the development of community groups Five key elements of successful community development (from Rifkin et al. 1988) are: recognition and assessment of need in the population group, leadership, organisational infrastructure, resource mobilisation, and management. New and developing community groups will often require support in one or more of these ﬁve core areas. Support should aim to include: fostering the skills, interests and desires among individuals within community groups that help them to thrive; sustaining social networks within which gay men in England can ﬂourish; and establishing a norm of collaboration and partnership working within the HIV prevention sector, which is increasingly fraught with aggressive competition for increasingly scant resources. When community development focusses on organisations it shares many characteristics with organisational development. Here community development can include ﬁnancial support to new (or struggling) organisaitons, or the offer of free meeting space, sharing of ofﬁce equipment and infrastructure (such as photocopiers, telephones or internet access), or the sharing of human resources and expertise. In this way, provision of advice on a broad array of activities (such as project management, drawing up budgets or establishing charitable status) helps to increase the stock of social capital within community networks and organisations. Community groups with few resources are more likely to actively seek external support than those with greater capacity. This can lead to adverse selection of community groups because it is not necessarily the groups that have the most impact or reach that seek or receive support. In the main, selection happens coincidentally, or can be based on historical or personal relationships between individuals. To avoid such trends, it is worth considering the following competencies before making a decision about offering support and other resources to a group: Clear articulation of aims informed by demonstrable local need. Proven leadership or leadership potential. Willingness to engage with HIV prevention aims and interventions. Capacity and willingness to work with other organisations to develop interventions and programmes. Capacity to respond to changing needs and policy environments. Promoting community voices Intervention planning that takes a top-down, unilateral approach is generally controlled by those with the relevant resources. Workforce development interventions (such as training, conferences or seminars) can contribute to an increase in technical proﬁciency, but do little to increase interaction between funders, providers and beneﬁciaries. For example, health promoters may develop HIV prevention interventions using the latest technology or psychological models, but may be surprised if their interventions are unfamiliar to or impracticable for those in the target population (say because of literacy levels or cultural considerations). Feasibility and acceptability are therefore best ensured when members of groups intended to beneﬁt from interventions are engaged in the process of their development and implementation. This holds not only for interventions for gay men and other MSM, but also for structural interventions. Enabling and supporting community members to voice their opinions with decision-makers at local, regional and national levels helps to build conﬁdence among individuals, decreases social exclusion, and helps to make services and policies more relevant to needs. Direct input ensures that lessons can be taken from people’s experiences of previous successes and failures, as well as increasing community ownership of interventions. Interventions to ensure direct service-user engagement can help individuals gain technical and interpersonal skills that will help to increase personal control in other areas of life. Thus, for some people the skills acquisition and experience processes can result in voluntary and paid involvement in the HIV sector. Community development therefore also contributes to sustaining a vital, skilled and personally engaged workforce. In this way, community members are empowered to become the subjects rather than just the targets of HIV interventions. The following considerations have been suggested (Rifkin & Pridmore 2001) as useful for those aiming to promote community input into intervention planning and delivery: Facilitating a range of stakeholders’ input requires mutual trust, which can be enabled through the use of fair, step-by-step participatory approaches accompanied by some ﬂexibility. A careful balance between generating robust content, and establishing an inclusive process. Demonstrating appreciation and encouragement to those who participate helps to develop a sense of belonging, which in turn helps to sustain communal activity. Aims and outcomes Community participation reinforces the community values discussed in the the Making it Count approach. Aims for, and outcomes from community development interventions, can include: Stronger organisational links between organisations and community members and more robust partnership working (see Community aim 14, for example). Gay businesses exist and increase activities which reduce HIV prevention need among gay men and other MSM (see Community aims 5-8, for example). Mainstream businesses increase activities which reduce HIV prevention need among gay men and other MSM (see Community aims 9-10, for example). Identification and strengthening of informal support networks among gay men, and evidence of community members’ input into local decision-making processes (see Community aim 2; Community aim 11 and Organisational aim 1, for example). Increased understanding of our values and the ways we feel gay men can contribute to the health and well being of their own communities (see Community aim 11 and Organisational aim 1, for example).. Monitoring and evaluation In terms of outcomes and impact, very little priority is given to evaluation of community development interventions. Monitoring involvement in community development interventions, by keeping an up-to-date record of current and past activity, enables agencies to monitor their level of capacity to engage in similar activities in the future. Participant observation and process evaluation of community development interventions will help to ensure that outcomes are more widely understood. Page last updated: 5 July 2013 Case study Peer mentoring programme The Metro Centre runs the Metrosafe mentoring programme, to assist men in taking control of their sex lives and their health. Referrals come through Health Trainers or clinics. Men are initially assessed using a behaviour, attitude, skills and knowledge scale called the BASK Inventory. Men work through structured modules with trained volunteer mentors, looking at how sexual behaviour might be affected by issues such as self-esteem, drugs and alcohol. Participants complete the BASK Inventory again during and at the end of the programme to measure changes. Key to the programme’s success is its mixture of structure and informality. Mentors share their own experiences, helping to empower men and engender ownership of their sexual health and well-being. Case study Count Me In GMFAs Count Me In campaign asks gay men to commit to a five point action plan to reduce HIV. Video clips posted on Youtube and Facebook show men’s accounts of why preventing HIV infection is important them, and the challenges and solutions they face. Men are invited to post their own videos and to comment on current videos. At the heart of the intervention is an understanding that preventing HIV comes from within communities of gay men. Men are invited to sign-up to publically support the action plan and to ask their friends to do the same. Case study Residential weekend for men in rural areas A group weekend for MSM in the South West of England was run by Healthy Gay Cornwall and The Eddystone Trust. Men were supported to discuss personal and social strategies for remaining HIV negative. Through exploring emotional and physical well-being, men were encouraged to explore new strategies and discuss them with each other. HIV was discussed in the context of a holistic approach to sex, risk, proximity to HIV, and strategies for maintaining emotional and physical well-being. The group has continued to meet informally, leading to new friendships. One-to-one, follow-up therapeutic sessions were offered, and some men continue to volunteer and participate in local community activities. Case study Black Gay Men’s Group Facilitated and supported by a community development worker from Yorkshire MESMAC, a Black Gay Men’s Group was set up in February 2011. It was established following a survey of black MSM in the Yorkshire region, which indicated they were looking for a safe space to meet other black MSM and to receive and build peer support. Initially some men were concerned about being ‘outed’ by joining the meetings but a core group of men were instrumental in recruiting peers and friends. The group addresses the needs men bring, rather than a set programme. This includes support with coming out; learning about gay culture and history; dealing with homophobia and discrimination; sexual health and developing relationships and friendships.	11,590	4,888	27,142.129705
warc	201704	Entrepreneurs are a special breed. Some people say you are born an entrepreneur, while others will say it is a passion or skill you develop over time. No matter what your thoughts, entrepreneurs are quickly taking over the world and pushing the status quo to the side. The big question is… who are entrepreneurs these days, and where are they from and who are they up against? All of this and more will be answered through the “Who are Entrepreneurs and Where Are They From?” infographic shown below. Who are Entrepreneurs and Where Are They From? Infographic Summary While there are more entrepreneurs in the world today than ever before, don’t think it’s an easy task to accomplish. Entrepreneurs always have their backs to the wall as they are responsible for their own successes and failures. The average age of business founders when they start their own business is 40 years old 71.5% of respondents came from middle class backgrounds (34.6% upper middle class and 36.9% lower middle class) 95.1% have a bachelor’s degree and 47% have more advanced degrees The number one concern facing start companies is access to capital The top problems facing small businesses today, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, are cost of health insurance, fuel/gas and federal taxes on business income Infographic source: ContactMe	1,373	733	2,502.493861
warc	201704	Now there’s a way to realize your full potential on the job. ‘Rebooting Work’ shows you how to transform the way you work in the Age of Entrepreneurship. 50% of people are unsatisfied with their jobs. The way we work just isn’t working. Where talent ranks higher than tenure. Everyone has to get voted onto the team every day. yet the war for talent is bigger than ever and most companies can’t fill their openings. It’s time to reboot work. Most things worth doing are hard. Successful people get to where they are in their careers because they make the hard appear easy. and are in the Age of Entrepreneurship. By leveraging new technologies, networking outside of our organizations, and acknowledging that we are the CEOs of our own destinies, we can have more fulfilling and rewarding careers. and increasingly cloud, social and mobile. Yet in the midst of all of this change and new capability, we have not modified our behaviors and management processes to adapt to the new realities. I recently learned the true secret to employee motivation when I interviewed Silicon Valley legend, Maynard Webb.Kevin Kruse, Forbes “Re-booting Work,” an ode to shaking up the traditional workplace.Kara Miller and Kine Chapin, WGBH News Millennials face a brutal workforce. Baby Boomers can only dream about retirement. Most companies don’t last as long. The job market has never been so desultory. Right? Wrong, argues tech veteran Maynard Webb.Jon Swartz, USA Today Rebooting Work: Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship gives readers the tools to build a successful career in the new age of entrepreneurship.Anita Ferrer, Associations Now In the book, he advocates taking control of your destiny, though that doesn’t necessarily mean starting your own business. It means advancing your skills to stay atop the massive rate of change under way.Susan Hall, ITBusinessEdge Maynard Webb knows a thing or two about navigation through a career path. One of the tech industry’s most respected veterans. Webb just added another role to his resume — author — to help other people better forge their own successful work lives.Colleen Taylor, TechCrunch TV The man brought in to fix the auction site’s network nearly 14 years ago has become one of the most respected voices in Silicon Valley. He has just written a book about taking control of your future. Webb is considered one of the elder statesmen of Silicon Valley.Jim Kerstetter, CNET Maynard Webb has always been the go-to guy when Silicon Valley companies have tough problems. Webb brings strategic and operational savvy to every issue and venture.Dan Schawbel, Forbes I agree hole-hardheartedly with Webb’s theory about work. I’ve called it being an entrepreneur for life. In “Rebooting Work”, co-authored with Carlye Adler, Webb takes all of his insight about careers (he has a passion for mentoring) and distills it into a sort of self-actualization guide.Victoria Barret, Forbes Maynard Webb knows something about transformation as noted above. Also important to know that he’s not a work “hippy” (I might be). He started with IBM and speaks fondly of the mentoring he received. If he thinks work is shifting, it is a good idea to pay attention.Terri Griffith, Author of The Plugged-In Manager and a professor at Santa Clara University Have you ever said anything like one of the following statements? “I can’t take a risk…Read More Successful companies are built with strong talent. Employees who have been with you since Day One…Read Full Article By Jacob Morgan, Contributor If you are in technology, venture capital, or business in general; you’re…Read Full Article	3,787	1,925	7,143.167273
warc	201704	Article Title DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.18590/mjm.2016.vol2.iss3.4 Abstract Delirium is one of the most common mental illnesses that can affect elderly patients and patients with advanced medical problems. Because these patients are frequently on multiple medications and/or are more sensitive to medications secondary to their age, interactions with current medications, or existing medical problems; medication toxicity is frequently the etiology behind their delirium. This is a case report of a patient admitted for cellulitis that developed delirium from Linezolid however did not develop any other signs or symptoms of Serotonin Syndrome; a known side effect of Linezolid. This distinctive case highlights the importance of a careful analysis of a patient’s medications for potential deliriogenicity as well as the value of using a validated tool for assessing and following up a patient with suspected delirium. Specifically, this case should give clinicians warrant for suspicion of Linezolid as the cause of a patient’s delirium regardless of the presence or absence of Serotonin Syndrome. Conflict(s) of Interest No conflict of interest noted References with DOI 1. Francis J. Delirium in older patients. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1992;40(8):829. 2. Francis J. Drug-induced delirium: Diagnosis and treatment. CNS Drugs. 1996;5:103. https://doi.org/10.2165/00023210-199605020-00003 3. Trzepacz P et al. Validation of the delirium rating scale-revised-98: comparison with the delirium rating scale and the cognitive test for delirium. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2001;13:229–242 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.neuropsych.13.2.229 4. Dunkley EJC et al. The Hunter Serotonin Toxicity Criteria: simple and accurate diagnostic decision rules for serotonin toxicity. QJM. 2003;96 (9)635-642. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcg109 5. Flacker JM, Lipsitz LA. Neural mechanisms of delirium: current hypotheses and evolving concepts. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. 1999;54(7):B275. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/54.6.b239 6. Serio RN. Acute delirium associated with combined diphenhydramine and linezolid use. Annal Pharmacotherapy. 2004;38(1):62-5. https://doi.org/10.1345/aph.1d018 7. Mattappalil A, Mergenhagen K. Neurotoxicity with antimicrobials in the elderly: a review. Clin Ther. 2014; 36(11):1489-1511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2014.09.020 Recommended Citation Nazha, MD, Hani and Harrington, MD, Nathan T.(2016)"Linezolid Induced Delirium in the Absence of Serotonin Syndrome: A Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison Case Report," Marshall Journal of Medicine:Vol. 2:Iss.3, Article 4. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18590/mjm.2016.vol2.iss3.4 Available at: http://mds.marshall.edu/mjm/vol2/iss3/4	2,730	1,465	5,022.081911
warc	201704	As Richard Martin and Harold Koda noted in Waist Not, “[s]eldom does fashion confirm the natural waist.” This was never more true than at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when women’s dress emulated the Neoclassical line, which placed the waistline just below the breasts. The columnar silhouette was first rendered in sheer cottons and linens, which revealed a woman’s unencumbered body below the “waist” and drew up and supported the breasts above. By the 1810s, the same silhouette hardened through the use of heavier silks and stays underneath. Unlike the conical stays of the eighteenth century, early nineteenth-century stays were long and compressed the hips in furtherance of the columnar line, and they introduced gussets underneath the breasts in order to support them above the high waistline. From the late 1810s through the 1820s, the waistline slipped downward by degrees until it was just above natural position in the 1830s. By the 1830s, the ideal silhouette was a wide open triangle atop generous bell-shaped gored skirts short enough to reveal the ankles. The breadth of a woman’s upper torso was achieved through a combination of underpinnings. Stays were boned, which provided pressure on the waist, and had bust gussets, which pushed the volume of the bosom upward, and featured shoulder straps, which held the shoulders down and away from the neck. Sleeve supports, made of down or of cotton shaped with whalebone, filled enormous leg o’mutton sleeves, which further widened the upper torso. The skirts were supported by corded or stiffened petticoats. In the 1840s, the defining elements of the silhouette slipped downward on the body until the ballooning sleeves disappeared altogether. By the 1850s, the open triangle created by sloped shoulders was still a key element of the silhouette and the expanding skirts were often boxed pleated or gauged, rather than gathered, at the waist and reached the floor. This new, broad-based silhouette made the waist appear even smaller. That effect increased with the transition from multiple layers of petticoats to the cage crinoline. With its introduction around 1856, as Richard Martin and Harold Koda note in Bare Witness, “lateral expansion achieved its zenith; crinolines afforded light support for massive skirts and for the wide expanse of upper chest visible above the bust, a breadth which now extended even off the shoulders.” Made of hoops of whalebone, cane, or steel held together with cloth tapes or encased in fabric, the light, effective support of the cage crinoline allowed dresses to achieve an expanse as great or greater than that provided by eighteenth-century panniers. By the 1870s, the expansive base of the cage crinoline had fallen out of fashion but women were loath to discard the voluminous dresses that had covered them; fashion evolved into the bustled silhouette that replaced the belle of the 1860s. Fabric which had previously spread over the cage was pulled to the back of the dress, creating a silhouette that was, from the side, almost a right triangle supported by back-heavy petticoats or new hooped crinolines modified for the new silhouette. From the front, the silhouette reflects increasing control being brought to bear on the waistline by corsets shaped to an hourglass silhouette. The bustle silhouette slipped downward and almost off the dress until the early 1880s, when it reappeared projecting off the back of the dress at a near right angle. This form of bustle was compared to an ottoman, and it tended to be upholstered similarly, which further increased its mass. It was supported underneath by a variety of structures, many advertised as healthy alternatives to the horsehair structure that had supported some 1870s bustles. The torso atop the bustle also reflected increasing technological innovation in the construction of foundation garments. With the increased reliance on steel boning and ever more complex pieced construction, the corset became capable of delivering an armored underpinning to conform the body to an hourglass silhouette. The innovations in corset construction also allowed for more pressure to be placed on the waistline than had been possible in the eighteenth century. This would place the objet de luxe which the corset had become at the center of increasing controversy over health issues attributed to the wearing of corsets, but not before the hourglass silhouette it offered had become iconic to the whole of the nineteenth century. Glasscock, Jessica. “Nineteenth-Century Silhouette and Support.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/19sil/hd_19sil.htm (October 2004)	4,790	2,154	10,480.626741
warc	201704	Internet Censorship Essay, Research Paper Animal cruelty encompasses a range of different behaviors harmful to animals, from neglect to malicious, brutal killings. Studies show that animal cruelty may lead to more serious forms of crime, like heavy drug use, violent outbursts, and most common, cold blooded murder. Many studies in psychology, sociology, and criminology during the last twenty-five years have demonstrated that violent offenders frequently have childhood and adolescent histories of serious and repeated animal cruelty. A web page that goes by the name Animal Alliance says ?most cruelty investigated by humane officers, is unintentional neglect, and can be resolved through education.? (3) I was slightly shocked when I saw this comment. Anyone who puts an animals? life in their hands, has a responsibility to it. You don?t just forget to feed him/her, or forget to show them love unless it is intentional, it get so much worse, though. These people aren?t just forgetting to feed their pets, or give them attention, they?re kicking and beating them, poisoning and butchering these poor creatures, and what makes me sick to my stomach, is that some of these people do it for fun!! I recently ran across a link to a web page that contained a online petition to put a cat?s killers to justice with maximum sentence. This is the article I found on this brutal torture of an innocent creature. *WARNING* (graphic details) ?On October 10, 1999, a beautiful female cat came willingly to the four boys who stopped on the side of the road and called to her. Her trust was rewarded by unthinkable terror and cruelty – being used as a tug-of-war toy until the boys heard something “pop”, having her legs broken, being jumped up and down on like a trampoline. Even when her pitiful battered body was mercifully dead, her suffering was not at an end. The boys then placed her ravaged body under the wheel of their car, braking over her, as they drove off to find other amusement. Once the Chesapeake Animal Control conducted their investigation and performed a necropsy, criminal charges were filed against 3 of the 4 boys involved. If these charges are found to be accurate, these boys are not only in violation of the laws of the State of Virginia, but are also in need of immediate psychiatric intervention.? (1)* Another horrific article I ran across was even worse. It was about a dog who to was also a victim of rancid brutality. Here is that story. WARNING (graphic details) ?Jose, Marcus, Richard and Lance are accused of obtaining a video camera, pressing the ‘record’ button, luring Scruffy from his home, and then torturing and killing him in an unspeakably monstrous act of cruelty. In the videotape that the police and media have in their possession, four men are shown torturing and killing Scruffy in lurid detail. The quality of the tape is very good, and the police have been able to obtain photographs of the men in the tape. In this tape, one of the four men is shown to elevate Scruffy off the ground by the neck, and then begin this horrific abuse by choking him. This 6 pound little dog did not have a fighting chance against these men. Scruffy, still alive, was then placed in a trash bag. The four men shown in the tape then doused the trash bag with what appeared in the video to be lamp oil, took a cigarette lighter, and set Scruffy on fire. Scruffy, at this point in the video, began to run wildly in pain and agony around the trees while the four men watched and laughed. When the flames finally went out, Scruffy was still alive, but his torture was not over. Next, the men decided to try to decapitate Scruffy with a shovel. After slamming the shovel into Scruffy’s neck and not being able to attain their goal, they realized that Scruffy was more of a fighter than they had expected. The men then opened Scruffy’s mouth and began to pull his jaws apart, as if trying to rip his face in two. Using the shovel in place of a club, the men then beat Scruffy until his tiny body gave out, and he died. Throughout the videotape the four men are all shown laughing and having a good time as they are carrying out these unspeakable tortures.? (1) * After I read these stories I was disgusted, revolted, down right sickened by the realization that these men needed to be institutionalized or locked down. It?s scare?s me to think of what they would and are capable of doing to a human being. The FBI uses reports of animal cruelty in analyzing the threat potential of suspected and known violent criminals. Dr. Randall Lockwood, vice president of Training Initiatives for The Humane Society of the United States, states that ?Researchers, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies nationwide, have linked animal cruelty to domestic violence, child abuse, serial killings, and to the recent rash of killings by school-age children.?(2) I found yet another web page listing some reports from police case files. I was astonished! These are a few excerpts from that page. *WARNING* (graphic details) “Russell Weston Jr., tortured and killed 12 cats, by burning, cutting their tails, paws, ears off, put toxic chemicals in their eyes, blinding them, forcing them to eat poison, hanging them from trees; the noose loose enough to create a slow and painful death, as the cat/kitten struggles to free itself as the noose gets tighter with each attempt. Later killed 2 officers at our Nation’s Capitol.” “Jeffery Dahmer loved to dissect animals (he learned this in school). Later he dissected boys, and kept their body parts in the refrigerator. Murdered 17 men.” “On May 21, 1998 in Springfield, Oregon; 15-year-old Kip Kinkel set a live cat on fire and dragged the innocent creature through the main street of town. He walked into his high school cafeteria and opened fire on his classmates. Two classmates were killed and 22 others injured, four critically. Later that day, police found his parents shot to death in their home.” “Prior to committing multiple murders, Luke Woodham, age 16, wrote in his personal journal that he and an accomplice beat, burned and tortured his dog, Sparkle, to death. Woodham said it was “true beauty.” He poured liquid fuel down his dog’s throat and set fire to her neck, both inside and outside. On 10/1/1977, Woodham stabbed his mother to death and then went to his high school where he shot and killed two classmates — two girls aged 16 and 17, and injured seven others. In June 1998, Woodham was found guilty of three murders and seven counts of aggravated assault. He was sentenced to three life sentences and an additional 20 years for each assault.” “The Kobe Killer, an as yet unnamed 15-year-old boy in Japan, beheaded a cat and strangled several pigeons. Decapitated 11-year-old Jun Hase, and battered to death a 10-year-old girl with a hammer, and assaulted three other children in separate attacks.” “At 9 years old, Eric Smith strangled a neighbor’s cat. At 13 years old, he bludgeoned four-year-old Derrick Robie to death. Smith lured the little boy into the woods, choked him, sodomized him with a stick, then beat him to death with a rock.” “Arthur Shawcross repeatedly threw a kitten into a lake until the kitten drowned from exhaustion. Killed a young girl. Then, after serving 15-1/2 years in prison, he killed 11 more women.” (4) *** Dr. Randall Lockwood stated, ?Violence directed at animals by young people is a sign that something is terribly wrong, and often acts as a warning of future violence, even killings directed against humans.? (2) In the in the past 18 months, we have seen seven school shootings. In each one, it was learned that the perpetrators had abuse, tortured, and killed animals before moving on to their human victims and our nation is wondering what happened. One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it. Our child must be taught young that it wrong to poke at puppy?s eyes. We can?t afford to ignore what we think of as childish exploration. Our children learn the most important aspects of life young and if they?re not aware of what is right and wrong, it could possibly lead to more dangerous attempts. As a society, we can not tolerate cruelty towards animals. People inclined to inflict pain and torture upon animals have a predisposition to violence against both animals and humans. ?A 1997 study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) reports that youngsters convicted of animal abuse are five times more likely to commit violence against other humans than are their peers, four times more likely to be involved in acts against property, and three times more likely to be drug offenders.? (2) 1. No More Cruelty- http://www.geocities.com/animalabusealert/index.html a) Cat Killers b) Scruffy 2. Colorado High School Gunmen Linked To Animal Cruelty (web article) http://www.hsus.org/whatnew/litteton032399.html a)Lockwood 3. Animal Alliance-http://animalalliance.ca/factsheets/humviol.py 4. Animal Victims/Human Victims: Reports from Police Case Files- http://members.tripod.com/nocruelty/anicru.htm#avh	9,387	4,544	18,902.079665
warc	201704	Hospitals play an important role in the health care system. They are health care institutions that have an organized medical and other professional staff, and inpatient facilities, and deliver medical, nursing and related services 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Hospitals offer a varying range of acute, convalescent and terminal care using diagnostic and curative services in response to acute and chronic conditions arising from diseases as well as injuries and genetic anomalies. In doing so they generate essential information for research, education and management. Traditionally oriented on individual care, hospitals are increasingly forging closer links with other parts of the health sector and communities in an effort to optimize the use of resources for the promotion and protection of individual and collective health status.	846	485	1,468.725773
warc	201704	Mental health experts are meeting with government representatives in Melbourne, to discuss a large-scale trial for the treatment of anxiety and depression in remote areas. The proposed system would combine online therapy, with counselling over the phone. Thousands of Australians in remote areas could be involved in the trial, but government funding has yet to be secured. Professor David Richards, from the University of Exeter, says the remote system has been successful in the United Kingdom. "It's made a huge difference to people's lives," he said. "These are people who would never have had any other option to help themselves climb out of their distress other than drug treatments like anti-depressants."	723	443	1,162.022573
warc	201704	The pressure is building on Vladimir Putin: Russia will be hit by a wave of bankruptcies unless it cuts interest rates very soon, a top financial official warned Monday. Anatoly Aksakov, president of Russia's regional banking association and deputy chairman of parliament's financial markets committee, said firms were running out of cash. "Bankers believe that keeping the situation as it stands will cause a wave of bankruptcies, not only credit institutions but also a number of businesses and companies," Aksakov wrote in a letter to the central bank, according to Russian state media. Aksakov said the central bank must cut rates this month to 15% from 17%, then gradually to 10.5%, the level they were at before the current financial crisis. A central bank rate of 17% meant some companies were having to pay as much as 30% to borrow. Lower rates would allow banks to lend more to companies and individuals, he said. The comments signal deepening stress in Russia's financial sector. Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country's sovereign debt rating last week, blaming a sharp deterioration in its economic outlook. The impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine has sparked a cash crunch by shutting many companies out of international funding markets. Regional airline Ak Bars Aero said Monday it would suspend operations until March, joining several other Russian carriers that have halted flights as the ruble slides and their financial troubles deepen. A collapse in the ruble, driven in part by plunging oil prices, is causing economic pain by driving up inflation. The ruble was under pressure again Monday, falling 1.3% against the U.S. dollar as oil prices continued to slide. Russia is heavily dependent on oil revenues. The currency shed about 40% of its value in 2014. BNP Paribas said Monday that Russia's banks may need an overwhelming amount of support this year. "Banks may need up to ... $45 billion in capital in 2015 to support lending and absorb credit losses, and another ... $11.5 billion to address foreign exchange valuation losses," wrote credit specialist Tatiana Tchembarova. At the same time, the central bank has been running down its stash of foreign cash to try to stabilize its currency and contain the economic crisis. It burned through more than $120 billion in foreign currency supplies last year. It now has $388.5 billion left in total international reserves, including gold and other liquid foreign assets. - CNN's Emma Burrows in Moscow contributed to this report	2,556	1,323	4,899.482993
warc	201704	Suggested Lesson Plan for this Worksheet Give students a lesson on the meaning of recommended daily allowance and daily nutritional needs. Food labels tell you how much percentage of the daily allowance once serving of the food item fulfills. You must total up these percentages every day so that 100% of the daily allowance is met. Common nutrients include: Protein - For growth and repair of tissue. May be found in meat, fish, eggs, and milk. Vitamin A - For normal cell growth. Found in fish-liver oils, milk, and some yellow and dark green vegetables. Vitamin C - Also known as ascorbic acid. Lack of vitamin C causes scurvy. Found in citrus fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, and leafy green vegetables. Thiamine - For carbohydrate metabolism and normal neural activity. Found in meat, yeast, and grains. Riboflavin - Related to vitamin B. For healthy growth. Found in milk, leafy vegetables, meat, and eggs. Niacin - Related to vitamin B. Found in meat, wheat germ, dairy products, and yeast. Other common nutrients include calcium and iron.	1,052	564	1,941.723404
warc	201704	ABOUT DR. ELLEN LANGER Dr. Ellen Langer is a world renowned professor of psychology at Harvard University. Her most recent book is . In addition she has written the bestselling book, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility , and Mindfulness, The Power of Mindful Learning . Her website is at www.ellenlanger.com On Becoming An Artist Dr. Langer has described her work on the illusion of control, aging, decision-making, and mindfulness theory in over 200 research articles and six academic books. Her work has led to numerous academic honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest of the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Contributions of Basic Science to Applied Psychology award from the American Association of Applied & Preventive Psychology, the Adult Development and Aging Distinguished Research Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, the James McKeen Cattel Award, and the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize. The citation for the APA distinguished contributions award reads, in part, "…her pioneering work revealed the profound effects of increasing mindful behavior…and offers new hope to millions whose problems were previously seen as unalterable and inevitable. Ellen Langer has demonstrated repeatedly how our limits are of our own making." Dr. Langer is a Fellow of The Sloan Foundation; The American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science; Computers and Society; The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues; The Society of Experimental Social Psychologists. In addition to other honors, she has been a guest lecturer in Japan, Malaysia, Germany, and Argentina. Included among her books are: . Reading, MA: Da Capo Books, 1989. (Translated into thirteen languages.) Mindfulness . Reading, MA: Da Capo Books, 1997. (Translated into nine languages.) The Power of Mindful Learning . Ballantine Books, 2005. On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity . Ballantine Books, 2009. Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility Additional Resources Ellen's Website at www.ellenlanger.com Chronicle of Higher Education Profile: The Art of Living Mindfully: Nothing is ever certain, says the psychologist Ellen Langer. We should make the most of that. Harvard Magazine profile: "The Mindfulness Chronicles: On the psychology of possibility" Radio Boston Interview by Deborah Becker Ellen's Blog Can the power of thought stop you ageing? Click here. Video on Mindfulness and Leadership Video on Ellen's Classic Research on the Psychology of Control change in the men - just from a change in mindset concept of mindfulness is a different order of variable, because no matter what you're doing, you're doing it mindfully or not no matter what you're doing, if you do it in a mindful manner, you reap the benefits mindfulness is contagious audio recording if you are always mindful of what you are doing, you are never procrastinating one problem people have is a lack of respect the awareness of, at this moment, this is what i need behavior always makes sense from the actors perspective, so be aware of why, then you're ready to take yourself to the task, in a positive way once one allows oneself to do what they want to do, then the task they need to do seems less odious we have all sorts of limits for ourselves that are wired in all the things you think you know you need to question Ellen: I love being wrong the absolutes we take as real, were only researched based at best when we think we know something absolutely, there's no need to pay any attention to it when you recognize everything is uncertain, you stay tuned in Jenifer (Aniston - who's playing her in the movie) reaks authenticity and that's what Ellen values in herself huge diff between curiosity and mindfulness, curiosity can lead you to mindfulness, but if it leads to a solution, then mindfulness is gone interest is a function of a degree to which you are willing to engage yourself, things don't have any inherent meaning, we make it meaningful if you preface everything with, .. in my view... if you're enjoying what you're doing, you're doing it openly and honestly, there's no reason to get defensive no evidence that mindfulness takes more time than mindlessness practice makes imperfect, because once you've practiced you think you've learned it and then you stop, so practice with the mindset of always being a learner telling people to be in the present, is not resonating because everything thinks they are in the present rather, tell people to notice things when asked her future plans... she said, 5 yrs out is too far out, every moment determines the moment after ________________________________________	4,940	2,295	10,499.921569
warc	201704	Well, yesterday's post brought forth a stream of very good comments. The purpose of this post is mostly to suggest that you go back and read them if you're interested in that topic. Just a couple of follow-ups here … then back to linguistics later. One commenter stresses the structural aspect — that this isn't about shuffling a little money here or there but about changing how the state views the UW and how the UW invests its resources internally. This is precisely what the central administration of the University is there for. Chancellor John Wiley, in fact, recently described his job as 'external relations' in an interview with the CapTimes, while Provost Pat Farrell is primarily responsible for operations on campus. Just so you don't forget where the buck stops. And yes, the examples of faculty who declined outside offers of course do stress the importance of students and staff. Our students and staff are overwhelmingly doing tremendous work, but under really unfair pressures. This is where the breakdown of the system will kill us. If a grad program that was at the top of national rankings a few years ago collapses because students won't come, you can't recover that quickly. And staff are retiring and leaving in large numbers — and not being replaced. Fixing this now would be far cheaper than rebuilding from the smoldering ruins. Of course, the piece highlights four faculty who are staying while it lists, what, 15-18 who've left? And everybody on campus knows the latter list doesn't even scratch the surface of the lists that have been in the papers. Another commenter notes that grad student packages at places like Penn State are almost twice what they are here. (These packages vary dramatically across campus, basically by percentage of appointment, but I know of areas where those numbers are basically right.) If I'm driven away from this university, as I may well be, it'll certainly be over the loss of grad students, academic and classified staff. And I know from talking to people who've left or are leaving that "faculty leave for campuses with a real commitment to graduate education." As a doctoral student from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences said last night, if the institution gives you the resources, it doesn't much matter what the university's name is. We've got to turn up the pressure on the University administration to do their jobs, and we've got to actively support people like CAPE, the Teaching Assistants Association (TAA), and unions like UFAS, who are pushing in the right direction on these issues.	2,590	1,360	4,894.338235
warc	201704	The short- and long-term effectiveness of anti-piracy laws and enforcement actions Tylor Orme Journal of Cultural Economics, November 2014, Pages 351-368 Abstract: Film studios have spent the past two decades lobbying extensively to establish new legislation restricting access to copyrighted materials online. While there is growing evidence of the effect film piracy has on studio profits, the evidence on the impact of anti-piracy legislation is limited. If anti-piracy legislation is having the film industry’s desired impact, we would expect film revenues to be consistently higher following the passage of major laws that restrict access to pirated content, or major enforcement actions, such as the shutdown of Web sites that provide illegal content for download. This paper applies an intervention analysis approach to weekly data on movie box-office revenues in the USA to determine whether the passage of new anti-piracy policy has generated significant changes in box-office revenues during the period from 1997 to the present. These effects are evaluated in both the short and long term, which allows an assessment of the duration of effectiveness of government actions. The results show that four of the six included policies are ineffective in the long term and those policies that do impact revenues in the short term often harm film studios, rather than help them. “Piracy is not theft!” Is it just students who think so? Michał Krawczyk et al. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, February 2015, Pages 32–39 Abstract: A fair share of studies analyzing “online piracy” are based on easily accessible student samples. However, it has been argued that the youth tend to have more lax social and ethical norms concerning both property rights and online behavior. In this study we present the results of a vignette experiment, i.e. a scenario survey where responders are asked to provide an ethical judgment on different forms of unauthorized acquisition of a full season of a popular TV series described in a number of hypothetical stories. The survey is conducted both on a student sample and on a sample of individuals who openly endorse protection of intellectual property rights for cultural goods. In this way we can investigate the possibly limited external validity of studies relying solely on the student samples. The vignette experiment concerned ethical evaluation of unauthorized acquisition of cultural content in both virtual and real context and was focused on six dimensions previously identified as relevant to the ethical judgment. Surprisingly, we found that the rules for the ethical judgment do not differ between our samples, suggesting that the social norms on “online piracy” follow similar patterns in student and in other populations. Findings from studies relying on ethical or moral judgments of students may thus be valid in a much broader population. With a nod to Kevin Lewis for finding these...	3,001	1,458	6,078.157064
warc	201704	While the number of homes for sale rose 4.3 percent in June to 1.9 million, the highest national level in the past year, Seattle and a few other cities are bucking the trend. According to newly-released housing data from realtor.com, housing inventory is finally reversing course following two years of decline. More homeowners are seeing rising prices and may be more apt to try to sell their homes. However, inventories of homes for sale remain far below last year’s level in markets such as Seattle (down 23.2 percent), Boston (down 35.1 percent), Denver (down 30.1 percent), Detroit (down 25.7 percent), and San Francisco (down 21.7 percent). The number of homes for sale has risen the most in the past year in areas that had seen the largest declines, such as Sacramento, Calif. (up 11 percent), Atlanta (up 10.9 percent), Phoenix (up 6.2 percent), and Miami (up 2.2 percent). From May to June, inventories soared by the highest month-over-month amounts in Southern California, with inventories up 51.5 percent in Orange County, 45.7 percent in Los Angeles, and 18.1 percent in San Diego, according to realtor.com. Realtor.com also reported that the median national asking price climbed 0.5 percent in June from May, reaching $199,900. Median asking prices are up by 5 percent over last year.	1,308	671	2,528.280179
warc	201704	North Dakota Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPDES) Permits Program Marty Haroldson, Program Manager Phone: 701 .328 .5234 Fax: 701 .328 .5200 Mail: 918 East Divide Avenue, 4th Floor Bismarck, ND 58501 The North Dakota Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systen (NDPDES) Program, commonly called the Permits Program, was developed in response to the legislation of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). One of the requirements of the CWA was that States needed to create permit programs with the goal of controlling water pollution by regulating sources that discharge pollutants into State water bodies. Some examples of sources that discharge pollutants are: municipal waste water treatment plants or lagoons power plants construction sites oil refineries animal feeding operations septic pumping operations automobile salvage yards, etc.... Most of these sources must obtain a permit to discharge pollutants to North Dakota's water bodies. The type of permit a discharger obtains will depend on which pollutants and the concentrations of pollutants that are present in the waste water. Some sources must test the pollutant levels in their waste water before discharging to a water body and others might need to perform periodic inspections to ensure that their best management practices are working effectively to treat runoff before it leaves their site. The list at the left of this page shows the different waste water permit programs that North Dakota manages. The only program that EPA administers within North Dakota is the Biosolids/Sludge Program. You are welcome to explore the list of permit programs to learn more about the different requirements and specific sources that require a permit. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. EPA has a website that provides a great deal of information on the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and waste water discharge rules. Last Updated: 08/24/2015	1,949	953	3,955.263379
warc	201704	3.5 Mixing Measured abundances in interstellar gas will of course depend on how well, and on what timescale, the ISM is mixed and on what timescale fresh metal cools and becomes visible. Kunth and Sargent (1986) argue that H II regions are self-polluted within the ongoing burst providing the ejected oxygen can recombine fast enough to be observed in the H II zone while some can become neutral and be observed in the H I cloud. Pantelaki and Clayton (1987) dismiss this possibility from the fact that most of the ejecta should remain for a long time in the hot gas generated by SN events. Spiral galaxies display radial abundance variations, indicating that radial mixing is inefficient. On the other hand, barred spirals display smaller abundance gradients, since bar perturbations induce radial gas flows. Roy and Kunth (1995) discuss mixing processes in the ISM of gas rich galaxies, and conclude that dwarf galaxies are expected to show kpc scale abundance inhomogeneities. On the other hand, chemodynamical models (Hensler and Rieschick 1998), predict that the ISM will be well mixed and chemically homogeneous through cloud evaporation. The observational situation is still not completely clear and rather few dwarfs have been subject to high quality studies of their chemical homogeneity. Most dwarf irregulars seem rather homogeneous (Kobulnicky and Skillman 1996, Kobulnicky 1998) with the exception of NGC 5253 where local N/H overabundances has been attributed to localised pollution from WR stars (Kobulnicky et al. 1997). There is also marginal evidence for a weak abundance gradient in the LMC (on the scale of several kpc, Kobulnicky 1998). The situation is less clear in BCGs: In IIZw40, Walsh and Roy (1993) found a factor two variation in the oxygen abundance. IZw18 appears to be rather homogeneous (e.g. Skillman and Kennicutt 1993, Vilchez and Iglesias-Páramo 1998, Legrand et al. 1999) while recent spectroscopy of SBS0335-052 (Izotov et al. 1999b) reveals small but significant variations in accordance (though to a much lesser extent) with previous results (Melnick et al. 1992). The possibility that metallicities in the neutral gas phase are orders of magnitude below the H II region abundances would bean ultimate test of large scale inhomogeneities. Recent O/H abundance determination in the H I envelope of the verymetal-poor compact dwarf IZw18(Kunth et al. 1994)suggests the possibility of a striking discontinuity between the H I and H II gas phases:the measured O/H in the cold gas appears to be 30 times lower (i.e. ~ 1/1000 Z )than that of the associated H II region. Note however thatPettini and Lipman(1995)have strongly warned against the use of the O I interstellar lines in the deriving O/H for neutral gas, mainly becausethese lines are saturated and the velocity dispersion is unknown, (see alsovan Zee et al. 1998). A further HST observation of O and S lines in IZw18 has unfortunatelynot produced consistent results (unpublished). NeverthelessThuan et al. (1997)circumvented this problem in the case of SBS0335-052 although their result awaits independent measurement of unsaturated lines such asthe SII 1256 multiplet. A crucial question would be how to interpret the presence of metals inthe H I zone. If indeed IZw18 experiences its very first episode of starformation, the oxygen present in the ionised gas should originate fromthe ongoing burst and one can speculate that metals in the H I wereproduced at an earlier epoch from population III stars prior to the collapse of the proto galaxy. On theother hand the enrichment in the neutral gas could originate in aprevious burst allowing for a time scale long enough to homogenise a cold cloud of 1 kpc diameter asdiscussed byRoy and Kunth (1995),but seeTenorio-Tagle (1996). To circumvent the problem,Legrand (1998)has conjectured that in between bursts, IZw18 had maintained a minimum continuous star formation rate of only 10 -4 M /yr over thelast 14 Gyrs. Such a SFR is comparable to the lowest SFR observed in lowsurface brightness galaxies. This scenario nicely explains the lack of galaxies with metallicities below IZw18, theabsence of H I clouds without optical counterparts and the homogeneity of the metal abundances indwarf galaxies. The question of the metallicity of the cold neutral gas is indeed veryimportant for understanding how much enrichment has really occurred, since for many galaxies, a considerable fraction of the totalbaryonic mass is in the form of neutral hydrogen.If some dwarfs are not well mixed on large scales (e.g. LSBGs which havelarge H I-discs) they would appear more metal rich after converting a given fraction ofgas into stars, because one would be observationally biased towards the star-forming,more metal rich regions. On the other hand, if some dwarfs can mix their whole ISM onnot too long timescales, the fresh metals will be efficiently diluted and the galaxyappear more metal-poor. Galaxies with very turbulent ISM and those involved inmergers could possibly mix more easily on large scales. Once ejected into the ISM, part of the metals may be locked up into dust grains. This is observed in the local ISM for some elements (see e.g. Pagel 1997) and may result in strange element ratios and apparent under-abundances in extragalactic H II regions, although the effect is believed to be small for H II regions, due to grain destruction. In fact Bautista and Pradhan (1995) find that in the Orion nebula, the depletion of iron into dust grains is probably a minor effect. In the colder gas associated with damped Ly systems (see Sect. 8.2) depletion onto dust grains may be important for some elements.	5,665	2,680	11,945.117537
warc	201704	MANILA – Model-actor turned fitness consultant Edward Mendez is encouraging Filipinos to eat more and exercise less if they want to lose unnecessary fat and gain more muscle. After testing it for himself and getting a lean physique, Mendez now actively promotes this fitness principle by holding classes and writing a book titled “Your Dream Body Come True.” In an interview on “[email protected]” on Wednesday, Mendez said the key to getting a strong and lean body is eating healthy food often and having quick, intense workouts. He observed how a lot of people tend to exercise too much and starve themselves in an effort to slim down. “Don’t starve yourself because if you do that, the thyroid gland will sense that there is no food coming in. The metabolism will go down and the fat, which is considered reserve energy, will be stored and will become more stubborn to burn,” he explained. “That’s the common problem – they keep losing weight but they’re not satisfied with the shape of their bodies because they’re not really losing fat, they’re also losing muscles,” he explained. “Most people like to train two to three hours in the gym,” he added. “The problem with that kind of regimen is they’re damaging their bodies more. And when they do that, muscles are being eaten up and the metabolism also goes down.” One of Mendez’ clients or “jedis” as he calls them is “[email protected]” host Pinky Webb, who attested to the intensity and effectiveness of his program. Referring to Webb, he said: “Not only is she getting thinner but she is also getting strong. She started with the squats, now she is doing [more intense workouts].” Mendez said that with his program, results can easily be seen after three months. His basic tips for a “dream body” include eating healthy food every three hours, working out for a total of four hours a week, and giving the body enough time to rest. “You do cardio in one day for 23 minutes and you’re done. The next day, you do weight training for 45 minutes and then you’re done. So that’s three days of weight lifting and three days of cardio,” he said. “You focus more on nutrition. It’s 70% nutrition and 30% training.” “You have to rest also. If you work out almost every day doing weight training or running, you’re not giving the body enough time to repair. Because every time you step into the gym, you’re damaging your body. You got to give your body some rest to complete the repair of the muscles. When you do that, that’s when you burn fat and shape your body up,” he added. Mendez also advised those who want to get fit to avoid stress as much as possible. “You have to control your stress level. Stress is the main culprit to weight gain and many other health complications. If you’re not stressed, you can easily burn fat and gain muscles,” he said.	3,044	1,423	5,998.156008
warc	201704	Last modified: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Fourth 'Workshop on the Workshop' to take place June 3-6 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 26, 2009 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Part serious academic conference, part celebratory reunion of friends, colleagues, teachers and students, the fourth "Workshop on the Workshop" will take place June 3-6 at Indiana University Bloomington. The conference celebrates and augments the research and scholarship of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, established in 1973 at IU Bloomington by political scientists Vincent Ostrom and Elinor Ostrom. The Workshop on the Workshop takes place every five years. WOW4, as this year's conference is called, will bring together about 150 people from around the world, many of them traveling from Africa and Asia. Approximately 90 presentations and dozens of panels are scheduled on topics dealing with development, natural resource management and governance. More information is available online at http://www.indiana.edu/~wow4/home/index.html. "The focus of the conference can be summarized as 'studies in self-governance,'" said James Walker, IU Bloomington professor of economics and co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. "In large part, these scholars focus on the development of 'bottom-up' collective action dealing with governance issues in less developed countries, as well as developing local institutions to deal with the maintenance and use of commonly held resources such as fisheries, forests and irrigation systems." This year's conference comes at a time of transition for the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, with Elinor Ostrom moving from her longtime role as co-director to the newly created position of senior research director, allowing her to focus on research and graduate training. Walker and Michael McGinnis, IU Bloomington professor of political science, will serve as co-directors. WOW4, Walker said, provides an opportunity to get input from colleagues, reflect on the Workshop's past and look forward to its future. About the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis is Indiana University's largest social-science research center, with 30 affiliated faculty members at IU, 25 at other institutions, visiting scholars who spend between one month and two years at the Workshop, graduate students and research associates. Its mission is to promote the interdisciplinary study of institutions, incentives and behavior as they relate to policy-relevant applications. The term 'workshop' represents the conviction that the skills for such research are best acquired and used in a setting where students, working as apprentices and journeymen, have the opportunity to collaborate with experienced scholars. For more information on the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, see http://www.indiana.edu/~workshop/.	2,941	1,393	6,171.244078
warc	201704	The bacterial biogeography of British soils Griffiths, Robert I.; Thomson, Bruce C.; James, Phillip; Bell, Thomas; Bailey, Mark; Whiteley, Andrew S.. 2011 The bacterial biogeography of British soils. Environmental Microbiology, 13 (6). 1642-1654. 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02480.x Abstract/Summary Despite recognition of the importance of soil bacteria to terrestrial ecosystem functioning there is little consensus on the factors regulating belowground biodiversity. Here we present a multi-scale spatial assessment of soil bacterial community profiles across Great Britain (> 1000 soil cores), and show the first landscape scale map of bacterial distributions across a nation. Bacterial diversity and community dissimilarities, assessed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism, were most strongly related to soil pH providing a large-scale confirmation of the role of pH in structuring bacterial taxa. However, while diversity was positively related to pH, the converse was true for β diversity (between sample variance in diversity). β diversity was found to be greatest in acidic soils, corresponding with greater environmental heterogeneity. Analyses of clone libraries revealed the pH effects were predominantly manifest at the level of broad bacterial taxonomic groups, with acidic soils being dominated by few taxa (notably the group 1 Acidobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria). We also noted significant correlations between bacterial communities and most other measured environmental variables (soil chemistry, aboveground features and climatic variables), together with significant spatial correlations at close distances. In particular, bacterial and plant communities were closely related signifying no strong evidence that soil bacteria are driven by different ecological processes to those governing higher organisms. We conclude that broad scale surveys are useful in identifying distinct soil biomes comprising reproducible communities of dominant taxa. Together these results provide a baseline ecological framework with which to pursue future research on both soil microbial function, and more explicit biome based assessments of the local ecological drivers of bacterial biodiversity. Item Type: Publication - Article Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02480.x Programmes: CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biodiversity > BD Topic 1 - Observations, Patterns, and Predictions for Biodiversity > BD - 1.3 - Long-term/large-scale monitoring and experiments ... CEH Sections: Hails ISSN: 1462-2912 NORA Subject Terms: Biology and Microbiology Date made live: 21 Jul 2011 11:39 URI: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/14678 Actions (login required) View Item	2,727	1,447	5,107.23566
warc	201704	The opinion of the court was delivered by: VICTOR E. Bianchini United States Magistrate Judge Petitioner Anthony Smith ("Smith") filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his conviction in Monroe County Court on one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree. The parties have consented to disposition of this matter by the undersigned pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c). FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The conviction here at issue stems from Smith's sale of two "dime bags" of cocaine to an undercover police officer on October 17, 2000. On October 18, 2000, Smith was arraigned on the felony complaint with defense counsel present, who requested an adjournment for a preliminary hearing. This was scheduled for October 20, 2000, on which date Smith waived the matter to the grand jury. The grand jury returned Indictment No. 218/01 on April 13, 2001, charging Smith with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. The indictment was filed with the court on the same day, and the prosecution included therein a notice pursuant to People v. Kendziafn1 indicating that the People were ready for trial. The prosecution filed a second Kendzia notice with the Monroe County Court and served a copy on Smith's defense counsel on April 20, 2001; however, defense counsel averred that she did not receive the notice until April 24, 2001. At a pre-trial hearing, the prosecutor conceded that the notice of trial readiness was actually date-stamped on April 23, 2001. On June 20, 2001, defense counsel for Smith moved pursuant to New York's so-called "Speedy Trial" statute, Criminal Procedure Law ("C.P.L.") § 30.30, to dismiss the indictment because the prosecution had not complied with its statutory obligation to be ready for trial within six months of the commencement of the action.fn2 The trial court (Connell, J.) denied the motion on July 25, 2001. The court held that the time between October 20, 2000, when the case was waived to the grand jury, and April 13, 2001, when the indictment was filed with the court, was chargeable to the prosecution. The court stated that the prosecution's Kendzia notice filed on April 23, 2001, fulfilled the requirements of C.P.L. § 30.30(1)(a). Monroe Count Supreme Court Order at 1 (citation omitted), Respondent's Appendix ("Resp't App."), Exhibit ("Ex.") E at 29. Smith's jury trial commenced in Supreme Court (Monroe County) (Fisher, J.) on March 4, 2002. The jury returned a verdict in which it acquitted Smith of the possession count and convicted him of the criminal sale count. Smith was sentenced as a second felony offender to an indeterminate sentence of five to ten years. On direct appeal, appellate counsel raised one claim--that the trial court erred in denying Smith's motion to dismiss the indictment based on the prosecution's failure to comply with the strictures of New York's Speedy Trial statute, C.P.L. § 30.30. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, of New York State Supreme Court, unanimously affirmed the conviction. Leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals was denied. Smith filed the instant habeas petition raising one claim--that his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial was violated. Respondent answered and interposed the defense of non-exhaustion with respect to Smith's sole claim. Smith then filed a motion to have his petition held in abeyance so that he could return to state court to exhaust his remedies with respect to a claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel premised on counsel's failure to assert a Sixth Amendment Speedy Trial claim on direct appeal. In this regard, Smith filed an application for a writ of error coram nobis in the Appellate Division which denied the application in an memorandum decision and order. Respondent's Supplemental Appendix ("Resp't Supp. App."), Ex. C. Leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals was denied. Respondent answered the amended petition, and Smith submitted a reply to respondent's answering memorandum of law, disputing many of respondent's factual assertions. Smith recently made a motion to have this Court hold an evidentiary hearing on his claims. For the reasons set forth below, the Court concludes that no hearing is necessary to resolve this matter. The request for a writ of habeas corpus is denied, and the petition is dismissed. Exhaustion and Procedural Default "An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to a judgment of a State court shall not be granted unless it appears that--(A) the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State. . . ." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A); see, e.g., O'Sullivan v. Boerckel, 526 U.S. 838, 843-44, 119 S.Ct. 1728, 1731 (1999); Bossett v. Walker, 41 F.3d 825, 828 (2d Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1054, 115 S.Ct. 1436 (1995)."The exhaustion requirement is not satisfied unless the federal claim has been 'fairly presented' to the state courts." Daye v. Attorney General, 696 F.2d 186, 191 (2d Cir.1982) (en banc), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1048, 104 S.Ct. 723 (1984). This means that the petitioner must have alerted the state appellate court that a federal constitutional claim is at issue. E.g., Grady v. LeFevre, 846 F.2d 862, 864 (2d Cir. 1988). Here, Smith's brief to the Fourth Department--prepared by appellate counsel--referred only to C.P.L. § 30.30, dealt only with state statutory ready-for-trial issues under C.P.L. § 30.30, and employed only state cases and state law analysis; there is no reference in the table of authorities or in the rest of the brief of to any federal case law or to the federal constitution. Clearly, the claim Smith raised in state court rested solely on state procedural grounds. C.P.L. § 30.30 requires only that the prosecution be ready for trial within a prescribed time frame, and not that the defendant actually be afforded a speedy trial. See People v. Anderson, 66 N.Y.2d 529, 498 N.Y.S.2d 119, 488 N.E.2d 1231 (N.Y. 1985) (stating that C.P.L. § 30.30, setting forth time limitations in which People must be ready for trial, addresses only problem of prosecutorial readiness, and is not a "Speedy Trial" statute in the constitutional sense). Because C.P.L. § 30.30 is merely a state law provision requiring the prosecution to be ready for trial, a § 30.30 claim does not raise a federal constitutional claim. Accord, e.g., Gibriano v. Attorney General of the State of New York, 965 F. Supp. 489, 491-492 (S.D.N.Y. 1997) (denying habeas relief and noting that "Section 30.30 [of the New York Criminal Procedure Law] is a statutory time in which the People of New York must be ready for trial; Section 30.30 is not, as such, a statutory embodiment of the constitutional guarantee to a speedy trial."); Rodriguez v. Miller, No. 96 Civ. 4723(HB), 1997 WL 599388, at 2 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 1997) ("[A] C.P.L. § 30.30 claim has been held not to raise the federal constitutional speedy trial claim for purposes of a federal habeas petition."); Jackson v. McClellan, No. 92 Civ. 7217(JFK), 1994 WL 75042, at 2 (S.D.N.Y. Mar.4, 1994) (holding that petitioner failed to fairly present constitutional speedy trial issue to state court where petitioner argued "entirely in terms of New York Statutory law [C.P.L. § 30.30]"). The conclusion is inescapable that Smith did not fairly present his federal constitutional speedy trial claim to the state court, and therefore it is not exhausted. For purposes of satisfying the exhaustion requirement, a federal habeas court need not require that a federal claim be presented to a state court if it is "clear" that the state court would hold the claim to be procedurally barred. Reyes v. Keane, 118 F.3d 136, 139 (2d Cir. 1997) (quoting Grey v. Hoke, 933 F.2d 117, 120 (2d Cir. 1991) (in turn quoting Harris v. Reed, 489 U.S. 255, 263 n. 9, 109 S.Ct. 1038, 1043 n. 9 (1989)) (quotation marks omitted). In such a case, a habeas petitioner does not have "remedies available in the courts of the State" within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b). Grey v. Hoke, 933 F.2d at 120. Claims that would face such a procedural bar are "deemed exhausted" by the federal courts. E.g., Reyes v. Keane, 118 ...	8,440	3,628	19,350.584344
warc	201704	The crash of a gong reverberated through the Classic Center every 15 minutes Thursday, causing the crowd to cheer. They knew the sound meant another 5,000 children would be fed. In town for the annual meeting of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, volunteers from across the state worked to package 200,000 meals for hungry children Thursday. Sponsored with an anonymous $50,000 donation to the feeding group Stop Hunger Now, teens and adults crowded around long tables and worked in an assembly line to measure and package dehydrated meals that will go next week to feed school children in Nicaragua. "It's a tremendously efficient way to carry out our mission to God's hurting people," said Lance Sligar, a convention delegate from Norcross. Sligar participated in one of five two-hour packing sessions when 100 to 300 volunteers at a time boxed up 40,000 meals each session. The prepackaged meals of rice, vegetables, soy protein and chicken flavoring include 21 essential vitamins and minerals chosen especially for malnourished people. Each reusable plastic bag provides servings for six people, has a shelf life of three to five years and costs about 25 cents to make. Each time a pallet of 5,000 meals was ready to be carted to a waiting truck, event organizers banged a gong, but volunteers' cheers quickly drowned out the sound. "Each time I hear the gong, it makes me want to do more, go faster," said Ariana Allison, 15, who came with an enrichment program at her Atlanta high school to participate. Stop Hunger Now tried to inspire that kind of enthusiasm. "What we're trying to do here is create a sense of excitement," said founder and President Ray Buchanan. "When these people go back to their church, they'll want to work to end hunger abroad and in their own communities, and that's how we're going to change the world." About 90 percent of the meals Stop Hunger Now packages go to schools, while the remaining 10 percent gets distributed in disaster areas. The organization already had more than 1.5 million packaged meals on the ground in schools in Haiti before the country's devastating earthquake in January. Those meals were immediately distributed to victims, along with 4.5 million more the group was able to send in the first few weeks following the disaster. Each organization that receives meals from Stop Hunger Now is vetted by the group in a four-month process that ensures shipments will reach the people the group has agreed to feed, according to program coordinator Mickey Horner. Adequate storage and access to clean water also is necessary because the food is dehydrated. The Methodist conference gave the opportunity for a massive Stop Hunger Now project, but local people and churches already work to feed people here. "There are several churches and organizations here in Athens that feed the hungry in their own backyard," said John Page, associate pastor at Athens First United Methodist Church. Page worked over the past six months to pull together volunteers and resources for the event. "Hopefully, this will help connect them to the need to feed the hungry internationally, too." While the Methodists packed meal boxes for three of Thursday's sessions, Athens locals manned the other two shifts. Betty King, 64, learned about the project from HandsOn Northeast Georgia and drove to Athens from her home in Lexington. "I was thinking of how many thousands of meals we were making, and it's just amazing," King said. "I packaged food before in Oglethorpe County, but I've never seen anything like this." Holly Haynes, 32, came with 30 volunteers from Grove Level Baptist Church in Maysville after her youth pastor told her about the event. "There are a lot of children that are going to be fed now," said Haynes, who has two young daughters at home in Baldwin. "As a mother, that's a good feeling." Thursday's event was the largest that the Raleigh, N.C.-based hunger relief group has hosted in Georgia in its 12-year history. Smaller events at churches and Rotary clubs with around 40 volunteers have sent 10,000 meals to schools and disaster areas across the world. Stop Hunger Now plans to open an Atlanta facility by summer's end that will help local groups raise the money for the packaged meals. "We could package a lot more meals mechanically, but the only way we're going to end hunger is to create a movement," Buchanan said. "These volunteers now have the beginnings of an education that can make a big difference at home and abroad." Stop Hunger Now plans to hold another packaging event at next year's conference in Athens, though it may be the last for the Methodist conference if organizers determine the Classic Center isn't big enough for the group. Roughly 2,800 people attend the conference each year, and organizers are using every available space in the Classic Center and its adjacent building. "We're happy to be in Athens for this conference. The city is so receptive, and we hope in some small way we can be a blessing back to the community," Page said. Information about organizing your own Stop Hunger Now event can be found at www.stophungernow.org/Atlanta. © 2017. All Rights Reserved. \| Contact Us	5,256	2,529	10,796.725979
warc	201704	Desclaux, D. (2005) Participatory Plant Breeding Methods for Organic Cereals. In: Lammerts Van Bueren, E.T. and Ostergard, H. (Eds.) Proceedings of the COST SUSVAR/ECO-PB Workshop on Organic Plant Breeding Strategies and the Use of Molecular Markers, pp. 17-23. PDF - English 168kB Summary Formal breeding methods were not always suitable to address the very large diversity of both environmental conditions and end-user needs. Both were frequently encountered either in marginal areas of developing countries or in organic farms of EEC. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) methods represent alternatives aimed to improve local adaptation breeding, to promote genetic diversity, to empower farmers and rural communities. The term PPB refers to a set of breeding methods usually distinguished by the objectives (functional or process approach), institutional context (farmer-led or formal-led), forms of interaction between farmers and breeders (consultative, collaborative or collegial), location of breeding (centralized or decentralized), stage of farmers participation in the breeding scheme (participatory varietal selection or participatory plant breeding)… Among all these methods, the best strategies for organic breeding and their impacts on breeding techniques are discussed. A PPB program actually conducted at INRA – Montpellier (F), involves the whole organic durum wheat interprofessional organization, from farmers to consumers. It is used to assess the interest of a multidisciplinary approach and to discuss the role of each participant in such program. Must participation be seen as a means towards an end or an end in itself? EPrint Type: Conference paper, poster, etc. Type of presentation: Paper Keywords: Participatory plant breeding, organic breeding, genotype x environment interaction, o-farm trials, durum wheat Subjects: Knowledge management > Research methodology and philosophy > Systems research and participatory research Crop husbandry > Breeding, genetics and propagation Research affiliation: France > INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Deposited By: DESCLAUX, Dr Dominique ID Code: 6493 Deposited On: 16 Jan 2006 Last Modified: 12 Apr 2010 07:32 Document Language: English Status: Published Refereed: Peer-reviewed and accepted Repository Staff Only: item control page	2,341	1,282	4,234.617005
warc	201704	The opinion of the court was delivered by: Rufe, J. MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Before the Court are Petitioner's Objections to the Report and Recommendation of United States Magistrate Judge David R. Strawbridge. After a careful and independent review of the Report and Recommendation, fn1 Petitioner's Objections, fn2 and the entire record in this case, and for the reasons that follow, the Court will overrule Petitioner's Objections, approve and adopt the Report and Recommendation, and deny the Petition. On July 9, 2004, Petitioner Wallace T. Leary was involved in a home invasion during which he struck the resident of the home with a small sledge hammer and fled the scene, crashing his vehicle as he did so. fn3 On May 3, 2005, Petitioner pled guilty to burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, accidents involving damage to an unattended vehicle, and displaying an obscured license plate. fn4 On July 1, 2005, following a hearing, the Honorable James P. Cullen of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County sentenced Petitioner to concurrent terms of incarceration of not less than ten years, but not more than twenty, for the offenses of robbery, burglary, and aggravated assault, and to one year of probation for the disorderly conduct charge. He further ordered Petitioner to pay costs associated with the charge for accidents involving damage to the unattended vehicle, and to pay $25 for the offense of having an obscured license plate. fn5 The sentence of incarceration was imposed based on a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years under 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 9714(a)(1), Pennsylvania's habitual offender statute, and a deadly weapon enhancement pursuant to 204 Pa. Code § 303.10. fn6 On August 3, 2005, Petitioner filed a timely notice of appeal with the Pennsylvania Superior Court, arguing that the habitual offender statute should not have been applied because his 32-year-old prior conviction was too old to be a "previous crime of violence" under the statute. fn7 Although the Superior Court granted Petitioner's motion for reconsideration, it ultimately re-affirmed the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas and upheld the original sentence. fn8 On March 26, 2007, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Petitioner's petition for allowance of appeal. fn9 On February 26, 2008, Petitioner filed a timely pro se motion for collateral relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act fn10 ("PCRA"), and after appointment of new counsel, asserted two claims of ineffective assistance of counsel (one relating to counsel's advice to plead guilty, the other relating to counsel's representation at sentencing) and a claim challenging the constitutionality of his sentence in that it violated the Ex Post Facto and Due Process Clauses of the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions. fn11 On June 29, 2009, the PCRA Court granted the PCRA petition in part, vacating Petitioner's concurrent sentences for burglary and aggravated assault. fn12 The PCRA Court denied the petition in all other respects; Petitioner's conviction was not overturned and the mandatory minimum sentence of ten years on the robbery offense remained unaltered. fn13 On July 10, 2009, Petitioner appealed these aspects of the decision to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. fn14 The Superior Court affirmed the decision on April 14, 2010, fn15 and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decline to review the appeal. fn16 Petitioner filed a pro se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with this Court on October 19, 2010. The Court referred the case to the Honorable David R. Strawbridge, United States Magistrate Judge, for a report and recommendation. fn17 On April 19, 2011, Judge Strawbridge filed a Report and Recommendation ("R&R") finding that the ten-year mandatory minimum sentence imposed on the robbery offense pursuant to 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 9714 did not violate Petitioner's due process rights, and that his counsel was not ineffective for failing to challenge his sentence on this ground nor for failing to raise the meritless defense of justification instead of advising Petitioner to plead guilty. fn18 After being granted several extensions of time in which to file objections, Petitioner filed Objections to the R&R on August 12, 2011. Petitioner submits three objections to the R&R: (1) "The conviction was obtained and the sentence was imposed in violation of the right to effective assistance of counsel;" (2) "Cumulative errors made by counsel must be considered in evaluating the ineffective assistance of counsel claim;" and (3) "The Superior Court's fact findings of fact [sic] and conclusions of law are unreasonable as opposed to being merely wrong." fn19 By letter dated August 17, 2011, Respondents informed the Court that they did not intend to file a response to Petitioner's Objections. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 fn20 ("AEDPA"), governs habeas petitions like the one before this Court. Under the AEDPA, "a district court shall entertain an application for writ of habeas corpus [filed on] behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court only on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or the laws or treaties of the United States." fn21 Where, as here, the habeas petition is referred to a magistrate judge for a report and recommendation pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B), a district court conducts a de novo review of "those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made," and "may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate judge." fn22 Where the claims presented in a federal habeas petition have been decided on the merits in state court, a district court may not grant relief unless the adjudication of the claim in state court: (1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding. *fn23 A state court's decision is "contrary to" clearly established law if the state court applies a rule of law that differs from the governing rule set forth in Supreme Court precedent or "if the state court confronts a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable from a decision of [the Supreme ...	6,608	2,810	15,360.660498
warc	201704	A commissioner vote Tuesday will thrust more than $4 million into the county coffers, dollars county staff and the commissioners say will be used exclusively for road capital improvements. The move, however — touted as the first big step toward repairing and replacing the county’s aging and ailing road infrastructure — will also cause the county to incur a 15-year debt. The move did not require voter approval. Although county staff refer to the program as a “lease purchase” plan, Archuleta County Administrator Greg Schulte said during the March 29 road forum, “Really what it is, is a loan.” Although borrowing for infrastructure or capital improvement projects without voter approval is not unprecedented — governments or special taxing entities such as the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District have commonly used revenue bonds to bankroll a variety of capital improvement projects — the tactic marks one the first such moves for Archuleta County, but the commissioners and staff say it’s worth it. “This is not uncommon,” said Archuleta County Commissioner John Ranson. “It’s kind of like a home mortgage.” And Ranson pointed to a number of factors that give him confidence the idea is sound — cheap money, i.e. low interest rates, a flagging local economy that will likely create an intensely competitive bidding climate for road projects, the probability that material and labor costs will only go up, and a desire to create jobs for locals. “We think the roads are worth it. We think the cash flow is extremely important to the county. This is something were excited about. I’m excited about the opportunity to get started,” Ranson said. According to the loan terms, the county will borrow $5 million with $4 million in net proceeds. The interest rate said Schulte is 5.7 percent for 15 years with an annual payment of about $484,000. In order to secure the loan, the county pledged sales tax revenue already dedicated to road capital improvements as a repayment source, and the Archuleta County Courthouse as collateral. According to county records sales tax revenue dedicated to the Road Capital Improvement Fund has averaged abut $1.54 million between 2004 and 2008. Current projections for 2009, indicate the county will likely maintain that average. Thus, the debt service on the loan package will obligate about 30 percent of Road Capital Improvement Fund dollars, giving the county a large safety buffer, said the commissioners during Tuesday’s discussion. “We have 70 percent extra to cover this. Therefore, it is very conservative for this county,” Schulte said. In addition to bankrolling a series of road capital improvement projects, the loan will be used to repay an existing equipment lease with Wells Fargo. The current balance on the existing lease purchase is $931,345. With the commissioner vote ensuring that funding will soon arrive, Schulte said the county will have the financial muscle to aggressively follow through with their plans to pave Park Avenue and to tackle and complete a number of other projects during the summer of 2009. In the meantime, Schulte said county staff and elected officials will discuss future road priorities with citizens in order to develop a project list and funding allocations for the 2010 construction season. According to Schulte, after the county has demonstrated “credibility and ability to execute on projects,” a $12 million dollar ballot measure will be put to voters for approval in November 2010. If approved, the funding would provide early payback of the Wells Fargo loan and another $8 to $9 million for road capital improvement projects in 2011 and beyond. During the March 29 road forum, staff and the commissioners said gaining voter trust during the next two summers is key to the success of the ballot question, and they acknowledged that the county has a formidable credibility problem to overcome. As part of their trust-building strategy, Schulte and the commissioners said public input on road projects for the summer of 2010 will play a vital role in the process. In addition, Schulte said the county intends to create a roads task force that will serve as a clearinghouse for projects and priorities. Further discussion on the makeup of the roads task force will likely occur May 19. [email protected]	4,438	2,024	9,421.979249
warc	201704	Glenbrook’s Allen Weinberg wrote a few weeks ago about his view of the Grand Challenges in payments…. a daunting list, and one I agree with. But I want to extend his discussion on one of his challenges: “Realigned value chain economics in a push payment world”, and add two more: “What is the proper role […] As I was slogging through the many payments-related articles and blog posts reminiscing about 2015 events and making predictions for what may or may not be ahead in 2016, I thought of a conversation I had with Scott Loftesness around 20 years ago, sometime in 1995 or 1996. Both of us were at First Data […] It’s always intriguing to watch how a good idea evolves into new areas. Such evolution often happens when designers find new applications for their ideas. Brian Merritt and Ryan Hildebrand were part of the early team at Simple that was subsequently sold to BBVA. In mid-February, they announced the formation of Seed, a Y Combinator […] CFO.com summarizes the most recent Forrester “TechRadar” report on financial software. Not surprisingly, economic woes are driving businesses’ need for accounts receivable and collections software to help companies monitor their customers payment behavior. Budgeting and forecasting solutions as well as expense reporting tools are also in high demand. Accounts Payable solutions are up and coming […] Sign of the times: who’s getting investor money? A company that runs a marketplace for real-time trading of accounts receivable, enabling small and mid-sized businesses to accelerate their cash flow. via NYTimes DealBook: The Receivables Exchange, a New Orleans company that runs an online marketplace for real-time trading of accounts receivable, has closed a $7.75 […] Sigurd Rinde believes that double entry accounting is a root cause of the current economic calamity. He's got a point. Check this out: [except – read the whole post here] Is there a root cause? And if so, why is it not discussed? So why is it not discussed? Because sometimes we take some things […] CFO.com points out that Paul Volcker has strong views on accounting topics that might soon become prominent fixtures of administration economic policy. For example, here are topics/issues that he will undoubtedly have influence over (quoting CFO.com): [His experience creating and then serving as head of International Accounting Standards Board and attempting to reform Anderson immediately […] From CFO.com Since the credit-crisis began to hit its crescendo in mid-September, CFOs at companies of all sizes have been paying ever closer attention to the cash streaming through their businesses and keeping careful watch on their suppliers' credit terms and their customers' viability. No one wants to see the current credit freeze among wary […] Overstock.com said it will restate its financial results for over five years due to problems stemming from its implementation of Oracle. Revisions to the company's 2003-2007 results probably will reduce revenue by $12.9 million and increase cumulative net loss by $10.3 million. Excerpt from CFO.com He explained that as part of a major system upgrade […] The US and International Accounting standards boards are convening an advisory group to address issues stemming from the credit crisis – starting with fair-value rules. [via CFO.com – emphasis mine] While central bankers and G7 leaders work to form panels to respond to the global banking crisis, accounting standard-setters are doing their part to do […] Attention Excel users! A couple related articles from CFO.com on spreadsheet worst practices and how to fix them. The first article generated so many emails that they published a follow up with even more tips. Spreadsheet "Worst Practices" Here's how finance executives abuse the most-useful of computer programs — and how to do better. Shahid […] Companies of all sizes – but especially large, multi-unit organizations that have grown through acquisition and have a spaghetti of accounting and finance systems – struggle to close their books in a timely manner each month, quarter, and year. Even those that do a good job each period, struggle to maintain control over the close […]	4,324	2,198	8,201.435851
warc	201704	We are just a month away from the October EMV liability shift and the transition is, to no one’s surprise, mostly incomplete. EMV credit card issuance is expected to be at just 50% by the end of this year. Point of sale hardware upgrades at major retailers may be in place but the long tail of SMB […] EMV and its moving parts presents a far more complex payments method for merchants, ISVs, payment processors, and financial institutions than the good old magstripe. It continues to have ramifications throughout the payments ecosystem. As Executive Director of the Smart Card Alliance and director of the EMV Migration Forum, Randy Vanderhoof has shepherded a sometimes fractious […] The Apple Pay announcement finally came yesterday and the company’s orchestration of much of the complex and fractious card payments ecosystem demonstrates Apple’s insight into how the current payments ecosystem works and how it must be aligned in order to meet its own needs. Combining NFC, Apple’s Passbook wallet, Touch ID biometric reader, cards stored in the […] We often get interesting questions about payments, and the latest one stumped us: “How many credit and debit fraudulent uses are first detected by the bank? By the customer?” We don’t know the answer to that one or of any good source for this data so we thought we’d ask you, members of the […] Last week we asked readers to help us capture a snapshot of U.S. market contactless/RFID terminalization. We were pleased to get 43 brave souls to respond. Here are the (admittedly anything but scientific) results: I was particularly interested in the merchant funded rewards session put on by Jonathan Silver of Affinity Solutions and John MacMillan from Comerica Bank. Having listened to several discussions point to debit card rewards as important to consumers, this session focused on how to develop compelling rewards programs. First of all, rewards need to be […] Chase Blueprint brings new transparency and consumer control to credit cards Today’s announcement of the new “Blueprint” functionality by Chase Card Services represents a significant generational inflection point in the evolution of the US credit card business. Although they often try to refute it, for more than 25 years US credit card issuers have marched […] Consistent with the current government focus on enhancing consumer protection, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (Credit CARD Act of 2009) brings sea changes to the credit card industry. Forward-looking financial services institutions are viewing these shifts not as a reactive compliance and operational exercise, but more broadly in anticipation of […] In a frankly depressing but undoubtedly realistic column this morning titled “National Addiction to Easy Credit Remains Consumers’ Downfall“, Michelle Singletary, the Washington Post’s personal finance columnist, writes that the credit card reforms being put into regulation by the Federal Reserve and potentially being accelerated/enhanced by Congressional action sometime soon won’t deal with the root […] In his New Yorker column this week titled “House of Cards“, James Surowiecki writes about how some US credit card issuers are trying to shed some of their existing customers. In effect, they’re trying to follow the advice given by Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin in a book called “Angel Customers and Demon Customers.” Not […]	3,572	1,812	6,724.112583
warc	201704	Necrotizing vasculitis Definition Necrotizing vasculitis is a group of disorders that involve inflammation of the blood vessel walls. The size of the affected blood vessels helps to determine the names of these conditions and how the disorder causes disease. Alternative Names Arteritis; Angiitis Causes Necrotizing vasculitis is common with: It is very rare in children. The cause of the inflammation is unknown. It is likely related to autoimmune factors. The wall of the blood vessel may scar and thicken, or die (become necrotic). The blood vessel may close, interrupting blood flow to the tissues it supplies. The lack of blood flow will cause the tissues to die. Necrotizing vasculitis may affect any blood vessel in the body. Therefore, it can cause problems in the skin or any other organ. Symptoms Fever, chills, fatigue, arthritis, or weight loss may be the only symptoms at first. However, symptoms may be in almost any part of the body. Skin: Muscles and joints: Brain and nervous system: Lungs and respiratory tract: Other symptoms include: Exams and Tests The health care provider will do a complete physical exam. A nervous system (neurological) exam may show signs of nerve damage. Tests that may be done include: Treatment Corticosteroids are given in most cases. The dose will depend on how bad the condition is. Other drugs that suppress the immune system may reduce inflammation of the blood vessels. For severe disease, rituximab, (Rituxan) may be used. Another choice for severe disease is cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan). Related conditions include: Outlook (Prognosis) The outcome depends on the location of the vasculitis and the severity of tissue damage. Possible Complications Complications may include: When to Contact a Medical Professional Call your provider if you have symptoms of necrotizing vasculitis. Emergency symptoms include: Prevention There is no known way to prevent this disorder. References Jennette JC, Falk RJ, Bacon PA, et al. 2012 revised International Chapel Hill Consensus Conference Nomenclature of Vasculitides. Stone JH. Classification and epidemiology of systemic vasculitis. In: Firestein GS, Budd RC, Gabriel SE, et al, eds. Review Date: 4/28/2015 Reviewed By: Gordon A. Starkebaum, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team. The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- A.D.A.M., Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.	3,004	1,499	5,931.847899
warc	201704	Classification Kingdom - Animalia Phylum - Rotifera Class - Monogononta Order - Ploimida Family - brachionidae Genus - Keratella Species - cochlearis Anatomy Keratella, like all rotifers are pseudocoelomates. This is a paedomorphic condition in which the blastocoel remains even once the animal has reached maturity. It is thought that this condition is secondarily derived (Brusca and Brusca, 1990). Keratella is a footless rotifer which posesses a protective covering, or lorica. Keratella cochlearis occur in two body forms. The tecta form exists without the posterior spine displayed by the typica form. Generally, spines are present on those Keratella which are born in the presence of predators such as cladocerans, Asplanchna and cyclopoid copepods. The typica form can be born from a tecta mother and vice versa (Gilbert and MacIsaac, 1989). Distribution/ Habitat Keratella cochlearis is a nearly ubiquitous species, found in almost any body of water imaginable. Indeed, memberes of the genus Keratella are found throughout the entire world. Because Keratella is able to survive with low amounts of food, it is often found in food-poor environments which cannot sustain larger zooplankton. The small size of Keratella, however, means that its populations can be greatly impacted by the presence of predators (Thorpe, 2001). Feeding/Swimming The ciliated corona is the source of locomotion for Keratella,creating the appearance of spinning which gave rotifers their name. However, the main function of the corona is to provide the current necessary for highly efficient filter feeding. The cilia of the corona direct food particles into the buccal funnel and down into the mastax where they are crushed by the trophi. This feeding mechanism allows Keratella to eat a variety of shapes and sizes of food, primarily consisting of phytoplankton such as Cryptomonas and Chlamydomonas (Bogdan and Gilbert, 1982). Growth and Reproduction Reproduction of rotifers is generally achieved parthenogenetically. For this to occur, the female produces a 2n egg via mitosis which will then hatch into a 2n clone of the mother. A noticable feature of the cloning of Keratella is the fact that the offspring may vary in body form from that of their mother. Sexual reproduction occurs periodically in response to unknown stimuli. In sexual reproduction the female undergoes meiosis and produces 1n eggs, some of which hatch into 1n males. These males then undergo mitosis to create 1n sperm which will fertilize a 1n egg. The fertilized egg will hatch into a 2n female and sexual reproduction will be complete.	2,621	1,314	5,186.149163

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