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Wildlife is generally referred to as any living organism, including non-domesticated plants. Wildlife lives in a free condition, providing for its own food, shelter and other needs in environments that provide suitable habitat. Wildlife refers to species that are not domesticated, and include (but is not limited to) spiders, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians and mammals.
Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife (MassWildlife)
Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) is responsible for the conservation – including restoration, protection and management – of fish and wildlife resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the public.
The Division works to balance the needs of people and wildlife today so wildlife will be available for everyone’s enjoyment today and for future generations.
MassWildlife was founded as a state fisheries commission in 1866 in response to citizen concerns about the loss of Atlantic salmon to dams and pollution. The continuing development of the agency from that time until the present reflects the will of the citizens of Massachusetts to protect and restore our natural resources.
The conservation – including protection, restoration, and management – of Massachusetts’ fauna and flora is the statutory responsibility of MassWildlife. Specifically, MassWildlife’s charge is the stewardship of all wild amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and freshwater and diadromous fishes in the state, as well as endangered, threatened, and special concern species, including native wild plants and invertebrates. This responsibility is established and articulated in the Constitution and General Laws of Massachusetts.
As the base of scientific knowledge regarding the interdependence of all environmental factors has grown, coupled with progressive, pragmatic leadership, MassWildlife’s mission has evolved to include all aspects of the environment and is committed to an evolving stewardship philosophy and continued leadership in conservation and management of the environment.
Wildlife Learning Objectives
Use the learning objectives & Correlations to the National Science Standards provided by the North American Envirothon, https://www.envirothon.org/wildlife-guidelines as your study guide to master the wildlife portion of the Envirothon. (here’s a pdf of the objectives) These learning objectives will also provide direction to the wildlife topics (habitat, biodiversity, food chains and webs, nutrient exchange, population dynamics, wildlife management, carrying capacity, rare and endangered species, laws and regulations, wildlife diseases, wildlife resources, and legislation, etc.) to be incorporated into your current issue presentation. The topic manual provided to teams will provide supporting material for a number of learning objectives.
Hone your Wildlife Skills with a Wildlife Resource Professional
Pam Landry, Wildlife Education Specialist, MassWildlife is available to meet with teams between September and February, as her schedule permits, to help you obtain the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to master the wildlife portion of the Envirothon. Please contact Pam ([email protected]) directly if you wish to schedule a time to focus on wildlife!
Interpreting Wildlife Habitat from Aerial Photographs
Aerial photographs can be used to evaluate potential habitat for wildlife. The general habitat type and the specific features of a habitat determine the wildlife species found in an area. By understanding habitat types certain species of wildlife prefer, you can infer which areas may be suitable for which species. Become familiar with interpreting aerial photographs. You can find more information at 4-H Wildlife Habitat Education Program (WHEP)
Team Resources
All team members & coaches should become familiar with these downloadable resource documents.
Quick Reference Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Seasons – This pdf link is a handy 2-page color publication containing only the hunting, fishing and trapping seasons and bag limits.
Guide to Hunting, Freshwater Fishing, & Trapping
Migratory Game Bird Hunting Regulations in Massachusetts – This publication contains the hunting seasons and bag limits for migratory birds (ducks, geese, woodcock and other birds). These regulations are set annually by the Fisheries and Wildlife Board in late August.
Wildlife Fact Sheets Library – A PDF library of the Living with Wildlife series fact sheets and articles about wildlife that answer the most inquiries by homeowners and community officials.
Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program – NHESP is responsible for the conservation and protection of hundreds of species that are not hunted, fished, trapped, or commercially harvested in the state. The Program’s highest priority is protecting the 176 species of vertebrate and invertebrate animals and 259 species of native plants that are officially listed as Endangered, Threatened or of Special Concern in Massachusetts. https://www.mass.gov/service-details/list-of-endangered-threatened-and-special-concern-species
State List of Reptiles and Amphibians
Snakes of Massachusetts Identification Guide
How to Identify Birds & Tracking Animals
Additional Classroom/Team Resources
Power Point – Wildlife in Massachusetts Presentation – Download the presentation here.
MassWildlife Publications – available publications for purchase
Climate Change and Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife:
- Volume I – Introduction and Background (pdf)
- Volume II – Habitat and Species Vulnerability
- Volume III – Habitat Management
Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands Toolkit for Formal and Nonformal Educators
A Toolkit to aid educators in teaching how climate change is affecting our nation’s wildlife and public lands, and how everyone can become a ‘climate steward’
The North American Conservation Education Strategy (CE Strategy)- An array of tools developed by state fish and wildlife agencies to help support conservation educators to guide students in grades K-12 on their way to becoming involved, responsible, conservation-minded citizens. Free downloadable resources include: landscape investigation, schoolyard biodiversity, field investigation, fostering outdoor observation skills, applying systems thinking, photo point monitoring, technology for field investigations, and much more. Download resources at www.fishwildlife.org (focus area: conservation education)
Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR): Regulations relating to MassWildlife
Books for Team’s Wildlife Reference Library
Field Guide to New England
National Audubon Society Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York, 1998 Peterson’s Guides to mammals, birds, freshwater fish, reptiles & amphibians, and insects
Tracking and the Art of Seeing, How to Read Animal Tracks and Signs
Paul Rezendes, Camden House Publishing, Inc. 1992
New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History and Distribution
Richard M. DeGraaf & Mariko Yamasaki, University Press of NE, Hanover, NH 2001
A Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of MA
Blair Nikula, Jennifer L. Loose and Matthew Burne 2003 http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/publications/order-form-for-dfw-publications.pdf
A Field Guide to Animals of Vernal Pools
Leo Kenney and Matthew Burne 2009
Massachusetts Wildlife Magazine
A quarterly publication of various natural resource topics within the Commonwealth. | https://massenvirothon.org/areas-of-learning/ecostations/wildlife/ |
Can growth in captivity alter the calcaneal microanatomy of a wild ungulate?
Abstract
Reduced mobility associated with captivity induces changes in biomechanical stress on the skeleton of domesticated animals. Due to bone plasticity, bone's morphology and internal structure can respond to these new biomechanical stresses over individuals' lifetime. In a context where documenting early process of animal domestication is a real zooarchaeological challenge. This study will test the hypothesis that change in mobility patterns during a wild ungulate's life will alter the internal structure of its limb bones and provide a proof of concept for the application of this knowledge in Zooarchaeology. Using the calcaneus as a phenotypic marker through qualitative and quantitative 3D microanatomical analyses, we relied on a comparative study across wild boars (Sus scrofa) populations from controlled experimental conditions with different mobility patterns (natural habitat, large pen, and stall) and archaeological specimens collected from middle and late Mesolithic as surrogate for the norm of reaction in European wild boar phenotype before the spread of agriculture and domestic pigs. Results provide evidence for compressive and tensile forces as the main elements affecting the variation in the cortical thickness along the calcaneus. Furthermore, changes in the internal structure of the calcaneus between mobility patterns are observed but their intensity is not directly associated with the degree of mobility restriction and only weakly impacted by the size or weight of the individuals. Despite having greater bone volume, the calcaneus of the Can growth in captivity alter the calcaneal microanatomy of a wild ungulate? . | https://hal.science/AASPE/hal-03859279v1 |
Researchers, practitioners, educators, students, and the curious across all sectors of archives and records management are invited to participate. Use the Forum to discuss, debate, plan, organize, evaluate, or motivate research projects and initiatives. Here’s your chance to find collaborators or to help inform researchers about what questions and problems need to be tackled. The Forum features the full spectrum of research activities—from “pure” research to applied research to innovative practice—all of interest and value to the archives community.
The organizers encourage submissions for the Research Forum that address 1) diversity and inclusion and/or 2) models for collaboration across domains (archives, libraries, galleries, and museums).
For ideas or to learn more about past Forums, see the 2007-2018 proceedings at http://archivists.org/proceedings/research-forum.
Questions? Contact the organizers at [email protected] – and watch for updates on the Forum’s webpage at http://archivists.org/proceedings/research-forum.
● Research Presentations and Posters (Friday, August 2, 9:00 am–5:00 pm): Here’s your chance to present, discuss, listen to, or view research reports and results on a variety of topics. The final 30 minutes of this session will seek input for SAA’s 2020 Research Forum.
● Poster Sessions: Be sure to make time to visit the poster sessions, which will include practice innovation and research topics.
SAA invites submission of abstracts (of 250 words or fewer) for either 10-minute platform presentations or poster presentations. Topics may address research on, or innovations in, any aspect of archives practice or records management in government, corporate, academic, scientific, or other setting. Presentations on research results that may have emerged since the 2018 Joint Annual Meeting Call for Proposals deadline are welcome, as are reports on research completed within the past three years that you think is relevant and valuable for discussion. Please indicate whether you intend a platform or poster presentation.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: May 15, 2019. You will be notified of the review committee’s decision by July 2 (in advance of the Early-Bird registration deadline).
Please be sure to include: Presentation title, your name and affiliation, email address, and whether your proposal is for a platform or poster presentation. | https://archivespublishing.com/2019/01/23/call-for-participants-and-presentations-saa-2019-research-forum/ |
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ChelaCo contains Hawthorn, Milk Thistle seed and Garlic to provide general detoxification support. These herbs have been traditionally used in herbal preparations to:
- Support the liver as a liver tonic
- Support healthy detoxification function
- Support a healthy circulatory system
- Help support healthy cell functioning*
Suggested Use: 1 tablet 2 - 3 times daily with meals, or as directed. Enteric coated tablets. Do not break or crush.
Please consult the actual product label for the most accurate product information.
Calcium 68 mg 6% DV
Hawthorn leaf and flower 4.8:1 extract 67 mg from Crataegus monogyna leaf and flower 318 mg Containing vitexin-2-rhamnoside 2.0 mg
Milk Thistle seed 70:1 extract 114.3 mg from Silybum marianum seed 8.0 g Containing flavonolignans calc. as silybin 80 mg
Fresh Garlic bulb 12:1 extract 50 mg from Allium sativum fresh bulb 600 mg
Garlic (Allium sativum) bulb powder 7.5 mg
Other Ingredients: Microcrystalline cellulose, dibasic calcium phosphate dihydrate, hypromellose, maltodextrin, sodium starch glycolate, ethyl cellulose, ammonium hydroxide, fatty acids, oleic acid, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, talc (magnesium silicate), polydextrose, magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide and dl-alpha tocopherol. | https://shop.wholebodysolutions.org/products/chelaco |
The National Park Service (RTCA) is advertising a 12-week internship with the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) program. Applications are due by February 7th, 2021. The NPS RTCA program helps community groups, nonprofits, state and local governments, and tribes plan for parks and trails, conserve and improve access to rivers and natural areas, and create recreation opportunities.
Interested applicants can apply for the position here: Latino Heritage Internship Program | RTCA Indigenous/Native Partnerships Outreach Coordinator (DHA-RA) and see the attached information about the position.
The internship is designed for students currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program. It provides an opportunity for someone with strong communications, community organizing, and outreach skills. The person selected will help the National Park Service RTCA program: 1) develop strategies on increasing assistance to indigenous/native communities in Texas and Oklahoma; 2) establish relationships with indigenous/native communities and tribal officials in Texas and Oklahoma; 3) identify potential projects with indigenous/native communities in Texas and Oklahoma that might benefit from NPS assistance on recreation and youth education projects; and 4) showcase three success stories involving collaboration with indigenous/native communities.
Interns who successfully complete the internship are not guaranteed a federal position, however, they will be eligible to be non-competitively hired by the Department of Interior for two years after they graduate. | https://apa-nm.org/2021/01/08/internship-indigenous-native-partnership-outreach-internship-nps/ |
2. Choose a topic (nutrition related) you have seen in an article/story or advertisements (eg. food or nutrition products). The article/story must be in hard copy form (newspaper or magazine or a pamphlet or health food store magazine etc., but NOT THE INTERNET or TV) that you would like to know the ‘truth’ about.
Your original source must be in HARD COPY form as suggested above and you must include a copy of it with your submission.
This can include a health claim about a specific product or a lifestyle/diet. However, it cannot include a single product with a single nutrient claim (ie. Low fat or reduced calories etc). Multivitamin and mineral supplements are not suitable topics.
3. Investigate your topic from at least two other popular source of nutrition information (eg. Newspaper, Magazine, Internet, Television, Gymnasium, Health food store, Government publication, Health professional) summarising briefly what they say about the topic.
Remember to cite/reference the popular sources in addition to the original source used.
4. Then review the scientific literature (ie. peer reviewed scientific journals) to see what the science says. You will need to use the library catalogue and/or a scientific database like Medline (Pubmed) to do this (not just Google). You may need to visit the library and/ or the library website to find out more about searching the scientific literature.
Very importantly, in your report answer the following questions based on the original source. You may wish to also establish this for additional popular sources as well.
1. What is your topic? ie. from the original source what is their claim or the information you are seeking to find the ‘truth’ about.
2. What do the popular sources of nutrition information say about your topic?
3. Who is providing the information and what are their qualifications?
4. What is their aim?
5. Are these sources trying to sell you something?
6. Do they use scientific terms and jargon to persuade you? Use examples
7. Is the information based on science? Use/source at least 2 examples from the scientific literature to support/refute the claims in the original source .
(Note: You are not meant to spend hours searching for and reading complex studies – just check if any ‘scientific’ studies have been done relating to the claim and briefly summarise the information that supports/refutes the claim being made). Remember to reference these also.
8. On a scale from 1-5 how do you rate the truth of this information? (1= low; 5= high)
Place an order in 3 easy steps. Takes less than 5 mins. | https://www.nursingwritings.com/read-whitney-highlight-1-nutrition-information-net-th/ |
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This application is a national stage application filed under 35 U.S.C. § 371, of International Patent Application No. PCT/US2017/013537, filed Jan. 13, 2017, which claims the benefit of and priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/279,487, filed Jan. 15, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This invention was made with government support under NIH 5R01NS071067-04 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Methods and devices are provided for electrical neural blockade and stimulation of dysfunctional or transferred nerves, for example for use in humans.
Recovery from high grade peripheral motor nerve injury (e.g., Sunderland class III or higher) is associated with varying degrees of loss of normal control over the activation of target muscles. Such loss of control is the result of aberrant re-innervation of motor axons to target muscles, aberrant sprouting of axon terminals to multiple target muscles, and/or other factors that are not completely understood. The result of such aberrant neural recovery in the recurrent laryngeal nerve is the loss of coordinated movement of vocal fold adductor and abductor muscles, producing functional impairment in vocalization, breathing, and swallowing. In the brachial plexus, the result of such aberrant neural recovery is varying degrees of loss of fine and gross motor skills of the hand and arm. The result of such aberrant neural recovery in the face is asymmetric and involuntary facial movements with voluntary and spontaneous emotive responses, sometimes referred to as synkinesis, as well as facial muscular contracture. For example, when a patient voluntarily smiles, the patient may experience an involuntary contraction of the eye muscles causing the eye to squint. Further, a patient may involuntarily close an eye, pucker their mouth, experience massive neck contraction with smiling, or have mid-facial and neck contraction when closing eyes. These issues can arise, for instance, after spontaneous or surgery-assisted recovery from acute facial palsy arising from traumatic, vascular, infectious, neoplastic, and/or iatrogenic insults to the facial nerve.
Surgical reanimation following high grade peripheral motor nerve injury, or congenital absence of a nerve and hence its target muscles, may also entail nerve or nerve and functional muscle transfer procedures. Such nerve transfer procedures are inherently subject to undesirable activation of the target muscle due to normal physiologic action of the transferred nerve. For example, in patients who undergo transfer of free muscle to the face to restore a facial expression such as a smile, neural innervation of the transferred muscle is often provided by nerve transfer of a regional nerve, such as the masseteric branch or segment of the trigeminal nerve. Activation of the transferred muscle may then be volitionally achieved through a conscious bite effort when a smile is desired. However, the muscle will also activate during normal prandial activity, resulting in highly disfiguring facial twitching while eating.
These issues are not limited to the facial region. A patient may experience involuntary and abnormal muscular activation resulting in contractures, loss of normal motor coordination, and/or undesirable muscle activation throughout the body as a result of various injuries, disorders, or surgical nerve transfer procedures to nerves throughout the body. Current management options for such sequelae include physiotherapy, botulinum toxin injection, and highly selective distal branch or segment neurectomy. Although helpful, such procedures do not restore normal physiologic function. For example, in the facial region, facial disfigurement with movement will remain obvious. Thus a sufferer remains unable to fully control his or her facial disfigurement and facial expressions, resulting in functional, communication, and psychosocial impairment, with profound negative impact on quality of life and emotional well-being. Similarly, loss of normal control over muscle activation in any other region of the body can often result in profound functional and psychosocial impairment.
Accordingly, there remains a need for methods and devices for electrical blockade of undesirable neural activation together with functional electrical stimulation of dysfunctional or transferred nerves, especially for use in humans. Various methods, systems, and devices are provided for electrical neural blockade and functional stimulation of dysfunctional or transferred nerves.
In one aspect, a method of treating undesired neural activity in a subject is provided including identifying dysfunctional or transferred nerve, nerve segment(s), and/or neuromusculature. The method also includes attaching an electrode array to the dysfunctional or transferred nerve, nerve segment(s), and/or neuromusculature, for example through the use of an electrode array, to deliver electrical signals, such as high frequency alternating current, to block undesirable neural activity. The method can include delivering a localized electrical neural blockade signal through the electrode array to inhibit propagation of neural depolarization at that point. The method also can include delivering a variable stimulus signal to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature in a functional manner distal to the point of neural blockade, and/or delivering an electrical signal through the same electrode array or separate electrode array or arrays to proportionally stimulate the target musculature or nerve or nerve segment distal to the point of neural blockade (i.e. closer to the target musculature) in order to evoke the desired degree of muscle activation.
The method can vary in numerous ways. For example in some embodiments the electrical neural blockade signal comprises high frequency alternating current or a signal able to achieve localized and reversible neural blockade. In some embodiments, the method includes attaching a detector to other neuromusculature whose activity is be used to drive the timing and degree of stimulation of the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature. The method can also include attaching a detector to, on, around, adjacent to, or within other neuromusculature in order to detect a signal indicating the activity of said neuromusculature. In the face in a subject with unilateral facial palsy, this could entail placement of a detector to record the activity of the contralateral (i.e. healthy-side) paired neuromusculature. In the larynx in a subject with unilateral vocal fold palsy, this could entail placement of a detector to detect the contralateral (i.e. healthy-side) paired neuromusculature activity, placement of a detector near the pleural space to detect pressure or force changes indicating the activity of the diaphragm and subsequently the phase of respiration, and/or placement of a detector on adjacent neuromusculature within the neck to indicate the activity of muscles associated with swallowing. In some embodiments, stimulating the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can include stimulating the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature based on detected activity of other neuromusculature. Stimulation of the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can also include stimulating the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature based on the detected signal indicating the activity of another neuromusculature. In the face, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can be a facial nerve and the target facial muscles and the healthy neuromusculature can be a contralateral facial nerve branch or segment or contralateral facial muscle. In the larynx, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can be the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the target vocal fold muscles, and the healthy nerve-muscle complex can be a contralateral recurrent laryngeal nerve branch or segment or contralateral laryngeal muscle.
In various embodiments, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can include a facial nerve or facial nerve segment(s) or respective or corresponding target musculature and the other neuromusculature can include a paired contralateral facial nerve or facial nerve segment(s) or respective or corresponding target musculature. In other embodiments, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can include a vagal nerve or vagal nerve segment(s) or respective or corresponding vagal nerve target musculature and the other neuromusculature can include a paired contralateral vagal nerve or phrenic nerve or a segment or segments of the vagal nerve or phrenic nerve or respective or corresponding vagal or phrenic nerve target musculature. In various embodiments, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can include a transferred nerve to native musculature or transferred musculature, and the other neuromusculature can include an other neuromusculature
Detecting the activity of other neuromusculature can also include detecting the emitted electrical signals of the neuromusculature. Detecting activity of the other neuromusculature can include detecting signals respective or corresponding to displacement, impedance, force, or pressure changes that arise due to the activity of the other neuromusculature. In some other embodiments, detecting the activity of other neuromusculature can include detecting signals that correspond to changes in tissue position resulting from activity of the neuromusculature. In some other embodiments, detecting the activity of other neuromusculature can include detecting signals that correspond to changes in pressure or force. Delivery of the electrical neural blockade signal and delivery of a variable stimulation signal to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature to achieve proportional control of muscle activation can be performed during waking hours and/or sleeping hours of the subject. Delivery of the electrical neural blockade signal and delivery of a stimulating signal to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature to achieve functional or desirable activation can also be performed only during waking hours of the subject in some embodiments or only during sleeping hours in some other embodiments or both during waking and sleeping hours in other embodiments.
In another aspect, a system of treatment for a dysfunctional or transferred nerve-muscle complex is provided with electrode arrays, a processor, and a signal generator. A neural electrode array is configured to attach to a dysfunctional or transferred nerve in order to deliver an electrical neural blockade signal from the signal generator. One or more separate electrode arrays are placed distally onto branches or segments of the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or the target musculature in order to deliver variable electrical stimulation signals from the signal generator in order to activate the target musculature to the desired degree. The electrical neural blockade signal may be delivered continuously or for shorter periods of time, such as seconds, minutes, or hours at a time in communication with and according to the configuration of the processor, while the variable electrical stimulation signals to distal nerve branches or segments or target muscles may be delivered in communication with and according to the configuration of the processor. A system of neuromusculature treatment or device for treatment can also be provided having an electrode array configured to attach proximally along a dysfunctional or transferred nerve(s), nerve segment(s), and/or neuromusculature and deliver an electrical neural blockade signal. The system has a stimulating nerve or muscle electrode array configured to attach distally along the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature and apply a variable stimulatory signal to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature. The system also has a processor in communication with a signal generator, a power supply, the proximal electrode array, and the distal stimulating nerve or muscle electrode array and configured to provide stimulation instructions to the distal stimulating nerve or muscle electrode array and neural blockade instructions to the proximal electrode array.
The system or device for treatment can have various embodiments. For instance, the system can further include a detector configured to detect the activity of contralateral neuromusculature respective or corresponding to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature and configured to detect signals respective or corresponding to the activity of other neuromusculature. The processor in such an embodiment is in communication with the detector and is configured to provide instructions to the signal generator to deliver variable stimulatory signals to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature based on the input signal arising from the detector of the activity of the other neuromusculature. In one embodiment, a detector is provided that is configured to detect activity of other neuromusculature where the processor is in communication with the detector and is configured to provide functional stimulation instructions to the distal nerve or muscle stimulating electrode array based on activity signals detected by the detector. In some embodiments, the activity of a single other neuromuscular complex will be detected, while in other embodiments, the activity of multiple other neuromuscular complexes will be detected through the use of multiple detectors. In a similar fashion, variable stimulation signals will be delivered to a single dysfunctional or transferred neuromuscular complex to achieve the desired amount of activation in one embodiment, and to multiple dysfunctional or transferred neuromuscular complexes to achieve the desired amounts of activation in other embodiments. The dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can be the main trunk of the facial nerve, repaired facial nerve, or a cranial nerve transferred to the distal portion of the facial nerve and its target muscles, or distal branches or segments of the facial nerve and their target musculature. In various embodiments, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature includes a neuromuscular unit that corresponds to a paired contralateral neuromuscular unit. The detector can also be configured to detect emitted electrical activity of other neuromusculature such as healthy side facial musculature. In other embodiments, the detector can be configured to detect displacement changes of other neuromusculature. In other embodiments, the detector can be configured to detect pressure or force changes respective or corresponding to the activity of other neuromusculature. The system can include detecting activity of the other neuromusculature includes detecting signals respective or corresponding to displacement, impedance, force, or pressure changes that arise due to the activity of the other neuromusculature. The system can also be enabled during waking and/or sleeping hours of a subject. Alternatively in some embodiments, the system can only be enabled during waking hours of a subject or only during sleeping hours in some other embodiments. In some embodiments, the system can be selectably enabled during waking hours and/or sleeping hours with the selection being made before implantation and/or in real-time during use. In various embodiments, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can include a facial nerve or facial nerve segment and its target musculature and the other neuromusculature comprises a contralateral facial nerve or facial nerve segment and its target musculature.
In some embodiments, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature includes a vagal nerve or vagal nerve segment(s) or respective or corresponding vagal nerve target musculature and the other neuromusculature includes a paired contralateral vagal nerve or phrenic nerve or a segment or segments of the vagal nerve or phrenic nerve or respective or corresponding vagal or phrenic nerve target musculature.
In another aspect, a method of identifying a dysfunctional nerve or nerve branch(es) or segment(s) in a subject with abnormal muscle activity is provided. The dysfunctional or transferred nerve can be a variety of different nerves, such as the main trunk of the facial nerve, branches, or segments thereof, or the vagal nerve, branches, or segments thereof, such as the recurrent laryngeal nerve, or the brachial plexus or branches or segments thereof, or other regions throughout the body. The dysfunctional muscle can be a variety of muscles, such as the orbicularis oculi muscle, the vocal fold adductor or abductor muscles, or wrist pronator muscles. The method includes identifying nerve branches or segments to the muscle demonstrating abnormal activity and placing electrode arrays on or around them. The method further includes eliciting the abnormal muscle activity. The method further includes attempts at eliciting the abnormal muscle activity while an electrical neural blockade signal is delivered through the electrode array or arrays. In some embodiments, the method includes attempts at eliciting the abnormal muscle activity while electrical neural blockade signals are delivered to some of the nerve branches or segments but not to others.
In another aspect, a method of treating nerve dysfunction in a subject with abnormal muscle activity is provided including identifying a dysfunctional or transferred nerve or nerve branches or segment along which undesirable neural signals pass. The dysfunctional or transferred nerve could be the main trunk of the facial nerve or branches or segments thereof, or the vagal nerve or branches or segments thereof, such as the recurrent laryngeal nerve. The method also includes attaching an electrode array on the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or nerve branches or segments. The method further includes the delivery of an electrical neural blockade signal, such as high frequency alternating current, through the electrode array in order to block undesirable neural signals. The method also includes identifying respective or corresponding distal nerve branches or segments or target muscles of the contralateral healthy-side nerve, and the subsequent placement of a detector or detectors on said distal nerve branch(es) or segment(es) or target muscle(s) in order to measure a signal that corresponds to activation of said target musculature. Additionally, the method includes delivery of an electrical stimulation signal to distal branch(es) or segment(s) of the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or their target muscle fibers that varies according to the detected activity of the contralateral healthy nerve branch(es) or segment(s) or target muscle(s) in order to achieve the desired amount of muscle activation.
A method of treating nerve dysfunction in a subject with unilateral aberrant neuronal regeneration or nerve transfer leading to loss of normal muscle control or function for which contralateral paired neuromusculature exists is provided that includes identifying a dysfunctional or transferred nerve or segment(s) along which undesirable neural signals pass. The method also includes identifying the contralateral paired neuromusculature. The method further includes attaching an electrode array on the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or segment(s) proximal to its target musculature, and delivering an electrical neural blockade signal from the neural electrode array to block propagation of neural signals. The method also includes detecting activity of the contralateral paired neuromusculature, and stimulating the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or segment(s) or target muscle distal to a point of neural blockade to mirror the activity of the contralateral paired musculature.
The method can vary in a variety of ways. For example, the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or segment(s) can include a facial nerve or facial nerve segment(s) or transferred cranial nerve to drive facial expression and respective or corresponding target musculature and the contralateral paired neuromusculature can include a paired contralateral facial nerve or facial nerve segment(s) or respective or corresponding target musculature. The dysfunctional or transferred nerve or segment(s) can also include a vagal nerve or segment(s) or respective or corresponding target musculature and the contralateral paired neuromusculature compromises a paired contralateral vagal nerve or segment(s) or respective or corresponding target musculature. As another example, detection of the activity of a paired-contralateral healthy neuromusculature can include detecting the emitted electrical activity of that neuromusculature. Detecting activity of the contralateral paired neuromusculature can include detecting emitted electrical activity of a contralateral paired nerve segment or target muscle. Detecting activity can include detecting electromyography activity through implanted electrodes. Detecting activity of the contralateral paired neuromusculature can include detecting signals respective or corresponding to displacement, impedance, force, or pressure changes that arise due to the activity of the contralateral paired neuromusculature. Detecting activity of the contralateral paired neuromusculature can include detecting displacement changes by measuring impedance changes of the contralateral healthy facial muscle or placing a contact probe overlying a contralateral healthy facial muscle. Delivering the electrical neural blockade signal and stimulating the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or segment(s) can also be performed during waking hours of the subject, during sleeping hours of the subject, or both.
Detecting emitted electrical activity can also include detecting electromyography activity or nerve action potentials of the paired contralateral neuromusculature through implanted electrode arrays. In other embodiments, detecting the activity of paired-contralateral neuromusculature can include detecting of signals that change according to tissue displacement resulting from activity of the neuromusculature. Detection of displacement changes can also include measurement of impedance changes of the contralateral paired musculature or by placement of a contact probe or probes overlying the paired musculature. Delivery of an electrical signal to the dysfunctional or transferred nerve in order to block transmission of neural activity together with delivery of functional stimulatory signals to distal nerve branches or segments or target muscles can also be performed during waking and/or sleeping hours of the subject. In other embodiments, delivery of an electrical signal to the dysfunctional or transferred nerve in order to block transmission of neural activity together with delivery of functional stimulatory signals to distal nerve branches or segments or target muscles can only be performed during waking hours of the subject or only during sleeping hours in some other embodiments. The electrical signal to achieve neural blockade can be high frequency alternating current.
In another aspect, a device for neuromusculature treatment is provided that has a blockade electrode array, a stimulating electrode array, a signal generator, a power supply, and a processor. The blockade electrode array is configured to deliver an electrical neural blockade signal, and the stimulating electrode array is configured to apply a variable stimulatory signal. The processor is in communication with the signal generator, the power supply, the blockade electrode array, and the stimulating electrode array and is configured to provide stimulation instructions to the stimulating electrode array and neural blockade instructions to the blockade electrode array.
The device can have numerous variations. For example, the device can also have a detector configured to detect neural activity. In such an example, the processor can be in communication with the detector and can be configured to provide functional stimulation instructions to the stimulating electrode array based on signals detected by the detector. In other examples, the detector can be configured to detect signals corresponding to displacement, impedance, force, or pressure changes.
The methods, systems, and devices described herein are useful for human therapy as well as veterinary therapy for other mammalian subjects such as companion animals, e.g., dogs, cats, or performance or working animals such as horses.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments thereof, and from the claims. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present invention, suitable methods and materials are described below. All publications, patent applications, patents, and other references mentioned herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In the case of conflict, the present specification, including definitions, will control. In addition, the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.
Certain exemplary embodiments will now be described to provide an overall understanding of the principles of the structure, function, manufacture, and use of the devices and methods disclosed herein. One or more examples of these embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will understand that the devices and methods specifically described herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawings are non-limiting exemplary embodiments and that the scope of the present invention is defined solely by the claims. The features illustrated or described in connection with one exemplary embodiment may be combined with the features of other embodiments. Such modifications and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.
Further, in the present disclosure, like-named components of the embodiments generally have similar features, and thus within a particular embodiment each feature of each like-named component is not necessarily fully elaborated upon. Additionally, to the extent that linear or circular dimensions are used in the description of the disclosed systems, devices, and methods, such dimensions are not intended to limit the types of shapes that can be used in conjunction with such systems, devices, and methods. A person skilled in the art will recognize that an equivalent to such linear and circular dimensions can easily be determined for any geometric shape. Sizes and shapes of the systems and devices, and the components thereof, can depend at least on the anatomy of the subject in which the systems and devices will be used, the size and shape of components with which the systems and devices will be used, and the methods and procedures in which the systems and devices will be used.
Various exemplary methods and devices are provided for electrical neural blockade and stimulation of dysfunctional or transferred nerves. Generally artificial reanimation of a nerve injury is provided. This artificial approach may be combined with current surgical approaches, such as cable grafting of nerve defects, direct end-to-end coaptation of dysfunctional or transferred nerves, or nerve transfer procedures to optimize outcomes.
Synkinesis, development of linked or unwanted facial movements, may occur in people who are recovering from facial palsy. For example, it may occur after trauma and may be manifested through involuntary muscular movements accompanying voluntary movements. For example, voluntary smiling will induce an involuntary contraction of the eye muscles causing the eye to squint when the subject smiles. For example, electrical inhibition of synkinesis in the face is provided and coupled with distal functional electrical stimulation of the distal nerve branch or segment or target muscle. While reanimation of dysfunctional nerves has been attempted before, the approach provided herein allows for selective, localized, and rapidly reversible electrical neural blockade, for example by utilizing high frequency alternating current (HFAC) delivered through implanted nerve cuff electrode arrays. This allows for a non-ablative means of neural blockade of dysfunctional or transferred nerves, while maintaining axonal input to the affected muscles. Such selective neural blockade allows for the prevention of propagation of undesirable or aberrant neural signals from dysfunctional or transferred nerves, without affecting distal nerve or target muscle excitability. This provides a means of blocking signals from dysfunctional or transferred nerves, such as synkinetic signals in the face for example, or normal physiologic signals from transferred nerves, such as those that arise while chewing through a transferred masseteric branch or segment of the trigeminal nerve or through manipulation of the food bolus through a transferred hypoglossal nerve for example, while maintaining the ability to achieve muscle contraction when desired through an electrode placed distally on the nerve, nerve branch or segment, or target muscle. Such an inhibitory signal can be left on for long periods of time, with intermittent stimulatory signals delivered as needed (for example to match movements of a healthy contralateral facial nerve when stimulation of a dysfunctional or transferred facial nerve is desired). This approach eliminates the problem of an ‘onset response’ and an ‘offset response’ when electrical neural blockade is switch on or off, respectively.
Generally high frequency alternating current (HFAC) will be distinct from “high frequency blockade” as a means to induce localized neural blockade. Alternating current is an electric current in which the flow of electric charge periodically reverses direction, while generally low frequency is under about 0.1 Hz, medium frequency is about 0.1 Hz to about 500 Hz, and high frequency is over 500 Hz and typically less than 100 kHz for such purposes. The waveform is typically sinusoidal. The peak-to-peak amplitude may be delivered in voltage-controlled or current controlled fashion. Typical peak-to-peak amplitudes when the voltage is controlled range from 1 V to 10 V, while typical peak-to-peak amplitudes when the current is controlled range from 0.1 to 2 mA. However, these ranges are only provided as examples and are not intended to limit the present invention. These ranges can be adapted based on the scenario, situation, and/or patient being treated. An electrode array (such as a bipolar or multipolar nerve cuff electrode) or similar device that is in intimate contact with a nerve is beneficial to deliver HFAC as the electrical neural blockade should be localized to a very specific branch or segment of a nerve branch or segment in order to be effective and in order to maintain distal excitability (or control) of the nerve. The HFAC neural blockade signal can also be confined between electrodes spaced very closely together (such as two neighboring electrodes in a nerve cuff electrode array such as a bipolar or multipolar nerve cuff) and that envelop, or nearly envelop, the nerve in order to generate adequate field strength of the electromagnetic field necessary for electrical neural blockade. Additionally, the HFAC neural blockade should be proximal to the stimulation signals to work in practice. Induction and cessation of HFAC neural blockade can demonstrate a transient muscle response, whereby a muscle twitch or brief tetanic contraction is seen on induction, and on cessation, with a concurrent transient neural blockade remaining in place on the order of tens to hundreds of milliseconds after cessation of the HFAC current. As such, use of rapid ‘on/off’ neural blockade in real-time to block conduction past a branch or segment point from a proximal stimulation pulse is not ideal at the least, and completely unfeasible at worst. The electrical neural blockade should thus be proximal and can be “always on” (while the patient is, for example, awake, socializing, and wanting to make use of the desired implant, etc.) in order to avoid such onset/offset responses. As an illustrative example, a sine wave with a peak-to-peak voltage amplitude of approximately 3 to 10 V using constant voltage stimulation at frequencies above 5 kHz (for example, 30 kHz) produces effective neural blockade. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 8,060,208 entitled “Action potential conduction prevention,” U.S. Pat. No. 8,843,188 entitled “Adjustable nerve electrode,” U.S. Pat. No. 8,983,614 entitled “Onset-mitigating high-frequency nerve block,” U.S. Pat. No. 9,008,800 entitled “Separated-interface nerve electrode,” and U.S. Pat. No. 9,119,966 entitled “Systems and methods that provide an electrical waveform for neural stimulation or nerve block,” all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
For practical and power saving reasons, a single proximal electrode array in the form of a nerve cuff electrode (NCE) can be applied around the main trunk of the dysfunctional or transferred nerve or nerve to be controlled (e.g., a transferred nerve) while using multiple stimulatory NCEs or direct muscle stimulation electrodes distal to the point of blockade. In this fashion, all physiologic neural impulses will be blocked, allowing for complete control of the nerve and target muscles through functional electrical stimulation (FES) paradigms. Such an approach is also advantageous in that the retrograde propagation of any potential afferent signals from indwelling sensory nerves that might be triggered by distal functional electrical stimulation (with resultant discomfort) will be blocked.
As an illustrative example, movement of healthy, intact musculature that corresponds to any dysfunctional or transferred musculature can be detected by a variety of means, including EMG electrodes placed directly into on onto the surface of the muscle, or neural cuffs placed along distal branches or segments of nerve branches or segments associated with the healthy musculature. The resultant signals regarding the contraction of this healthy musculature, which carries information on the strength of contraction or lack thereof of each of the individual muscles—would then be passed on to a multichannel signal processor, and over to the dysfunctional or transferred nerve through a receiver (via a wired or wireless antenna connection), then out to a multichannel signal generator sending either inhibitory (to the proximal portion of the terminal nerve to a given target muscle) or stimulatory (to the distal portion of the terminal nerve to the target muscle or directly the target muscle itself). Total signaling processing time would fall under about 40 ms, such that the human eye could not observe a difference in contraction between the dysfunctional or transferred and functional musculature, creating the illusion of evoked muscular contraction on a simultaneous time-scale with that of the sensed muscle. This approach could be applied to a variety of musculature, such as facial musculature by monitoring the behavior of contralateral facial muscles and mimicking the musculature behavior of healthy muscles and/or nerves to dysfunctional or transferred ones. In this way, reanimation of symmetric expression would be achieved. Higher-order signal processing paradigms could also be utilized to detect the onset of a desired asymmetric movement through analysis of the detected activity of multiple sensed nerve-muscle units; for example, in the face expression of suspicion on the healthy-side could be detected through concurrent analysis of brow, eyelid, and midface displacement. Asymmetric neural stimulus signals could then be outputted to the diseased-side in order to achieve the desired asymmetric expression.
Another illustrative example of the combination of neural blockade with functional electrical stimulation is in the setting of otherwise healthy neuromuscular interfaces, where normal discharge of a nerve can result in undesirable consequences. An example of such a situation is in obstructive sleep apnea, where the normal firing of the hypoglossal nerve during sleep (which carries fibers that, among other actions, cause retraction or protraction of the tongue) may result in obstruction of the airway at the oropharyngeal level. Many approaches to FES of the hypoglossal nerve during sleep for the management of sleep apnea involve placement of an implantable neural cuff around distal branches or segments of the hypoglossal nerve, which are primarily selective for tongue protractor muscles, in order to deliver stimulatory signals alone (as further described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,024,044 filed Jun. 28, 2007 and entitled “Method and apparatus for hypoglossal nerve stimulation,” incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). However, such an approach does not prevent simultaneous physiologic or undesirable FES co-activation of neural fibers that result in contraction of opposing tongue retractor muscles. The addition of a neural blockade signal delivered either in proximal fashion to the main trunk of the hypoglossal nerve or in parallel fashion to distal branches or segments that primarily control tongue retractors can provide a means to enhance the efficacy of the FES signal delivered to the distal neural branches or segments that control tongue protraction.
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illustrates an embodiment of a system of neuromusculature treatment that can be used in humans with a proximal neural electrode array , a distal nerve or muscle electrode array or arrays , and a processor coupled to a signal generator and power source . The proximal neural electrode array attaches proximally to a dysfunctional or transferred nerve and delivers an electrical neural blockade signal such as high frequency alternating current from a signal generator to which the distal leads are attached. The distal nerve or muscle electrode array attaches distally to the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature and delivers a stimulatory signal to the neuromusculature . The processor communicates with the both the proximal and distal electrode arrays and provides blockade and stimulation instructions to the electrode arrays and . As illustrated in , a detector detect the activity of other neuromusculature that may represent contralateral paired neuromusculature corresponding to 10 or other neuromusculature. The detector detects activity signals of the other neuromusculature(s) and communicates with the processor . The processor then provides stimulation instructions to the distal nerve or muscle electrode arrays based on the activity signals detected by the detector .
The neuromusculature can vary depending on the embodiment. For example, the dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature can be a distal branch or segment of the facial nerve and its target muscle, and the other neuromusculature can be a contralateral distal facial nerve branch or segment or target muscle. However, the neuromusculature can be various nerves and/or muscles throughout the body capable of experiencing electrical neural blockade and stimulation. The detector detects activity signals in a variety of ways. For instance, the detector can detect emitted electrical activity of the other neuromusculature. The detector could also detect displacement changes of the other neuromusculature. The detector could also detect force or pressure changes associated with the activity of the other neuromusculature.
The system can be enabled at all times, during waking hours, and/or only during waking hours. A patient may desire to experience stimulation and blockade only during waking hours or only while in public depending on the reasoning behind the patient's use of the system. For example, if the patient is using the system due to embarrassment over experiencing synkinetic signals around other people, the patient may only desire to use the system in public or only during waking hours. The system can take a variety of different forms. In some embodiments, the proximal neural electrode array or arrays, the distal nerve or muscle electrode array or arrays, the processor, the signal generator, the power source, and the detector can all be in communication with each other. In various embodiments, signal acquisition, processing, and output can be performed using an external or implantable multichannel receiver/stimulator/processor using battery or inductive-coupling to power the device. In further embodiments, there can be a plurality of proximal neural electrode arrays, a plurality of distal nerve or muscle electrode arrays, a plurality of processors, and/or a plurality of detectors. These can all be interconnected or connected in groups and coordinate with each other based on various algorithms and/or desired results.
In use, a user may treat abnormal muscle activity in a patient by first identifying a dysfunctional or transferred nerve or nerve branch(es) or nerve segment(s) causing the dysfunction or the most dysfunction. For example, the orbicularis oculi muscle is innervated by several distal branches or segments of the facial nerve. Ocular synkinesis following aberrant neuronal recovery may be treated by highly selective neurectomy; this procedure involves resection of some of the distal facial nerve branches or segments supplying motor axonal input to the orbicularis oculi muscle to reduce the hyperactivity of the muscle. It is not currently possible to readily identify which one of the distal branches or segments may be most responsible for the dysfunction. The user may attach a plurality of electrode arrays to the dysfunctional or transferred distal nerve branches or segments supplying the dysfunctional or transferred muscle, and deliver electrical neural blockade signals in various combinations while the patient reproduces the action that induces the synkinesis. In this fashion, the nerve branches or segments most responsible for the dysfunction may be readily identified. The user may then opt to perform selective neurectomy of the identified branches or segments.
Neural blockade by means of HFAC can be used with dysfunctional or transferred nerves or nerve transfer procedures done anywhere in the body. Re-establishment of any form of motor neuron input is important in the prevention of denervation atrophy of muscle, however, triggering of the re-established neural input to restore exactly desired function is difficult to achieve. Illustrative examples can include the system's use in masseteric or hypoglossal transfer to distal facial nerve branch(es) or segment(s), its use in proximal blockade of the native facial nerve following Bell's palsy induced aberrant regeneration, its use in interposition graft repair of facial nerve defects (which result in aberrant regeneration). The system can also be used in the larynx following injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), a nerve which controls both the vocal fold adductors and abductors. Following neural injury, coordinated vocal fold movement is lost, leading to airway obstruction (too adducted) or aspiration and voice hoarseness/weakness (too abducted). Motor neuron input could thus be restored to the vocal fold musculature using a direct nerve repair of the RLN, interposition graft repair of the RLN, or nerve transfer to the RLN (for example, phrenic nerve branch or segment, ansa cervicalis nerve transfer, hypoglossal nerve transfer, and accessory nerve transfer). The system utilizing proximal HFAC neural blockade could then be applied (for instance using a bipolar neural cuff) to the dysfunctional or transferred nerve, with distal targeted and controlled stimulation of the adductors and abductors (such as by using small implantable electrodes and direct muscle stimulation), based off of a control signal/movement obtained from the contralateral (functioning) vocal fold, or other control signal to trigger glottis opening (for example pleural pressure transducer similar to that used with the implantable Inspire Sleep Apnea system).
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A non-limiting, illustrative example is free muscle transfer for reanimation of a smile. Currently, this procedure involves transfer of a branch or segment of healthy muscle from a distant site of the body (for example, gracilis muscle, latissimus dorsi, pectoralis minor) together with an artery, vein, and nerve that supply the particular muscle branch or segment. The free muscle is inset in the face of a patient with facial paralysis in a fashion that pulls the oral commissure laterally and superiorly to reproduce smile dynamics with activation (contraction) of the transferred muscle. Neural innervation to such free muscle is provided through nerve transfer, either using a cross-face nerve graft (i.e., signal arises from the contralateral facial nerve), or transfer of another motor nerve, such as branches or segments of the trigeminal nerve (for example, masseteric branch or segment), or others (for example, the hypoglossal nerve, the accessory nerve, etc.). Current limitations of cross-face nerve grafting include a high risk of failure (which would result in no triggering of the transferred muscle), nerve autograft requirement and associated donor site morbidity, and a risk of weakening the healthy side smile. For these reasons, other motor nerves are more commonly used in transfer procedures to innervate the transferred muscle. However, such transfers are also associated with severe limitations, which include undesired triggering of the transferred muscle (for instance an involuntary muscle activation with chewing in the case of motor trigeminal nerve transfer or with articulation and swallowing with a hypoglassal nerve transfer), as is further illustrated in . For example, illustrates application of paradigm for reanimation of spontaneous smile in human patients undergoing nerve and free muscle transfer. An input signal is detected, in this case being the electromyography (EMG) activity of the contralateral zygomaticus major muscle using a single implanted epimysial electrode array. The signal serves as the input to a signal processor and generator whose output is a functional electrical stimulation (FES) signal applied distally to the transferred nerve or muscle to effect the desired contraction of the free muscle (Fm). A proximal neural blockade signal is delivered to eliminate undesired prandial activation of the transferred free muscle. In this example, a single 4-channel nerve cuff electrode array is implanted around the transferred nerve (in this example, the masseteric segment of the trigeminal nerve—Mn) and leads connected to the signal generator. (Fv—facial vessels, NFm—nerve to transferred free muscle).
The proximal neural blockade of the transferred nerve could be used during waking hours to inhibit undesired activation coupled with distal functional electrical stimulation that would be driven by contraction of the contralateral healthy side smile musculature (again in the case of reanimation of a smile). Such contraction of the contralateral healthy side musculature can be detected in open-loop fashion via emitted electrical activity of said musculature (such as EMG activity through the use of implanted electrodes), or through closed-loop fashion via detection of displacement (such as length) changes of the musculature (such as measured by impedance changes of the musculature or contact probe overlying said musculature). A signal processing algorithm can be used with inputs of healthy side activity signals and with outputs of functional electrical stimulation signals to the nerve supplying the transferred free muscle.
Another non-limiting example can include setting of highly selective neurectomy (HSN) for patients with ocular synkinesis following facial nerve insult and incomplete synkinetic recovery. HSN is based on the principle of redundancy of innervation to facial mimetic muscles. For instance, it is readily possible to identify about 3 to 6 or more terminal facial nerve branches or segments to the orbicularis oculi muscles. In patients with ocular synkinesis (for example aberrant eye closure with mimetic movement such as smiling), HSN may be of benefit in improving their symptoms. HSN involves a two-stage procedure; in the first stage, a facial skin flap is elevated under general anaesthetic, and multiple terminal facial nerve branches or segments to the synkinetic muscle are identified. Next, the patient is awoken and successive facial nerve branches or segments are cut until the desired effect is achieved (reduction of synkinesis with maintenance of voluntary eye closure). The system herein (and HFAC in particular) improves techniques and outcomes in HSN by providing a readily reversible means of observing what the effect of loss of neural input to combinations of the various terminal branches or segments would achieve prior to permanently dividing the nerve. For example, a neural cuff would be placed around each terminal branch or segment and connected to a multichannel signal generator, allowing for all possible permutations of neural blockade to be observed prior to permanent nerve sectioning. As onset of neural blockade with HFAC occurs within seconds and complete reversal within 500 ms, the system herein has strong clinical application.
In another non-limiting example, HFAC neural blockade is combined with distal nerve or target muscle stimulation from a multichannel signal generator capable of outputting either inhibitory HFAC or stimulatory electrical signals or both simultaneously to paired electrodes implanted into each distal nerve/mimetic muscle complex in the synkinetic face. Clinical use of HFAC is limited due to an onset response, whereby brief tetanic contraction of the target muscle occurs before the onset of muscle flaccidity and neural blockade. Furthermore, its use is also limited by a slight delay in the recovery of nerve excitability on the order of tens or hundreds of ms. Such a delay is inadequate to obtain symmetric facial movements to the eye of the human observer, which will detect an asymmetry if facial muscle excursion is not symmetric within about 40 ms. However, HFAC using a bipolar neural cuff produces a localized nerve block with preservation of distal nerve and muscle excitability. Thus, inhibitory signals of the present system could be set to “always on” during wakeful hours, blocking aberrant synkinetic signals arising from the proximal nerve, while the distal nerve and/or muscle itself could be selectively rapidly stimulated (within 40 ms) to mimic contractions of the contralateral face during voluntary and involuntary/spontaneous mimetic movements. Selective stimulation of individual synkinetic/flaccid muscles of the hemi-paralyzed face would be controlled through communication with a multichannel signal detector and processor to the corresponding distal branches or segments or target muscles of the contralateral healthy facial nerve/muscle complexes (as discussed in detail above).
The present system can also apply to unilateral motor nerve disorders where symmetric motion with the contralateral side is desired and synkinesis is problematic. Such is the case with injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, a motor nerve containing fibers both to vocal fold adductors and abductors. The present system can also apply to unilateral injury to the phrenic nerve, to restore symmetric diaphragm motion. Furthermore, the system herein can participate in reanimation of more complex peripheral motor nerve injuries, such as where the intended motion is often not simply a mirror image of a contralateral functioning side (such as in the case of brachial plexus injury), but where synkinesis is problematic. In such an embodiment, proximal electrical neural inhibition could be coupled with sophisticated processors to regulate distal stimulation of the nerve fibers or target muscles to achieve the desired complex motion. In place of input signals from the contralateral side (such as in facial paralysis, where symmetry with the contralateral side is desired) such processors could be programmed to receive other signals (such as voice input) to trigger a desired distal stimulation firing pattern.
The present system thus allows proximal electrical neural blockade to control synkinesis while selective distal stimulation provides precisely timed specific muscle contraction. When multiple electrodes are used in the present system, processing algorithms can be readily used and designed to achieve the desired motion. The reversibility of the electrical neural blockade allows for maintenance of physiologic neural innervation to the muscle and prevention of denervation atrophy.
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An embodiment of the present system has been applied to a live laboratory animal model, and specifically the application of localized neural blockade using bipolar neural cuff electrodes (NCEs) (Microprobes for Life Sciences, custom made silicone neural cuffs, platinum/Iridium electrodes, 1.0 mm inner diameter, 1 mm electrode spacing distance, 2 mm of silicone distal to each electrode) to a cranial nerve. demonstrates placement of three such electrodes in a live anesthetized rat model on the buccal branch or segment of the facial nerve (FN), a motor nerve which controls whisker movement in the rat, illustrating bipolar NCEs in position around the buccal branch of the rat FN. demonstrates positioning of the rat in the field of laser micrometers to quantify whisker displacement, illustrating an anesthetized rat with implanted NCEs in head fixation for recording whisker displacement. demonstrate sensing and signal delivery electrode arrays implanted into the rat face. In this realization, a proximal cathodic stimulation pulse (i.e., to trigger whisker movement) is delivered at 1 Hz using the proximal bipolar NCE. The middle bipolar neural cuff is used to deliver a neural blockade signal (high-frequency alternative current, in constant voltage fashion using a 30 kHz sine wave with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 5V). The distal bipolar NCE is used to deliver another cathode stimulation pulse distal to the neural blockade at 1.5 Hz, and is used to demonstrate that the application of HFAC does not prevent distal excitability of the nerve-muscle complex. illustrates an epimysial electrode array that is implanted underlying the orbicularis oculi (arrow) and whisker pad musculature (arrowhead), and shows neural cuff electrode arrays that are implanted on zygomatic (arrow) and buccal (*) segments of the FN. The experimental setup with results, showing the effectiveness of HFAC in inducing a localized and reversible neural blockade through the use of a bipolar cuff electrode is summarized in . The experimental setup and results are shown from a trial of high frequency alternating current blockade of the FN in a live anaesthetized rat model. In the left of the image, bipolar neural cuff electrodes (y1, y2, y3) are implanted around the buccal branch of the facial nerve (1 mm spacing between platinum/iridium contacts). NCE-y1 and y3 are connected to cathodic stimulation pulses at 1.5 Hz and 1.0 Hz, respectively, through constant-current stimulus isolation units (SIUs). NCE-y2 is connected to a sine wave generator through a constant-voltage SIU. On the right of the figure, a displacement-time curve of a rat whisker is displayed under general anaesthesia under different paradigms: from t=0-7.5 s proximal stimulation through NCE-y3 is applied without HFAC at 1 Hz. When HFAC is turned on at t=7.5 s (through NCE-y2), the amplitude of displacement is reduced by approximately 90%. Displacement ceases when the proximal stimulation is switched off at t=17.5 s. At t=23 s, the distal stimulation at 1.5 Hz is applied through NCE-y1: identical maximum displacement is demonstrated despite persistent HFAC signal delivery at NCE-y2. At t=32 s, the distal stimulation is switched off, and the proximal stimulation at 1.0 Hz through NCE-y3 is switched back on. At t=42 s, the HFAC signal is switched off, and rapid return of whisker displacement is demonstrated. Neural or muscular stimulation parameters in humans are similar to those of other mammals. Stimulation parameters, such as waveform, amplitude, frequency, pulse duration and repetition rate may vary significantly depending on several factors. These factors include whether nerve or muscle is being stimulated and the desired dynamic force response of the muscle. For example, variable degrees of sustained contraction of human muscle may be achieved by delivery of a about 50 or about 60 Hz sinusoidal amplitude-modulated waveform with peak-to-peak voltage-controlled amplitudes of about 0.1 V—5 V to nerves. Such a stimulus may, for example, be used to trigger a smile of a particular excursion and duration. However, other muscle contraction may be elicited using much different stimulus parameters. For example, a blink response may be elicited using a single train of three biphasic square waves 40 μs in length having a peak-to-peak current-controlled amplitude in the range of 0.1 mA-2 mA. While stimulus signals may vary greatly, in general they should be charge-balanced to eliminate potential charge buildup, should not induce electrical or thermal neuropathy, and should be tailored for maximal energy efficiency (i.e., to use the smallest voltage or current amplitudes and durations) to achieve the desired functional muscular contraction. To achieve the same amount of contraction by means of direct muscle stimulation, 10-fold higher amplitudes are typically required.
FIG. 10
An embodiment of the neural blockade portion of the present system has been applied to a live awake laboratory animal model, and specifically the application of localized neural blockade by deliver of HFAC to the nerve controlling whisker function in a rat with illustrates the results, showing neural blockade of whisking in a live rat. Constant neural blockade in the form of high frequency alternating current (HFAC) is delivered to the left buccal segment using a nerve cuff electrode array from t=30 s to t=240 s. The top row illustrates raw tracings of whisker displacement (including noise) over time. The bottom row shows power spectra (looking only at frequencies at which whisking occurs) demonstrating near equal left and right-sided whisking power during the periods immediately before and after HFAC delivery, with a dramatic drop on the left side seen with HFAC.
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FIG. 9
FIG. 9
A further embodiment of the present system has been applied to a live laboratory animal model to a mixed sensory and motor peripheral nerve in the limb. illustrates placement of electrodes on the sciatic nerve in a live anesthetized rat, showing nerve cuff electrodes in position around the sciatic nerve in a live anesthetized rat. The proximal cuff houses four platinum-iridium electrodes (two bipolar pairs), and the distal electrode houses two platinum-iridium electrodes (one bipolar pair) (Micro nerve cuff electrode, custom design, Microprobes for Life Sciences, Gaithersburg, Md.). The insulating material of the cuff is silicone. illustrates position of the rat in when quantifying hind limb force/tension in response to electrical stimuli, illustrating delivery of neural stimulation and blockade to the sciatic nerve in a live anesthetized rat. Leg contraction force is measured using a suture placed around the Achilles tendon attached to a force displacement transducer (Grass Instruments FT03, Natus Neurology Incorporated, Warwick, R.I.). Nerve cuff electrode leads are demonstrated exiting the leg, attached to pin connectors to an analog signal delivery device (Digidata 1320, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.). illustrates the electrical stimulatory and blockade signals delivery to the sciatic nerve in real-time with corresponding force/tension response. shows leg tension response to episodic stimulation with and without delivery of high-frequency alternating current (HFAC). The top row of shows a voltage-controlled, charge-balanced (biphasic) square wave of 0.4 s pulse-width and 0.35 V amplitude being delivered at 1 Hz from t=9-20 s and from t=40-59 s proximal on the sciatic nerve using a bipolar nerve cuff electrode (BNCE). The second row illustrates a voltage-controlled HFAC (30 kHz, sinusoidal, peak-to-peak voltage [VP-P] of 6 V) being delivered from t=11-49.5 s on the sciatic nerve using a BNCE placed immediately distal to the proximal BNCE. The third row illustrates a voltage-controlled, charge-balanced (biphasic) square wave of 0.4 s pulse-width at amplitudes of 0.1 V, 0.4 V, and 0.7 V is delivered at 1.5 Hz from t=25-35 s using a BNCE placed distal to the BNCE delivering HFAC over 3 trials. The bottom row shows a force-tension response of the leg measured using a force displacement transducer (Grass Instruments FT03, Natus Neurology Incorporated, Warwick, R.I.); NB: Onset response of HFAC is demonstrated at t=11 s. Combined, this data demonstrates that a proximal neural stimulus may be effectively blocked using HFAC with maintenance of distal neuromusculature stimulability with proportional control. Software-controlled (pClamp 10, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.) stimulus signals were delivered in analog fashion using a digital-to-analog converter (Digidata 1320, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.). A software-controlled transistor-transistor logic (TTL) signal (pClamp 10, Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.) was used to control HFAC delivery using a separate function generator (JYE Tech FG085).
FIG. 11
FIG. 12
FIG. 13
Further illustrations are shown in , providing functional whisking results following prolonged neural blockade by means of HFAC delivery in a rat model. For instance, relative maximal whisk amplitudes between left-face (implanted with nerve cuff electrode arrays on nerve controlling whisking with 4 hours of daily continuous HFAC delivery—see inset) and right-face (normal-side) demonstrate normal or stronger whisker displacements on the side to which HFAC was delivered (green bar approximates normal range). This indicates that prolonged delivery of electrical neural blockade in the form of HFAC does not damage the neuromusculature over time. illustrates light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of nerve following prolonged neural blockade delivery by means of HFAC. For instance, normal axon appearance and myelination are seen for nerve within the cuff electrode (A) and distal to the cuff electrode (B) (1 ™ resin, toluidine blue, 400×). Normal ultrastructure is demonstrated on TEM for sectioned nerve within the cuff (C) and distal to the cuff (D), with labeled myelinated (m) axons (a) and supporting Schwann cells (sc) (2200×). This indicates that prolonged delivery of electrical neural blockade in the form of HFAC does not damage the nerve over time. provides a reanimation paradigm in humans of electrical neural blockade and functional stimulation of distal neuromusculature in the human face following aberrant recovery from facial nerve injury. For example, healthy-side facial muscle activity is detected, for example through the use of epimysial electrode arrays to capture electromyography (EMG) signals. These healthy-side EMG signals then serve as inputs into a signal acquisition and generator platform where digital signal processing algorithms determine concordant output stimulatory signals through implanted electrode arrays on the diseased side distal nerve segments or target muscles to effect the desired contraction. Neural blockade is delivered proximally to the diseased-side nerve, for example using a constant high-frequency alternating current (HFAC) signal, to prevent undesirable muscle activation such as those causing synkinesis and facial muscle contracture. Combined, these components include a neuroprosthetic device.
The devices disclosed herein can be designed to be disposed of after a single use, or they can be designed to be used multiple times. In either case, however, the device can be reconditioned for reuse after at least one use. Reconditioning can include any combination of the steps of disassembly of the device, followed by cleaning or replacement of particular pieces and subsequent reassembly. In particular, the device can be disassembled, and any number of the particular pieces or parts of the device can be selectively replaced or removed in any combination. Upon cleaning and/or replacement of particular parts, the device can be reassembled for subsequent use either at a reconditioning facility, or by a surgical team immediately prior to a surgical procedure. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that reconditioning of a device can utilize a variety of techniques for disassembly, cleaning/replacement, and reassembly. Use of such techniques, and the resulting reconditioned device, are all within the scope of the present application.
Preferably, components of the invention described herein will be processed before use. First, a new or used instrument is obtained and if necessary cleaned. The instrument can then be sterilized. In one sterilization technique, the instrument is placed in a closed and sealed container, such as a plastic or TYVEK bag. The container and instrument are then placed in a field of radiation that can penetrate the container, such as gamma radiation, x-rays, or high-energy electrons. The radiation kills bacteria on the instrument and in the container. The sterilized instrument can then be stored in the sterile container. The sealed container keeps the instrument sterile until it is opened in the medical facility.
Typically, the device is sterilized. This can be done by any number of ways known to those skilled in the art including beta or gamma radiation, ethylene oxide, steam, and a liquid bath (e.g., cold soak). An exemplary embodiment of sterilizing a device including internal circuitry is described in more detail in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0202387 filed Feb. 8, 2008 and entitled “System And Method Of Sterilizing An Implantable Medical Device,” incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. It is preferred that device, if implanted, is hermetically sealed. This can be done by any number of ways known to those skilled in the art.
One skilled in the art will appreciate further features and advantages of the invention based on the above-described embodiments. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited by what has been particularly shown and described, except as indicated by the appended claims. All publications and references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Unless specifically defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein shall be taken to have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art (e.g., in cell culture, molecular genetics, and biochemistry).
In the descriptions above and in the claims, phrases such as “at least one of” or “one or more of” may occur followed by a conjunctive list of elements or features. The term “and/or” may also occur in a list of two or more elements or features. Unless otherwise implicitly or explicitly contradicted by the context in which it is used, such a phrase is intended to mean any of the listed elements or features individually or any of the recited elements or features in combination with any of the other recited elements or features. For example, the phrases “at least one of A and B;” “one or more of A and B;” and “A and/or B” are each intended to mean “A alone, B alone, or A and B together.” A similar interpretation is also intended for lists including three or more items. For example, the phrases “at least one of A, B, and C;” “one or more of A, B, and C;” and “A, B, and/or C” are each intended to mean “A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A and B and C together.” In addition, use of the term “based on,” above and in the claims is intended to mean, “based at least in part on,” such that an unrecited feature or element is also permissible.
As used herein, the terms “about” and “substantially” in the context of a numerical value or range means±10% of the numerical value or range recited or claimed, unless the context requires a more limited range.
It is understood that where a parameter range is provided, all integers within that range, and tenths thereof, are also provided by the invention. For example, “0.2-5 mg” is a disclosure of 0.2 mg, 0.3 mg, 0.4 mg, 0.5 mg, 0.6 mg etc. up to 5.0 mg.
The subject matter described herein can be embodied in systems, apparatus, methods, and/or articles depending on the desired configuration. The implementations set forth in the foregoing description do not represent all implementations consistent with the subject matter described herein. Instead, they are merely some examples consistent with aspects related to the described subject matter. Although a few variations have been described in detail above, other modifications or additions are possible. In particular, further features and/or variations can be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For example, the implementations described above can be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed features and/or combinations and subcombinations of several further features disclosed above. In addition, the logic flows depicted in the accompanying figures and/or described herein do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. Other implementations may be within the scope of the following claims.
The patent and scientific literature referred to herein establishes the knowledge that is available to those with skill in the art. All United States patents and published or unpublished United States patent applications cited herein are incorporated by reference. All published foreign patents and patent applications cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference. All other published references, documents, manuscripts and scientific literature cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The embodiments described above will be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. In the drawings:
FIG. 1
illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a system and/or device to treat dysfunctional or transferred neuromusculature;
FIG. 2
FIG. 1
illustrates the system or device of with a detector;
FIG. 3
illustrates placement of electrodes on the facial nerve in a live anesthetized rat;
FIG. 4
FIG. 3
illustrates positioning of the rat (an art-recognized model for peripheral motor nerve injury, synkinesis and related pathologies described herein) of when quantifying whisker displacement in response to electrical stimuli;
FIG. 5A
illustrates sensing and signal delivery electrode arrays implanted into the rat face;
FIG. 5B
FIG. 5A
illustrates sensing and signal delivery electrode arrays implanted into the rat face, as illustrated in ;
FIG. 6
FIG. 3
illustrates the experimental setup with the rat of with corresponding results;
FIG. 7
illustrates placement of electrodes on the sciatic nerve in a live anesthetized rat;
FIG. 8
FIG. 7
illustrates position of the rat in when quantifying hind limb force/tension in response to electrical stimuli;
FIG. 9
illustrates the electrical stimulatory and blockade signals delivery to the sciatic nerve in real-time with corresponding force/tension response;
FIG. 10
illustrates the results of neural blockade of whisking in a live rat;
FIG. 11
illustrates functional whisking results following prolonged neural blockade by means of high frequency alternating current (HFAC) delivery in a rat model;
FIG. 12
illustrates light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of nerve following prolonged neural blockade delivery by means of high frequency alternative current (HFAC);
FIG. 13
illustrates a reanimation paradigm of electrical neural blockade and functional stimulation of distal neuromusculature in the face following aberrant recovery from facial nerve injury; and
FIG. 14
illustrates the application of paradigm for electrical neural blockade in a human subject and functional stimulation of neuromusculature following nerve and muscle transfer, in this example for reanimation of spontaneous smile. | |
Recent technological trends in mobile/wearable devices and sensors have been enabling an increasing number of people to collect and store their "lifelog" easily in their daily lives. Beyond exercise behavior change of individual users, our research focus is on the behavior change of teams, based on lifelogging technologies and lifelog sharing. In this paper, we propose and evaluate six different types of lifelog sharing models among team members for their exercise promotion, leveraging the concepts of "competition" and "collaboration." According to our experimental mobile web application for exercise promotion and an extensive user study conducted with a total of 64 participants over a period of three weeks, the model with a "competition" technique resulted in the most effective performance for competitive teams, such as sports teams. | https://keio.pure.elsevier.com/ja/publications/toward-health-exercise-behavior-change-for-teams-using-lifelog-sh |
A hospital receptionist is a key employee in any healthcare facility. They provide excellent customer service and assist patients with their needs.
A receptionist typically works in a front desk area, greeting patients and helping them with their prescriptions or questions about the hospital.
They may also handle insurance information or direct patients to the correct department. A receptionist must have excellent communication and organizational skills and knowledge of hospital policy.
This article provides relevant information about Hospital receptionists, their salary, cost, and the process of becoming a hospital receptionist.
Table of contents
- Who is a Hospital Receptionist?
- Is Hospital Reception a Good Career?
- What Does a Hospital Receptionist Do?
- What is a Hospital Receptionist’s Salary?
- What are the Hospital Receptionist Job Requirements
- What are the Required Hospital Receptionist Skills?
- Workplace Conditions for Hospital Receptionists
- Hospital Receptionist Trends
- How to Become a Hospital Receptionist
- How Long Does it Take to Become a Hospital Receptionist?
- What are the Qualities of a Good Hospital Receptionist?
- Best Hospital Receptionist Schools
- Conclusion
- Reference
- Recommendations
Who is a Hospital Receptionist?
A hospital receptionist is a professional who helps patients and visitors get the most out of their stay. They answer questions, handle paperwork, and provide information about the hospital.
Hospital receptionists typically have a degree in nursing or a related field, and many have certification in patient care. They must work well under pressure, be highly organized, and have excellent communication skills.
Is Hospital Reception a Good Career?
Yes, building a career as a hospital receptionist is good and rewarding.
Usually, patients’ first interaction with a clinic is with the receptionist. The receptionist will serve as the practice’s voice and face, whether over the phone or in person.
This implies that the receptionist will contribute to shaping the clients’ perceptions of the practice and other medical departments, vendors, and professions.
Any business can benefit significantly from having a professional receptionist, and a medical receptionist frees doctors and nurses to focus on what they do best—treating patients. The value of a medical receptionist cannot be overstated.
Always have the answers to issues that arise at the most inconvenient times, medical receptionists. An excellent receptionist can think quickly, resolve problems, and give customers the impression that they are in good hands when handling challenging phone calls, processing medical accounts, soothing upset patients, and mending the copy machine.
A receptionist’s flexibility and capacity to change with the times are assets. The receptionist interacts with people across the entire organization and will become active in all departments, unlike most office workers who concentrate on their particular responsibilities and may not necessarily get involved in other parts of the business.
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What Does a Hospital Receptionist Do?
As a hospital receptionist in any medical organization, there are some roles and responsibilities you are expected to perform both on a regular and weekly basis. Some of these roles include:
- Attending to patients’ calls. These calls can come from doctors, patient’s family members, nurses, or medical staff.
- Letting the staff or doctor on duty know patients’ arrival, social security numbers, and other relevant information about the patient.
- Another of a hospital receptionist’s sole responsibilities is offering medical staff administrative support and scheduling meetings when necessary.
- Then, attend to patients who want a session with a physician or doctor. They do this by screening and processing patients’ requests.
- Also, handle patient medical information.
- Communicate with insurance companies to verify coverage for services provided by the hospital or clinic.
What is a Hospital Receptionist’s Salary?
Just like other professional salaries, a Hospital receptionist’s salary varies. Typically, the salary range depends on location, work experience, organization, and qualifications.
A medical receptionist’s median yearly compensation in 2023 was $33,996, according to salary.com. This is higher than the BLS annual pay of $31,110 for the category of receptionist in 2020. The BLS reports that receptionists employed in healthcare settings often make higher money than those employed in other sectors of the economy.
The median hourly pay for receptionists in the hospital and social assistance sectors was $15.46, but the median hourly salary for receptionists in other contexts ranged from $15.09 to $12.91.
You could have to work weekends and nights as a hospital receptionist because hospitals are open every day of the week and at all hours.
What are the Hospital Receptionist Job Requirements
To become a hospital receptionist in any medical organization or firm, you must meet some criteria. These criteria are grouped into education, Certifications, and work experiences.
Education:
To get a hospital receptionist job, you must have a high school diploma or equivalent. Some hospitals may prefer candidates having an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in health care administration or a similar profession.
When applying for jobs as hospital receptionist, receptionists with a background in healthcare or another relevant subject may have an advantage.
Work Experience:
New employers often provide on-the-job training for hospital receptionists. The policies and practices of the hospital, computer applications, and patient registration procedures may all be covered during this training.
Licenses & Certifications:
Hospital receptionist certifications are uncommon but not unheard of. Go after certification if it increases your chances of landing a job or a promotion.
What are the Required Hospital Receptionist Skills?
To succeed, hospital receptionists require the following abilities:
Hospital receptionists interact with patients, physicians, nurses, other hospital employees, and members of the general public. It takes good communication skills to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Both verbally and in writing, hospital receptionists should be able to explain ideas effectively and succinctly.
Aside from this skill, a hospital receptionist’s other skills include the following:
Good Customer Service Skill
Hospital receptionists regularly speak with patients, guests, and other hospital staff members. For this position, it’s crucial to have good customer services abilities, such as active listening, empathy, and patience. You should know how to respond to queries, guide patients to the appropriate departments, and tell them about hospital policies.
Multitasking
Hospital receptionists frequently need to accomplish several responsibilities at once. They might take calls, welcome clients, complete paperwork, respond to inquiries, point clients in the proper direction, and more. Excellent multitasking abilities are necessary for this position to handle all duties on schedule.
Computer Knowledge
Hospital receptionists utilize computers to perform several functions, including making appointments, entering patient data, sending emails, and completing paperwork.
Pay close attention
Hospital receptionists keep track of patient files, appointment schedules, and other crucial papers. Hospital receptionists must pay close attention to detail to ensure that all information is accurate and available when needed.
Workplace Conditions for Hospital Receptionists
Medical receptionists use different settings. Some people might work in public hospitals, while others might work in private ones. Every hospital front desk employee should know the following items from their workplace:
These professionals work indoors in an office used by medical staff and other receptionists.
An essential component of a hospital receptionist’s employment is using computers and phones.
The first thing patients see when they enter a hospital is their desk.
While some receptionists could work part-time during regular office hours, most work full-time. These professionals typically work nine to six, and obligations at work, they cannot do so.
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Hospital Receptionist Trends
Hospital receptionists must know of these advancements to keep their knowledge current and maintain a competitive edge at work.
The Evolution of the Online Receptionist
In the business world, the advent of the virtual receptionist is a trend that is gaining popularity swiftly. This is because of its several advantages, including decreased costs and better productivity.
Hospital receptionists must learn to collaborate with virtual receptionists as more companies follow this trend. They will also receive instructions on responding to consumer inquiries and the company’s policies and procedures.
More Technology Use
Hospitals are increasingly using technology to enhance patient care and cut costs.
Receptionists must understand how to use technology as it becomes more common in hospitals. Learning how to use EMRs and other computer systems falls under this category. They must also be capable of offering customer assistance for these systems, which might be difficult if they need more familiarity.
Increased Attention to Patient Experience
The patient experience is becoming a bigger priority for hospital administrators as a strategy to boost general satisfaction. This implies that receptionists’ duties have expanded beyond only taking calls and guiding guests.
Receptionists must be capable of performing a variety of duties, such as extending courtesy, responding to inquiries, and guiding clients toward the resources they require.
How to Become a Hospital Receptionist
You require a high school diploma or a GED to work as a hospital receptionist. Although it’s not widespread, some positions call for an administration-related associate’s or bachelor’s degree.
Many of your tasks may be like those you performed as a receptionist.
Still, you must take additional precautions to preserve privacy because you can access sensitive data. To keep that protection, you must abide by all HIPPA privacy requirements.
Once you have the education requirements and certification, create a professional CV. With a good CV, any hospital receptionist can quickly get a job.
How Long Does it Take to Become a Hospital Receptionist?
To become a medical receptionist, it two to four years are usually needed. This is typically how long it takes to get the minimal training and work experience required to perform the responsibilities of this position.
Most positions call for a high school diploma or its equivalent as the minimum educational need for a position as a medical receptionist. At the same time, some employers prefer people with higher credentials.
What are the Qualities of a Good Hospital Receptionist?
Here are the hospital receptionist qualities:
Excellent Communicator
You must communicate well to work as an excellent medical receptionist. However, there are occasions when listening skills are just as important as what you say. For a competent medical receptionist, this is accurate.
One of the qualities of an excellent medical receptionist is the ability to listen to the patients and make them feel as though you understand their problems.
Organized:
Everyone is okay with a receptionist who knows the location of critical documents or the phone number of the expert physician. An organized practice has an organized receptionist.
Multitasking and the capacity to function under pressure:
A queue of people is forming, a patient needs assistance filling out a form, and the phone is ringing five times a row.
Amazing receptionists must maintain their composure under pressure and be able to switch between responsibilities.
Professionalism: As previously said, the receptionist serves as the company’s face and spokesperson. Therefore, a professional demeanor and attitude are essential if you are considering a job in medical administration. Confidentiality laws must be understood and adhered to for trust to be built throughout the clinic.
Upcoming Career Prospects
You have many career opportunities in the medical field if you work as a receptionist. The standard career paths for a receptionist are office manager, personal assistant, medical practice manager, or medical secretary.
Best Hospital Receptionist Schools
Here are the best schools for hospital reception programs:
Fox Valley Technical College
Address: 1825 N Bluemound Dr. Appleton, WI 54912-2277
First on our list of schools for hospital receptionists is Fox Valley Technical College. Fox Valley Technical College offers a unique program that prepares hospital receptionists for a career in the healthcare industry.
The program includes instruction in customer service, computer skills, and medical terminology. This combination of education and hands-on experience gives students the tools they need to succeed in various healthcare settings.
The Fox Valley, Technical College Hospital Receptionist program is accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES).
This accreditation ensures that the curriculum meets national standards and assures students that their training will lead to a successful career.
The Hospital Receptionist program at Fox Valley Technical College is perfect for those who want to enter the healthcare field but need to gain prior experience. The program is also ideal for people looking to update their skills or broaden their knowledge base.
Bellingham Technical College
Address: 3028 Lindbergh Ave, Bellingham, WA 98225-1599
Bellingham Technical College has provided healthcare professionals for the community for over seventy years.
A recent addition to their hospital reception program is a two-year associate degree in medical reception. This program will provide students with the skills and knowledge to be successful in a healthcare setting.
The program will begin with an eight-week summer session, followed by a twelve-week fall semester and a four-week winter session.
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Chippewa Valley Technical College
Address: 620 W Clairemont Ave, Eau Claire,WI 54701-6162
Chippewa Valley Technical College is looking to improve its hospital reception program. The program would provide a way for students to prepare for a career in the medical field.
The hospital reception program would be offered through the college’s Adult Education department. Students would be required to complete 18 credit hours, including courses in anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, patient care, and communication skills.
The college hopes this program will help increase the number of students who choose careers in the medical field. It also believes this program will give students valuable experience they can use when seeking employment after graduation.
Clark College
Address: 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver, WA 98663-3598
Clark College has provided excellent healthcare to its students since it was founded in 1878. The hospital reception program is one of the many ways that Clark College ensures its students receive the best care.
The hospital reception program offers various services, such as medical screening and exams, diagnostics, treatments, etc.
It is important to note that the hospital reception program is not just for Clark College students; it also provides care to residents of the surrounding community.
In addition to providing quality care, the hospital reception program also helps to create long-term relationships with local hospitals. This means that when students need medical attention, they have a good chance of receiving it from a Clark College hospital.
Gateway Technical College
Address: 3520 30th Ave, Kenosha, WI 53144-1690
Next on our list of best Hospital reception schools is Gateway Technical College. Gate Technical College is a public, 2-year institution in Kenosha, WI.
Gateway Technical College program in hospital receptionist program has been designed to meet the needs of hospital receptionists who want to improve their skills and work in a challenging, fast-paced environment.
The program offers an accredited degree with a focus on hospital receptionist services. The curriculum is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in the job market.
The program is offered on a part-time basis, which gives students the flexibility to work while attending school. Gateway Technical College offers classes at its campus in Amherst, Massachusetts, or online.
This specialized degree will give you the skills you need to be successful as a hospital receptionist.
Metropolitan Community College Area
Address: 30 & Fort Street Omaha, NE 68111-1610
Metropolitan Community College Area is a public institution of higher learning located in the heart of Omaha, Nebraska. The college offers a variety of programs and courses to meet the needs of its students.
It provides an array of educational opportunities for those interested in healthcare, business, technology, and other fields.
Students can choose from various degree options, including associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. The college also offers certificate programs and continuing education classes.
The college is committed to providing a comprehensive educational experience for its students. It offers various academic support services, such as tutoring, study groups, and library services.
The college also provides financial aid and scholarships to help students pay for their education.
Additionally, the college offers several extracurricular activities, such as sports teams, student government, and student organizations.
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A hospital receptionist is a professional who helps patients and visitors get the most out of their stay. They answer questions, handle paperwork, and provide information about the hospital.
Conclusion
A hospital receptionist is a professional who provides customer service and helps patients with their medical needs. They typically work in a busy setting, wearing uniforms and dealing with various patients. They must handle multiple tasks simultaneously, communicate effectively, and be patient when responding to patients. | https://kiiky.com/what-does-a-hospital-receptionist-do/ |
This T Shirts assessment also includes:
Which deal is best? Learners determine which of two companies has the best deal for a particular number of shirts. They begin by creating a table and equations containing each company's pricing structure. Individuals finish the seventh resource in a series of eight by analyzing the two pricing procedures through mathematical approaches. | https://lessonplanet.com/teachers/t-shirts |
A number of demographic factors, many of which related to human-driven encroachments, are predicted to decrease the effective population size (Ne) relative to the census population size (N), but these have been little investigated. Yet, it is necessary to know which factors most strongly impact Ne, and how to mitigate these effects through sound management actions. In this study, we use parentage analysis of a stream-living brown trout (Salmo trutta) population to quantify the effect of between-individual variance in reproductive success on the effective number of breeders (Nb) relative to the census number of breeders (Ni). Comprehensive estimates of the Nb/N ratio were reduced to 0.16–0.28, almost entirely due to larger than binomial variance in family size. We used computer simulations, based on empirical estimates of age-specific survival and fecundity rates, to assess the effect of repeat spawning (iteroparity) on Ne and found that the variance in lifetime reproductive success was substantially higher for repeat spawners. Random family-specific survival, on the other hand, acts to buffer these effects. We discuss the implications of these findings for the management of small populations, where maintaining high and stable levels of Ne is crucial to extenuate inbreeding and protect genetic variability. | https://imr.brage.unit.no/imr-xmlui/handle/11250/2507117 |
The worldwide “principles-based” accounting standards for general purpose financial statements being issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Currently, over 80 countries/regions are allowing or requiring the preparation of financial statements in accordance with IFRS and others in the process of adopting the standards. Worldwide adoption of IFRS as the primary accounting standard is expected around 2015 – will you be prepared?
When reporting under IFRS, any changes to the standard will dramatically affect your business, processes, data, and systems. Your system will need to:
- Have the functionality to meet IFRS requirements
- Handle more data and calculations on a different basis of accounting due to new disclosure and recognition requirements
- Support multi-GAAP accounting and parallel reporting requirements
- Adapt to system impacts at all levels: Source Systems, Sub-ledger, GL, Consolidation and Reporting
- Enable data adjustments and/or data conversions
In light of this, before you being an IFRS project, it is critical to your business to fully assess your system capabilities, functionality, and options, as well as identify any finance or IT projects that may be impacted. If the changes needed to make your system IFRS compliant are overly complex and costly, consider implementing a solution that is already ready to comply with the standards and will adapt with the changing requirements, like Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Microsoft Dynamics AX supports IFRS compliance with robust tools, a flexible, adaptable foundation, and internal/external reporting transparency.Implementing a Microsoft Dynamics AX solution now will prepare you for:
- A first time adoption of IFRS
- The presentation of financial statements
- Property, plant, and equipment requirements
- Changes in foreign exchange rates
Read Microsoft’s complete report on “IFRS for Microsoft Dynamics AX“ to gain a better understanding of the implications of IFRS adoption on your business management systems and processes. | https://www.velosio.com/blog/microsoft-dynamics-ax-is-ready-for-ifrs-are-you/ |
The Central Library is located at the center of the campus. It is the largest support center for students and researchers of the university with a substantial collection (about 760,000) of books, journals and multimedia materials.
The PC Plaza is a self-study room with more than 70 computers. With Internet connectivity, students can freely use the PCs
The Center for Health Service Science provides health-related services so that students can focus on their studies and participate in sports without being concerned about their health. The Center offers medical checkups, and doctors, counselors and nurses can provide advice and help when students have concerns about their physical or mental health
The University Hall can be used as a place for students and faculty members to interact, for student club activities, for research presentations, concerts, and other services. The Hall includes meeting rooms, Japanese rooms, and halls.
The Hall also includes facilities to enrich student life, such as dining rooms and stores for purchasing books, stationery, and articles for daily use
There are 47 athletic clubs and 53 cultural clubs, a total of 100 official clubs (clubs officially registered to the University) for extracurricular activities (as of Apr. 1, 2019). Besides, there are also a large number of groups devoted to many types of activities.
Its a very brilliant university which has many knowledge and practices
Best experience...im a high school teacher with excellency awards...i studied more on the political site
My college provides good education and guidance to us still there is lack of management in some aspect.
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Go to your profile page to get personalised recommendations! | https://www.mastersportal.com/universities/14527/yokohama-national-university.html |
I started teaching a new group class this week and as a part of the introduction to my class I like to explain what yoga is and what it is that I teach. I don’t align myself with the traditional lineages in yoga, but if I had to pick an influence, it would be Forrest Yoga. I really admire and resonate with what Ana Forrest, the creatrix of Forrest Yoga has overcome and developed as a practice.
And the truth is, my own practice is wide and varied. I strength train. I do mobility exercises. I do pranayama (breathwork) and I do asana (Yoga postures). Most people would not consider deadlifting to be yoga. But it can be. And that’s where we get to my definition of yoga.
Yoga is the development of awareness within the body and the mind. You cannot have one without the other. If you are doing bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana) and focusing on engaging all the muscles to lengthen and strengthen while maintaining a steady breath – that is yoga. If you use the pose to identify what parts of the body are not supporting you – that is yoga. If you keep your mind in the moment and the movement – to keep everything engaged – that is yoga.
Why is this such a big deal? Knowledge is power. When you have that sense of connection with your body as you move it through space you develop a sense of what is missing or not working as it could. You see the patterns and your habits. You have a choice. You can leave it as it is, or change something to engage it.
Why is that important? Well, imagine that you do bridge pose with no activation of the hamstrings or the glutes. Your quads will do all the work and most of us have super strong quads. Overtime you may do bridge but without the support of the big muscles that were really designed to do that work the quads will start to protest. You may develop aches and pains. You may see more serious problems down the road. It’s like having a co-worker that doesn’t pull their weight in the team. You and the other team members must pick up the slack. What happens over time? At first nothing, then some grumbling and then a revolt. Well, hopefully not that drastic, but you get the picture.
So, again, back to my definition: yoga develops the awareness within the body and the mind. When you see the patterns in your body, you see the patterns in your mind. And this presents you with a choice. What you do with it is up to you.
Want to learn more? Come and join me for a class.
See you next time, | https://jennpyoga.com/2018/02/21/what-is-yoga-in-jenn-speak/ |
At the end of a high school physics course, students should have a strong grasp on concepts of mass, force, motion, energy and more. Additionally, students should have the sufficient knowledge needed for higher level education.
Below are some examples of potential high school physics goals and objectives for your child:
- Use graphs and equations to solve speed and velocity problems.
- Describe Newton’s first, second, and third laws of motion.
- Solve problems using Kepler’s laws.
- Calculate kinetic energy, mass, or velocity given the other two quantities.
- Explain how electromagnetic waves transfer energy by radiation.
- Distinguish between absorption, transmission, reflection, refraction, and diffraction.
- Analyze how light waves bend around objects.
- Use Ohm’s law to calculate voltage, current, or resistance.
- Apply the right-hand rule to determine the direction of the magnetic force on a charge.
- Use the half-life concept to describe the rate of decay of an isotope.
- Identify Einstein’s two postulates of special relativity. | https://www.cisk.online/product/grade-10-physics/ |
Treat implementation as a process, not an event; plan and execute it in stages.
Allow enough time for effective implementation, particularly in the preparation stage; prioritise appropriately.
Create a leadership environment and school climate that is conducive to good implementation.
- Set the stage for implementation through school policies, routines, and practices.
- Identify and cultivate leaders of implementation throughout the school.
- Build leadership capacity through implementation teams.
Define the problem you want to solve and identify appropriate programmes or practices to implement.
- Identify a tight area for improvement using a robust diagnostic process.
- Make evidence-informed decisions on what to implement.
- Examine the fit and feasibility of possible interventions to the school context.
- Make an adoption decision.
Create a clear implementation plan, judge the readiness of the school to deliver that plan, then prepare staff and resources.
Develop a clear, logical, and well-specified implementation plan:
- Specify the active ingredients of the intervention clearly: know where to be ‘tight’ and where to be ‘loose’.
- Develop a targeted, yet multi-stranded, package of implementation strategies.
- Define clear implementation outcomes and monitor them using robust and pragmatic measures.
Thoroughly assess the degree to which the school is ready to implement the innovation.
Once ready to implement an intervention, practically prepare for its use:
- Create a shared understanding of the implementation process and provide appropriate support and incentives.
- Introduce new skills, knowledge, and strategies with explicit up-front training.
- Prepare the implementation infrastructure.
Support staff, monitor progress, solve problems, and adapt strategies as the approach is used for the first time.
- Adopt a flexible and motivating leadership approach during the initial attempts at implementation.
- Reinforce initial training with follow-on coaching within the school.
- Use highly skilled coaches.
- Complement expert coaching and mentoring with structured peer-to-peer collaboration.
- Use implementation data to actively tailor and improve the approach.
- Make thoughtful adaptations only when the active ingredients are securely understood and implemented.
Plan for sustaining and scaling an intervention from the outset and continually acknowledge and nurture its use.
- Plan for sustaining and scaling an innovation from the outset.
- Treat scale-up as a new implementation process.
- Ensure the implementation data remains fit for purpose.
- Continually acknowledge, support, and reward good implementation practices. | https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/implementation |
Structural, vibrational, electronic investigations and quantum chemical studies of 2-amino-4-methoxybenzothiazole.
Extensive vibrational investigations of 2-amino-4-methoxybenzothiazole have been carried out with FTIR and FT-Raman spectral techniques. The electronic structure of the molecule has been analysed by UV-Visible and NMR spectroscopies. The DFT studies were carried out with B3LYP and HF methods utilising 6-31G(d,p), 6-311++G(d,p) and cc-pVDZ basis sets to determine the structural, thermodynamical, vibrational, electronic characteristics of the compound and also to understand the electronic and steric influence of the methoxy amino groups on the skeletal frequencies. The mixing of the fundamental modes was determined with the help of total energy distribution (TED). The energies of the frontier molecular orbitals have also been determined. The kinetic and thermodynamic stability and chemical hardness of the molecule have been determined. Complete NBO analysis was also carried out to find out the intramolecular electronic interactions and their stabilisation energy. (1)H and (13)C NMR chemical shifts and the electronic transitions of the molecule are also discussed.
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- Primary responsibilities include managing the quality of infrastructure services and developing and implementing processes and procedures that will contribute to increased levels of availability and performance, decrease system faults, lower costs and ultimately higher levels of client satisfaction. The role involves suggesting & implementing agreed process adherence, efficiency and value added services to the customer.
- To lead the delivery of Service Desk & support functions like incident & change management and all supporting activities associated with Application & Infra Management.
- Responsible for managing the entire IT infrastructure of the company (e.g. IT Operating system, network infrastructure, storage system, server systems (virtual) and database systems, PBX, CCTV)
- Ensuring performance and continuity for the entire system, responsible for handling IT problems / incidents and recovering in the shortest time.
- Monitor the implementation of IT infrastructure orientation and system operation procedures.
- Training, guidance to improve knowledge for team member, assign and evaluate the level of work completion.
- Making sure that all relevant data is properly collected and stored performance metrics, service levels, server status and both planned and unplanned system outages
- Build and Maintain customer relationship.
- Effectively monitor, control and support infrastructure service delivery ensuring all agreed methodologies and procedures are followed
- Perform other tasks as requested by superiors.
YÊU CẦU CHUYÊN MÔN
LIÊN HỆ:
- Gửi CV đến Email [email protected] theo mẫu "CV – Vị trí ứng tuyển – Họ tên ứng viên"
Ví dụ: "CV - Chuyên viên kinh doanh - Nguyễn Văn A" | https://namhapharma.com/tuyen-dung-it-system-operation-service-management |
Is writing a Kernel module in Scratch, the block-based programming language used primarily by kids, possible? Absurd it may be, but yes, it is absolutely possible!
Scratch is the original block-based programming language and still the best known and most widely used. It was invented in 2003 at MIT to make kids' introduction to coding a much smoother experience. That said, the educational value of block versus regular text based languages is highly debated with strong arguments on either side.
Furthermore, a recent official report of research carried out for the UK government found that:
Block-based programming languages can be useful in teaching programming, as they reduce the need to memorise syntax and are easier to use. However, these languages can encourage pupils to develop certain programming habits that are not always helpful. For example, small-scale research from 2011 highlighted 2 habits that ‘are at odds with the accepted practice of computer science’.The first is that these languages encourage a bottom-up approach to programming, which focuses on the blocks of the language and not wider algorithm design. The second is that they may lead to a fine-grained approach to programming that does not use accepted programming constructs; for example, pupils avoiding ‘the use of the most important structures: conditional execution and bounded loops’.This is problematic for pupils in the early stages of learning to program, as they may carry these habits across to other programming languages.
Further research has highlighted that, although block-based languages may help novices to overcome the difficulties with syntax that they can face when learning to program, they do not necessarily help pupils with the semantic and conceptual difficulties. It is therefore important that, if schools use block-based languages, they consider how to design the curriculum to mitigate these potential pitfalls.
On the plus side, block based languages have been found to carry the following benefits:
Since it's visual it's very easy to get started and is highly accessible;you just have to connect visual blocks in a logical way.Then its syntax-free programming takes the clutter out of the way to let students focus on doing something useful while reducing the time to get onto that.
Kid-students aside there's also been attempts to engage block based programming in more sophisticated endeavors.Take for example BlocklySQL, a block-based visual programming tool like Scratch but for SQL.The advantage is that while students use blocks to enter SQL, they can then see, and also export, the auto-generated SQL in order to learn the actual syntax.
The Scratchnative project has gone even further. Taking a Scratch project and converting it to C++ has enabled Scratch to be used for writing kernel modules, which is beyond the ordinary.
The stated goal of the project is to:
"Compile scratch3 code to native executables".
In other words, it takes this
and turns it into this
To work with it, first you need to build the program using cmake, and then invoke it as
scratchnative [OPTIONS] [INPUT]
There's also a Python wrapper which can download the Scratch .sb3 project and invoke scratchnative.
To get a more in depth picture, let's download the Scratch Linux Kernel Modules project from the Scratch website, which gets us a "Scratch Linux Kernel Modules.sb3" file. Renaming it to .zip and opening it we find the project's .json file that describes the project, the one that scratchnative works on. With that we dive into the internals of the native scratch format.
Why that is interesting is that we can observe scratch's opcodes used like :
Scratchnative currently supports the following opcodes:
event_whenflagclicked
The "procedures_call" looks especially interesting...
The dev who built scratchnative even created an operating system, ScratchOS, with it.
While these examples have little practical value, they serve as a strong proof of concept of what is feasible in the modern day of transpilers or cross-compilers.
Is that the breakthrough that low or no-code paradigms have been waiting for in order to hit a higher level of sophistication, getting capable of building previously out of reach application even under the realm of system level programming?
Time will show but scratchnative has certainly opened Pandora's Box...
More Information
UK Gov-Research review series: Computing
No Language Left Behind - Meta's Progress Toward Universal Translation
13/07/2022
Meta has made impressive progress with its No Language Left Behind project. It has already built a single model that can translate between 200 languages and has now open sourced the AI translati [ ... ]
NetBeans 14 Extends JDK 17 Support
28/07/2022
NetBeans 14 has been released by Apache, with improvements including more support for JDK 17 and better handling of problem reporting in Gradle. | https://i-programmer.info/news/98-languages/15567-scratch-can-even-do-linux-kernel.html |
Beta-blockade for the treatment of cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Refractory ventricular fibrillation (VF) or pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VT) refers to cases that do not respond to traditional Advanced Cardiac Life Support measures and are associated with significantly lower survival rates. Beta-blockade may improve outcomes by protecting against the deleterious effects associated with epinephrine's beta-receptor effect. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate whether beta-blockade compared with control improved outcomes among patients in cardiac arrest due to refractory VF/VT. PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, LILACS, the Cochrane databases, Google Scholar, and bibliographies of selected articles were assessed on September 2nd, 2019 for all studies evaluating beta-blockade versus control groups in patients with cardiac arrest due to refractory VF/VT. PRISMA guidelines were followed. Data were dual extracted into a predefined worksheet and quality analysis was performed with the Cochrane Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of Interventions tool. Data were summarized and a meta-analysis was performed assessing temporary and sustained return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), survival-to-admission, survival-to-discharge, and survival with a favorable neurologic outcome. Three studies (n = 115 patients) were selected for final inclusion. Beta-blockade was associated with an increased rate of temporary ROSC (OR 14.46; 95% CI 3.63 to 57.57), sustained ROSC (OR 5.76; 95% CI 1.79-18.52), survival-to-admission (OR 5.76; 95% CI 1.79-18.52), survival-to-discharge (OR 7.92; 95% CI 1.85-33.89), and survival with a favorable neurologic outcome (OR 4.42; 95% CI 1.05-18.56). Overall risk of bias ranged from moderate-to-severe, which was primarily influenced by selection of participants and potential confounding. This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42019126902). The data suggest that beta-blockade may be associated with improved outcomes ranging from ROSC to survival with a favorable neurologic outcome. Future randomized controlled trials are needed to further evaluate this intervention in refractory VF/VT.
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The United States observed its first Family History Month twelve years ago. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch introduced a resolution on September 12, 2001 to designate October as Family History Month. Hatch had circulated a draft for months, but it’s fitting that he formally introduced it the day after the September 11 attacks. In the uncertain aftermath, the words of the resolution resonated. “We look to the family as an unwavering symbol of constancy that will help us discover a future of prosperity, promise, and potential,” the legislation read. “Interest in our personal family history transcends all cultural and religious affiliations.” It passed by unanimous consent.
More than 80 million Americans are believed to be actively searching for more information about their ancestors. This explosion of interest in family history is due, in part, to the advent of the internet. An ever-growing number of institutions, libraries, and individuals in our nation and others are collecting, preserving, and sharing genealogies, personal documents, and memorabilia that detail the life and times of families around the world.
Celebrate Family History Month with your family. The following are projects that could help you get started.
- Google your ancestors: Enter ancestor’s name, plus a location or use nickname, initials, spouses names – each put in parenthesis.
- Search in Google Books. Not every book is searchable, but may provide a “snippet” that gives you a few lines from the book. You may have to find the actual title from a bookstore in library. But if you find a book that lets you search, you can add it to your “virtual library” to be read at your convenience and they are free. Search for your surnames or locations.
- Interview a relative: Don’t put off talking with elder relatives. I don’t want to hear you say “I wish I had asked …..” when it becomes too late.
- If you have been curious about your family tree but don’t know where to start, get a program (there are free programs available) and start with yourself and your immediate family.
- If you have already started research, print a family tree and share with your relatives.
- Create a family recipe book: Contact family members for their favorite recipes and have them include a story about each dish. If someone has their parents or grandparent’s recipe, be sure to get copies. A great gift would be that dish at a family meal or wrapped with a bow.
- Trace your family medical history: Experts say that about 3000 of the 10,000 known disease have a genetic links and can run in families. Disease such as colon cancer, heart disease, alcoholism, high blood pressure or even a trait such as crooked little finger.
- Plan a trip to trace your ancestor’s homestead: Grab a map and head to the house where you lived, the school you attended, or places of importance to your family in the past, or possibly plan a trip to the country where ancestors migrated from.
- Preserve your family pictures: Get those photos from the closets and track down a relative that can help you identify the pictures. Scan the photos into the computer and place the pictures in acid-free photo boxes or albums. Share with the rest of the family either on CD’s or photo albums.
- Create a scrapbook: Preserve your family photos, heirlooms, stories and memories to document your family history and it will become a family heirloom to hand down for generations. Get you family to help add pages to it.
- Craft a heritage gift: For ideas check out www.pinterest.com . The gift need not be large but will be treasured by all.
Hopefully, one of these ideas piqued your interest and will start you in a new direction. | https://www.dekalbcountyonline.com/october-is-history-month/ |
What are AEM and Accessible Technologies?
Students with disabilities frequently experience barriers to the use of printed materials, digital materials, and technology. Examples where barriers might arise may include textbooks, articles, digital documents, websites, apps, and electronic devices.
The four types of specialized formats are braille, large print, audio, and digital text:
• Braille is a tactile system of reading and writing made up of raised dot patterns for letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. This format is used almost exclusively by people with visual impairments. Braille may be either embossed (a permanent printed document) or refreshable (electronically generated and accessed via a braille display device).
• Large print is generally defined as print that is larger than the print sizes commonly used by the general population (8 to 12 points in size). One guideline used defines large print as 18 point or larger. A document produced in large print format usually has more white space and may not look like the original document, but it contains the same information. Large print may be printed on pages that are the same size as a standard textbook page or on pages of a larger size.
• Audio formats present content as speech to which a student listens. Audio formats include recorded human voice or synthesized electronic speech.
• Digital text provides electronic content that is delivered on a computer or another device. Electronic content can be changed in many ways (e.g., size, contrast, read aloud) to accommodate the needs and preferences of a student. How content is presented to a user depends upon the technology being used and student needs. | https://www.akcam.org/aem-basics |
Adverse possession is a claim for ownership of land based on factual possession of the land for a period of time (12 years in respect of unregistered land, and 10 years in respect of registered land).
Anyone who has been in possession of land for the requisite period can apply to the Land Registry to be registered in their ownership. To make an application they will need to show the following:-
– Factual possession of the land – The applicant must have been in the applicant’s factual possession for the requisite period. There is no requirement that the adverse possession should be apparent to anyone inspecting the land.
– Physical control – there must be a sufficient degree of exclusive physical control over the land e.g fencing the land, carrying out works, changing locks and keeping of livestock.
– Intention to possess – the applicant must show that they intended to possess the land during the period of occupation to the exclusion of all others including the owner).
Local authorities and other organisations often own areas of land that are unoccupied and unused by the owner, such as fields or open space areas, and these can be affected by adverse possession in a number of ways.
Encroachment
It is by no means uncommon for land owners whose properties adjoin open space land, to incorporate part of that open space within their boundaries to extend their gardens.
Unlawful use
It is also known that if a field is left unsupervised, someone may start to use that field to keep livestock.
In order to protect land holdings from adverse possession it is important to carry out regular checks on land, taking care to ensure that the boundary features have not been moved, any locks have not been changed etc. It would be advisable to take photographs of the land and boundaries at regular periods so it will be possible to establish a timeline for any unlawful occupation.
If an area of land has been taken by someone else action should be taken to reclaim the land, probably by way of possession action in the County Court, or an injunction requiring the relocation of an incorrect boundary.
Sometimes, a landowner may be happy for the occupier to be in occupation, but if this is the case, it is important to regularise the situation by granting permission by way of licence, or some sort of tenancy – If an occupier has the landowner’s specific consent to occupy the land then he cannot claim adverse possession. Any such licence or tenancy should be reviewed on a regular basis, and the permission should be communicated to the occupier. | https://nwl-legal.com/protecting-land-from-adverse-possession/ |
March 22, 2011–U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin has rejected the $125 million settlement negotiated between the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google, according to media reports.
In his opinion today, he wrote: The question presented is whether the ASA is fair, adequate, and reasonable. I conclude that it is not.
While the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, the ASA would simply go too far. It would permit this class action which was brought against defendant Google Inc. (“GoogleI1) to challenge its scanning of books and display of “snippets” for on-line searching — to implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners. Indeed, the ASA would give Google a significant advantage over competitors,rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case. Follow this link to read the complete decision.
Google managing counsel Hilary Ware had this statement: This is clearly disappointing, but well review the Courts decision and consider our options. Like many others, we believe this agreement has the potential to open-up access to millions of books that are currently hard to find in the US today. Regardless of the outcome, well continue to work to make more of the worlds books discoverable online through Google Books and Google eBooks.
The judge concluded: the ASA is not fair, adequate, and reasonable. As the United States and other objectors have noted, many of the concerns raised in the objections would be ameliorated if the ASA were converted from an opt-out settlement to an opt-in settlement.
Macmillan CEO John Sargent had this statement on behalf of the publishers involved in the settlement: [The decision] provides clear guidance to all parties as to what modifications are necessary for its approval. The publisher plaintiffs are prepared to enter into a narrower Settlement along those lines to take advantage of its groundbreaking opportunities. We hope the other parties will do so as well.
Sargent concluded: Publishers are prepared to modify the Settlement Agreement to gain approval. We plan to work together with Google, the Authors Guild and others to overcome the objections raised by the Court and promote the fundamental principle behind our lawsuit, that copyrighted content cannot be used without the permission of the owner, or outside the law.
Authors Guild posted a short message: Weve just learned that Judge Chin has rejected our proposed settlement in our lawsuit against Google. In a 48-page opinion that lauds the many benefits of the settlement, the court has left the door open for a revised agreement. In his conclusion, Judge Chin says that many of the concerns raised in the objections would be ameliorated if the ASA [the Amended Settlement Agreement] were converted from an opt-out settlement to an opt-in settlement. I urge the parties to consider revising the ASA accordingly. We will have more on this for you soon. | https://authorlink.com/news-and-views/news/google-books-settlement-denied-2/ |
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Virtual event
8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m. Exhibitors
The Transition to Adulthood Program at Children’s Mercy is offering a free virtual conference to help teens, young adults and their parents/caregivers prepare for adulthood with different learning tracks for both.
Growing up and becoming young adults means taking steps to learn how to manage your life and your health. It takes preparation and self-advocacy. When you have a chronic condition, a disability or special medical needs, it becomes more complex. Come join us for a day to learn how other young adults and their parents navigated the journey. Learn new skills to manage your health, connect with community support organizations and network with others on many other important topics. And leave a better you.
Keynote speaker
Sheli Reynolds, PhD
Dr. Reynolds is the Director of Individual Advocacy at the University of Missouri, Kansas City – Institute for Human Development.
Agenda
Exhibitor resources
8 to 8:50 a.m. Connect with available exhibitors, schedule a time to meet later with a representative, ask questions, review resources
Welcome Address
9 to 9:15 a.m. Paul Kempinski, CEO Children’s Mercy
Ann Modrcin, MD – Medical Director, Transition Program
Terri Hickam MSW, CCM – Transition Program Manager
Keynote
9:15 to 10 a.m. Envisioning Your Good Life and Good Health - Sheli Reynolds, PhD, Director of Individual Advocacy UMKC – HID
Dr. Michelle C. Reynolds will share her experience as a sibling of a younger brother with a developmental disability and her knowledge of the Charting the Life Course framework to help you explore, plan and navigate your Good Life. Created by individuals with disabilities and families, the CtLC framework guides you in focusing on the current situation and stage of life and helps people look ahead to think about life experiences that will help move them toward an inclusive, productive life in the future.
Break, Networking and Exhibitors
10:05 to 10:25 a.m. Second and final opportunity to connect with available exhibitors, schedule a time to meet later with a representative, ask questions, review resources
Session 1
10:30 to 11:15 a.m.
- Adolescent/Young Adult | Skills Training – Lainie Linafelter, PharmD, Michele Maddux, PhD
This breakout session will offer hands-on practice and role play to help young adults learn essential skills for transition to adulthood. This may include reading a medication bottle, calling in medication refills, reading an insurance card, and/or scheduling an appointment with an adult doctor.
- Parent/Caregiver | Supported Decision Making and Guardianship – Terri Hickam, Jane St. John
Supported decision making is a model used to help people understand and make their own decisions as they move through life. For those unable to make their own decisions even with the help of others, going to court for guardianship may be needed. Come learn more.
- Combined | I Am Losing My Insurance – What Can I Do? – Kim Bowls and Joya Harris
This breakout session will offer information on a variety of insurance related topics. This will include How to navigate and evaluate where to look for coverage, How to Apply for Medicaid, Information on the Affordable Care Act, Coverage for Immigrant families, and much more!
Session 2
11:25 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.
- Adolescent/Young Adult | Panel discussion: Transition to College Away from Home
This panel will feature past patients of Children’s Mercy Hospital. They will give insight on their experience with transitioning in general, and their transition to college away from home!
- Parent/Caregiver | #Adulting – Teaching Life Skills Now For Transition to Adulthood Tomorrow – Katherine Hill, OTC Ability KC and Kathy Smith, MPA
In this breakout session, occupational therapist Katherine Hill and rehabilitation specialist Kathy Smith share their insights into helping yourself and your child transition to adulthood and develop critical think skills that will help them achieve their highest level of independence and quality of life.
- Combined | Panel discussion: Pediatric and Adult Providers
The panel of pediatric and adult care physicians will discuss the reason why a transition to adult care is necessary and some tips for making that transition easier and successful.
Lunch & Networking
12:20 to 1 p.m. Pick your topic:
- Preparing for College
- Young Adults Needing Supported Decision Making
- Searching for Adult Providers
- Planning for Dependent Care when Young Adults Age Out of School
Session 3
1:10 to 1:50 p.m.
- Adolescent/Young Adult | Tips on Managing Mental Health – Eric Joens, LSCSW, Psychotherapist
This breakout session will offer tips on managing mental health to adolescents and young adults both during the pandemic and through the transition process.
- Parent/Caregiver | Panel discussion: Parents: What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then
This panel will feature parents/caregivers of Children’s Mercy patients that have transitioned over to the adult care world. They will discuss what they learned during their transition journeys and how this knowledge could have better prepared them for the process.
- Combined | SSI and SSDI – How and When to Apply – Jennifer Seidel, Eitas – Benefits Specialist
This professional from Eitas will inform you of the how and whys of needing to apply for SSI or SSDI (if appropriate) as well as other tips and potential services available.
Closing Speaker
2:05 to 2:35 p.m. Courageous Leadership – Living a Life of Influence - Dan Meers (KC Wolf)
During this powerful presentation Dan Meers (the KC Wolf) shares his incredible story and the important lessons that he learned during his long road to recovery about leadership.
2:35 to 2:50 p.m. Door Prizes / Closing Remarks
Special thanks to the Walsh Family Foundation for their generous support of this conference.
Community resource information
Attached to your registration you will find a list of community agencies providing helpful information on services.
Some of these agencies will have representatives available the morning of the conference to provide an opportunity to talk directly and get more information. | https://www.childrensmercy.org/your-visit/family-support/transition-to-adulthood/conference/ |
There is a certain Amanda-ness about me. There are characteristics that make me, well, me.
If I think about what makes me, me a few facts spring to mind.
- I am taller than average.
- I have blue eyes.
- I am female.
- I am 45 (boy, that sure did sneak up on me).
Those are physical characteristics are facts about me, things I do not think anyone would argue with, but so far just these traits offer a very shallow view of who I am.
I am also an ambivert which means I can be energized by both being alone and being in groups, or not. But I wonder if that fundamental characteristic was part of the recipe that made Amanda or is it something I choose along the way?
I do not have any learning disabilities, which I am aware of, but I also have not found any remarkable innate talents.
I am reasonably intelligent; I would like to think that I am kind, hardworking, thoughtful, and helpful. I’m funny… to some people.
For a long time, I thought these attributes were baked in. That level of smarts and personality-type were all unchangeable parts of the package. Science says that is not so. When it comes to our brains, we can change just about anything. Folks that know this to be the case have a growth mindset.
Amazingly, we are much more malleable than I initially thought and we are starting to hear about this new school of thought in all facets of life.
Imagine my surprise when a meditation instructor recently told me that we are not our thoughts. That is a little mind-blowing, but it makes sense. Ideas float into our brains, and out of our minds. Thoughts impact our moods and our actions. With a little reflection, we can understand if these thoughts are helping us, or are harming us, are good for us, or bad, and we can think something else.
I know that many of us do not feel fully formed. We are on a journey trying to become better people. We are doing the hardest thing of all, changing ourselves.
It is interesting when we take it for granted that there is a certain association-ness to our association. The association must offer a conference. We must have a newsletter. We have to do this and we must continue to do that.
In reality, everything is up for discussion. I am not at all advocating for the complete destruction of everything an association does. I am just saying that anything can change. Members give us permission to add new innovations, to improve current offerings, and even to discontinue benefits that have gotten stale. Very little is sacred and while that is scary it also presents each of us an enormous opportunity.
Related: | http://www.smooththepath.net/2018/02/20/associations-way-malleable-think/ |
Bioinformaticians at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany together with colleagues from Finland and the USA, have now developed a unique method with which all metabolites in a sample can be taken into account, thus considerably increasing the knowledge gained from examining such molecules. The team reports on its successful research in the renowned scientific journal "Nature Biotechnology".
Kai Dührkop from the University of Jena presents the visualisation of a measured data set with the CANOPUS software.
Everything that lives has metabolites, produces metabolites and consumes metabolites. These molecules arise as intermediate and end products from chemical processes in an organism’s metabolism. Therefore, they not only have huge significance for our lives, but they also provide valuable information about the condition of a living being or an environment. For example, metabolites can be used to detect diseases or, in the field of environmental technology, to examine drinking water samples. However, the diversity of these chemical compounds causes difficulties in scientific research. To date, only few molecules and their properties are known. If a sample is analysed in the laboratory, only a relatively small proportion of it can be identified, while the majority of molecules remain unknown. "Mass spectrometry, one of the most widely used experimental methods for analysing metabolites, identifies only those molecules that can be uniquely assigned by matching them against a database. All other, previously unknown, molecules contained in the sample do not provide much information," explains Prof. Sebastian Böcker from the University of Jena. "With our newly developed method, called CANOPUS, however, we also obtain valuable insight from the unidentified metabolites in a sample, as we can assign them to existing compound classes." CANOPUS works in two phases: first, the method generates a ‘molecular fingerprint’ from the fragmentation spectrum measured by means of mass spectrometry. This contains information about the structural properties of the measured molecule. In the second phase, the method uses the molecular fingerprint to assign the metabolite to a specific compound class without having to identify it. "Machine learning methods usually require large amounts of data in order to be trained. In contrast, our two-stage process makes it possible in the first step to train on a comparatively small amount of data of tens of thousands of fragmentation mass spectra. Then, in the second step, the characteristic structural properties that are significant for a compound class can be determined from millions of structures," explains Dr Kai Dührkop from the University of Jena. The system therefore identifies these structural properties in an unknown molecule within a sample and then assigns it to a specific compound class. "This information alone is sufficient to answer many important questions," Böcker emphasises. "The precise identification of a metabolite would be far more complex and is often not necessary at all." The CANOPUS method uses a deep neural network predicting around 2,500 compound classes. With their method, the Jena bioinformaticians have compared, for example, the intestinal flora of mice in which one experimental group had been treated with antibiotics. The examinations show which metabolites the mouse and its intestinal flora produce. Such research results can provide important information about the human digestive and metabolic system. Through two further application examples, which they present in their study, the Jena scientists demonstrate the functionality and power of the CANOPUS method. With the new method, the bioinformaticians from Jena are expanding the possibilities of the search engine for molecular structures “CSI:FingerID”, which they have been making available to the international research community for around five years. Researchers around the world now use this service thousands of times a day to compare a mass spectrum from a sample with various online databases, in order to identify a metabolite more precisely. "We are approaching the one hundred millionth request and we are sure that CANOPUS will further increase the number of users," says Böcker. The new process strengthens the field of metabolomics – that is, research on these omnipresent small molecules – and increases its potential in many research areas, such as pharmaceuticals. Many active pharmaceutical substances in use for decades, such as penicillin, are metabolites; others could be developed with their help. | https://www.compamed-tradefair.com/en/Articles/Identifying_compound_classes_through_machine_learning |
TECHNICAL FIELD
BACKGROUND ART
PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS
Patent Documents
DISCLOSURE
Technical Problem
Technical Solution
Advantageous Effects
MODE FOR DISCLOSURE
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 1
Preparation of Compound 1-1
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 2
Preparation of Compound 1-23
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 3
Preparation of Compound 1-25
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 4
Preparation of Compound 1-71
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 5
Preparation of Compound 1-79
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 6
Preparation of Compound 1-80
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 7
Preparation of Compound 1-82
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 8
Preparation of Compound 1-83
PREPARATION EXAMPLE 9
Preparation of Compound 1-84
EXAMPLE 1
EXAMPLE 2
EXAMPLE 3
EXAMPLE 4
EXAMPLE 5
EXAMPLE 6
EXAMPLE 7
EXAMPLE 8
EXAMPLE 9
COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1
Comparative Example Compound 1
COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 2
Comparative Example Compound 2
EXPLANATION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS AND SYMBOLS
This application is a National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/KR2016/011304 filed on Oct. 10, 2016, which claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0149665, filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Oct. 27, 2015, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0067503, filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office on May 31, 2016, all of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
The present specification relates to a novel compound, and a color conversion film, a backlight unit and a display apparatus including the same.
Existing light emitting diodes (LED) are obtained by mixing a green phosphorescent substance and a red phosphorescent substance to a blue light emitting diode, or mixing a yellow phosphorescent substance and a blue-green phosphorescent substance to a UV light emitting diode. However, with such a method, it is difficult to control colors, and therefore, color rendering is not favorable. Accordingly, color gamut declines.
In order to overcome such color gamut decline and reduce production costs, methods of obtaining green and red in a manner of filming quantum dots and binding the dots to a blue LED have been recently tried. However, cadmium series quantum dots have safety problems, and other quantum dots have significantly decreased efficiency compared to cadmium series quantum dots. In addition, quantum dots have reduced stability for oxygen and water, and have a disadvantage in that the performance is significantly degraded when aggregated. Furthermore, unit costs of production are high since, when producing quantum dots, maintaining the sizes is difficult.
Korean Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-0011622
The present specification provides a novel compound, and a color conversion film, a backlight unit and a display apparatus including the same.
One embodiment of the present specification provides a compound represented by the following Chemical Formula 1.
In Chemical Formula 1,
X1 and X2 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a halogen group; a nitrile group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; —O(C═O)R; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkynyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group,
R is a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group,
at least one of R1 to R6 is represented by the following Chemical Formula 2, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently a group represented by the following Chemical Formula 3; hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; a hydroxyl group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an ether group; an ester group; an imide group; an amide group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group,
r
R7 is represented by -(L)-A,
L is a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene group,
A is a group represented by the following Chemical Formula 3; hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; a hydroxyl group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an ether group; an ester group; an imide group; an amide group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group,
r is an integer of 1 to 10,
when r is 2 or greater, 2 or more Ls are the same as or different from each other,
in Chemical Formula 2,
L1 is represented by any one of the following Chemical Formulae 4 to 6,
L2 is a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene group,
Ar1 is represented by the following Chemical Formula 3,
m is an integer of 1 to 5,
n is an integer of 1 to 3,
when m and n are each 2 or greater, the 2 or more structures in the parentheses are the same as or different from each other,
is a site bonding to at least one of R1 to R6 of Chemical Formula 1,
in Chemical Formula 3,
at least one of Q1 to Q6 is a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2, or a site bonding to any one of R1 to R7 of Chemical Formula 1, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; a hydroxyl group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an ether group; an ester group; an imide group; an amide group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, or adjacent groups bond to each other to form a substituted or unsubstituted ring,
in Chemical Formulae 4 to 6,
* is a site bonding to at least one of R1 to R6 of Chemical Formula 1, or a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2,
G1 to G6 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene group, and
M1 is hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; a hydroxyl group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an ether group; an ester group; an imide group; an amide group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group.
Another embodiment of the present specification provides a color conversion film including a resin matrix; and the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 dispersed into the resin matrix.
Still another embodiment of the present specification provides a backlight unit including the color conversion film.
Yet another embodiment of the present specification provides a display apparatus including the backlight unit.
Metal complexes according to one embodiment of the present specification, that is, compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1, are stable for water or oxygen as well as having high fluorescence efficiency, and have low unit costs of production compared to quantum dots. Accordingly, by using compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1 described in the present specification as a fluorescent material of a color conversion film, a color conversion film having excellent luminance and color gamut, and with simple manufacturing process and low manufacturing costs can be provided.
Hereinafter, the present specification will be described in more detail.
A color conversion film according to one embodiment of the present specification provides a compound represented by Chemical Formula 1.
In the present specification, a certain part “including” certain constituents means capable of further including other constituents, and does not exclude other constituents unless particularly stated on the contrary.
In the present specification, one member being placed “on” another member includes not only a case of the one member adjoining the another member but a case of still another member being present between the two members.
Examples of the substituents in the present specification are described below, however, the substituents are not limited thereto.
The term “substitution” means a hydrogen atom bonding to a carbon atom of a compound is changed to another substituent, and the position of substitution is not limited as long as it is a position at which the hydrogen atom is substituted, that is, a position at which a substituent can substitute, and when two or more substituents substitute, the two or more substituents may be the same as or different from each other.
The term “substituted or unsubstituted” in the present specification means being substituted with one, two or more substituents selected from the group consisting of deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; an imide group; an amide group; a carbonyl group; an ester group; an ether group; a hydroxyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted coumarine group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; and a substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclic group, or being substituted with a substituent linking two or more substituents among the substituents illustrated above, or having no substituents. For example, “a substituent linking two or more substituents” may include a biphenyl group. In other words, a biphenyl group may be an aryl group, or interpreted as a substituent linking two phenyl groups.
In the present specification,
means a site bonding to other substituents or bonding sites.
In the present specification, the halogen group may include fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine.
In the present specification, the number of carbon atoms of the imide group is not particularly limited, but is preferably from 1 to 30. Specifically, compounds having structures as below may be included, but the imide group is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, in the amide group, the nitrogen of the amide group may be substituted with hydrogen, a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 30 carbon atoms or an aryl group having 6 to 30 carbon atoms. Specifically, compounds having the following structural formulae may be included, but the amide group is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the number of carbon atoms of the carbonyl group is not particularly limited, but is preferably from 1 to 30. Specifically, compounds having structures as below may be included, but the carbonyl group is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, in the ester group, the oxygen of the ester group may be substituted with a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 25 carbon atoms or an aryl group having 6 to 30 carbon atoms. Specifically, compounds having the following structural formulae may be included, but the ester group is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, in the ether group, the oxygen of the ether group may be substituted with a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 25 carbon atoms or an aryl group having 6 to 30 carbon atoms. Specifically, compounds having the following structural formulae may be included, but the ether group is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, in the coumarine group, the carbon of the coumarine group may be substituted with a halogen group, a nitrile group, a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 25 carbon atoms; an amine group; a linear or branched alkoxy group having 1 to 25 carbon atoms; or an aryl group having 6 to 30 carbon atoms. Specifically, compounds having the following structural formulae may be included, but the coumarine group is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the alkyl group may be linear or branched, and the number of carbon atoms is not particularly limited, but is preferably from 1 to 30. Specific examples thereof may include methyl, ethyl, propyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, butyl, n-butyl, isobutyl, tert-butyl, sec-butyl, 1-methyl-butyl, 1-ethyl-butyl, pentyl, n-pentyl, isopentyl, neopentyl, tert-pentyl, hexyl, n-hexyl, 1-methylpentyl, 2-methylpentyl, 4-methyl-2-pentyl, 3,3-dimethylbutyl, 2-ethylbutyl, heptyl, n-heptyl, 1-methylhexyl, cyclopentylmethyl, cyclohexylmethyl, octyl, n-octyl, tert-octyl, 1-methylheptyl, 2-ethylhexyl, 2-propylpentyl, n-nonyl, 2,2-dimethylheptyl, 1-ethyl-propyl, 1,1-dimethyl-propyl, isohexyl, 2-methylpentyl, 4-methylhexyl, 5-methylhexyl and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the cycloalkyl group is not particularly limited, but preferably has 3 to 30 carbon atoms, and specific examples thereof may include cyclopropyl, cyclobutyl, cyclopentyl, 3-methylcyclopentyl, 2,3-dimethylcyclopentyl, cyclohexyl, 3-methylcyclohexyl, 4-methylcyclohexyl, 2,3-dimethylcyclohexyl, 3,4,5-trimethylcyclohexyl, 4-tert-butylcyclohexyl, cycloheptyl, cyclooctyl and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the alkoxy group may be linear, branched or cyclic. The number of carbon atoms of the alkoxy group is not particularly limited, but is preferably from 1 to 30. Specific examples thereof may include methoxy, ethoxy, n-propoxy, isopropoxy, i-propyloxy, n-butoxy, isobutoxy, tert-butoxy, sec-butoxy, n-pentyloxy, neopentyloxy, isopentyloxy, n-hexyloxy, 3,3-dimethylbutyloxy, 2-ethylbutyloxy, n-octyloxy, n-nonyloxy, n-decyloxy, benxyloxy, p-methylbenxyloxy and the like, but are not limited thereto.
2
In the present specification, the amine group may be selected from the group consisting of —NH; a monoalkylamine group; a dialkylamine group; an N-alkylarylamine group; a monoarylamine group; a diarylamine group; an N-arylheteroarylamine group; an N-alkylheteroarylamine group, a monoheteroarylamine group and a diheteroarylamine group, and the number of carbon atoms is, although not particularly limited thereto, preferably from 1 to 30. Specific examples of the amine group may include a methylamine group, a dimethylamine group, an ethylamine group, a diethylamine group, a phenylamine group, a naphthylamine group, a biphenylamine group, an anthracenylamine group, a 9-methyl-anthracenylamine group, a diphenylamine group, a ditolylamine group, an N-phenyltolylamine group, a triphenylamine group, an N-phenylbiphenylamine group; an N-phenylnaphthylamine group; an N-biphenylnaphthylamine group; an N-naphthylfluorenylamine group; an N-phenylphenanthrenylamine group; an N-biphenylphenanthrenylamine group; an N-phenylfluorenylamine group; an N-phenylterphenylamine group; an N-phenanthrenylfluorenylamine group; an N-biphenylfluorenylamine group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the N-alkylarylamine group means an amine group in which N of the amine group is substituted with an alkyl group and an aryl group.
In the present specification, the N-arylheteroarylamine group means an amine group in which N of the amine group is substituted with an aryl group and a heteroaryl group.
In the present specification, the N-alkylheteroarylamine group means an amine group in which N of the amine group is substituted with an alkyl group and a heteroaryl group. In the present specification, the alkyl group in the alkylamine group, the N-arylalkylamine group, the alkylthioxy group, the alkylsulfoxy group and the N-alkylheteroarylamine group is the same as the examples of the alkyl group described above. Specifically, the alkylthioxy group may include a methylthioxy group, an ethylthioxy group, a tert-butylthioxy group, a hexylthioxy group, an octylthioxy group and the like, and the alkylsulfoxy group may include mesyl, an ethylsulfoxy group, a propylsulfoxy group, a butylsulfoxy group and the like, however, the examples are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the alkenyl group may be linear or branched, and although not particularly limited thereto, the number of carbon atoms is preferably from 2 to 30. Specific examples thereof may include vinyl, 1-propenyl, isopropenyl, 1-butenyl, 2-butenyl, 3-butenyl, 1-pentenyl, 2-pentenyl, 3-pentenyl, 3-methyl-1-butenyl, 1,3-butadienyl, allyl, 1-phenylvinyl-1-yl, 2-phenylvinyl-1-yl, 2,2-diphenylvinyl-1-yl, 2-phenyl-2-(naphthyl-1-yl)vinyl-1-yl, 2,2-bis(diphenyl-1-yl)vinyl-1-yl, a stilbenyl group, a styrenyl group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, specific examples of the silyl group may include a trimethylsilyl group, a triethylsilyl group, a t-butyldimethylsilyl group, a vinyldimethylsilyl group, a propyldimethylsilyl group, a triphenylsilyl group, a diphenylsilyl group, a phenylsilyl group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
100
101
100
101
In the present specification, the boron group may be —BRR, and Rand Rare the same as or different from each other and may be each independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a substituted or unsubstituted monocyclic or multicyclic cycloalkyl group having 3 to 30 carbon atoms; a substituted or unsubstituted linear or branched alkyl group having 1 to 30 carbon atoms; a substituted or unsubstituted monocyclic or multicyclic aryl group having 6 to 30 carbon atoms; and a substituted or unsubstituted monocyclic or multicyclic heteroaryl group having 2 to 30 carbon atoms.
In the present specification, specific examples of the phosphine oxide group may include a diphenylphosphine oxide group, a dinaphthylphosphine oxide group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the aryl group is not particularly limited, but preferably has 6 to 30 carbon atoms, and the aryl group may be monocyclic or multicyclic.
When the aryl group is a monocyclic aryl group, the number of carbon atoms is not particularly limited, but is preferably from 6 to 30. Specific examples of the monocyclic aryl group may include a phenyl group, a biphenyl group, a terphenyl group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
When the aryl group is a multicyclic aryl group, the number of carbon atoms is not particularly limited, but is preferably from 10 to 30. Specific examples of the multicyclic aryl group may include a naphthyl group, an anthracenyl group, a phenanthryl group, a triphenyl group, a pyrenyl group, a perylenyl group, a chrysenyl group, a fluorenyl group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, the fluorenyl group may be substituted, and adjacent groups may bond to each other to form a ring.
When the fluorenyl group is substituted,
and the like may be included. However, the compound is not limited thereto.
In the present specification, an “adjacent” group may mean a substituent substituting an atom directly linking to an atom substituted by the corresponding substituent, a substituent sterically most closely positioned to the corresponding substituent, or another substituent substituting an atom substituted by the corresponding substituent. For example, two substituents substituting ortho positions in a benzene ring, and two substituents substituting the same carbon in an aliphatic ring may be interpreted as groups “adjacent” to each other.
In the present specification, the aryl group in the aryloxy group, the arylthioxy group, the arylsulfoxy group, the N-alkylarylamine group, the N-arylheteroarylamine group and the arylphosphine group may be same as the examples of the aryl group described above. Specific examples of the aryloxy group may include a phenoxy group, a p-tolyloxy group, a m-tolyloxy group, a 3,5-dimethyl-phenoxy group, a 2,4,6-trimethylphenoxy group, a p-tert-butylphenoxy group, a 3-biphenyloxy group, a 4-biphenyloxy group, a 1-naphthyloxy group, a 2-naphthyloxy group, a 4-methyl-1-naphthyloxy group, a 5-methyl-2-naphthyloxy group, a 1-anthryloxy group, a 2-anthryloxy group, a 9-anthryloxy group, a 1-phenanthryloxy group, a 3-phenanthryloxy group, a 9-phenanthryloxy group and the like, and specific examples of the arylthioxy group may include a phenylthioxy group, a 2-methylphenylthioxy group, a 4-tert-butylphenylthioxy group and the like, and specific examples of the arylsulfoxy group may include a benzenesulfoxy group, a p-toluenesulfoxy group and the like, however, the examples are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, examples of the arylamine group may include a substituted or unsubstituted monoarylamine group, a substituted or unsubstituted diarylamine group, or a substituted or unsubstituted triarylamine group. The aryl group in the arylamine group may be a monocyclic aryl group or a multicyclic aryl group. The arylamine group including two or more aryl groups may include monocyclic aryl groups, multicyclic aryl groups, or both monocyclic aryl groups and multicyclic aryl groups. For example, the aryl group in the arylamine group may be selected from the examples of the aryl group described above.
In the present specification, the heteroaryl group is a group including one or more atoms that are not carbon, that is, heteroatoms, and specifically, the heteroatom may include one or more atoms selected from the group consisting of O, N, Se, S and the like. The number of carbon atoms is not particularly limited, but is favorably from 2 to 30, and the heteroaryl group may be monocyclic or multicyclic. Examples of the heterocyclic group may include a thiophene group, a furanyl group, a pyrrole group, an imidazolyl group, a thiazolyl group, an oxazolyl group, an oxadiazolyl group, a pyridyl group, a bipyridyl group, a pyrimidyl group, triazinyl group, a triazolyl group, an acridyl group, a pyridazinyl group, a pyrazinyl group, a qinolinyl group, a quinazolinyl group, a quinoxalinyl group, a phthalazinyl group, a pyridopyrimidyl group, a pyridopyrazinyl group, a pyrazinopyrazinyl group, an isoquinolinyl group, an indolyl group, a carbazolyl group, a benzoxazolyl group, a benzimidazolyl group, a benzothiazolyl group, a benzocarbazolyl group, a benzothiophene group, a dibenzothiophene group, a benzofuranyl group, a phenanthrolinyl group, an isoxazolyl group, a thiadiazolyl group, a phenothiazinyl group, a dibenzofuranyl group and the like, but are not limited thereto.
In the present specification, examples of the heteroarylamine group may include a substituted or unsubstituted monoheteroarylamine group, a substituted or unsubstituted diheteroarylamine group, or a substituted or unsubstituted triheteroarylamine group. The heteroarylamine group including two or more heteroaryl groups may include monocyclic heteroaryl groups, multicyclic heteroaryl groups, or both monocyclic heteroaryl groups and multicyclic heteroaryl groups. For example, the heteroaryl group in the heteroarylamine group may be selected from the examples of the heteroraryl group described above.
In the present specification, examples of the heteroaryl group in the N-arylheteroarylamine group and the N-alkylheteroarylamine group are the same as the examples of the heteroaryl group described above.
In the present specification, in the substituted or unsubstituted ring formed by adjacent groups bonding to each other, the “ring” means a substituted or unsubstituted hydrocarbon ring; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroring.
In the present specification, the hydrocarbon ring may be aromatic, aliphatic or a fused ring of aromatic and aliphatic, and may be selected from the examples of the cycloalkyl group or the aryl group except for those that are not monovalent.
In the present specification, the aromatic ring may be monocyclic or multicyclic, and may be selected from the examples of the aryl group except for those that are not monovalent.
In the present specification, the heteroring is a ring including one or more atoms that are not carbon, that is, heteroatoms, and specifically, the heteroatom may include one or more atoms selected from the group consisting of O, N, Se, S and the like. The heteroring may be monocyclic or multicyclic, may be aromatic, aliphatic or a fused ring of aromatic and aliphatic, and may be selected from the examples of the heteroaryl group except for those that are not monovalent.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, at least one of R2 and R5 is represented by Chemical Formula 2.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, R2 is represented by Chemical Formula 2.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, R5 is represented by Chemical Formula 2.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, R2 and R5 are represented by Chemical Formula 2.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, Chemical Formula 1 is represented by the following Chemical Formula 1-1 or 1-2.
In Chemical Formulae 1-1 and 1-2,
definitions of R1 to R7, and X1 and X2 are the same as in Chemical Formula 1,
definitions of L1, L2, m and n are the same as in Chemical Formula 2,
Q11 and Q12 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; a hydroxyl group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an ether group; an ester group; an imide group; an amide group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, or adjacent groups bond to each other to form a substituted or unsubstituted ring,
L11 is represented by any one of Chemical Formulae 4 to 6,
L12 is a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene group,
q11, q12 and m1 are each an integer of 1 to 5,
n1 is an integer of 1 to 3, and
when q11, q12, m1 and n1 are each 2 or greater, the 2 or more structures in the parentheses are the same as or different from each other.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, Chemical Formula 1 is represented by any one of the following Chemical Formulae 1-3 to 1-8.
In Chemical Formulae 1-3 to 1-8,
definitions of R1 to R7, and X1 and X2 are the same as in Chemical Formula 1,
definitions of L1, L2, m and n are the same as in Chemical Formula 2,
definitions of G1 and G2 are the same as in Chemical Formula 4,
definitions of G3 and G4 are the same as in Chemical Formula 5,
definitions of G5 and G6 are the same as in Chemical Formula 6,
Q11 and Q12 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently hydrogen; deuterium; a halogen group; a nitrile group; a nitro group; a hydroxyl group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an ether group; an ester group; an imide group; an amide group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted cycloalkyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryloxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylthioxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfoxy group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkenyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted silyl group; a substituted or unsubstituted boron group; a substituted or unsubstituted amine group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylphosphine group; a substituted or unsubstituted phosphine oxide group; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, or adjacent groups bond to each other to form a substituted or unsubstituted ring,
L11 is represented by any one of Chemical Formulae 4 to 6,
L12, and G11 to G16 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group; a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group; or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene group,
q11, q12 and m1 are each an integer of 1 to 5,
n1 is an integer of 1 to 3, and
when q11, q12, m1 and n1 are each 2 or greater, the 2 or more structures in the parentheses are the same as or different from each other.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, X1 and X2 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a halogen group; a nitrile group; a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group; —O(C═O)R; a substituted or unsubstituted alkynyl group; or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, X1 and X2 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a halogen group; a nitrile group; an alkoxy group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; —O(C═O)R; an alkynyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a silyl group substituted with an alkyl group, an aryl group unsubstituted or substituted with an alkyl group, the group represented by Chemical Formula 3 or a heteroaryl group; or an aryl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, an aryl group or a heteroaryl group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, X1 and X2 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a halogen group; a nitrile group; a methoxy group; an n-butoxy group substituted with a halogen group; —O(C═O)R; an ethynyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a silyl group substituted with an alkyl group, an aryl group unsubstituted or substituted with an alkyl group, the group represented by Chemical Formula 3 or a heteroaryl group; a phenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, an aryl group or a heteroaryl group; or a fluorenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with an alkyl group.
According to another embodiment of the present specification, R is a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group.
According to another embodiment of the present specification, R is an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group.
According to another embodiment of the present specification, R is a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group.
3
3
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, X1 and X2 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently fluorine; a nitrile group; a methoxy group; an n-butoxy group substituted with fluorine; —O(C═O)CH; —O(C═O)CF; an ethynyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a silyl group substituted with a methyl group, a silyl group substituted with an isopropyl group, a phenyl group substituted with a t-butyl group, a pyrenyl group, a coumarine group or a dibenzofuran group; a phenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with fluorine, a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with fluorine, a t-butyl group, a naphthyl group or a carbazolyl group; or a fluorenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a methyl group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, L is a direct bond; —O—; an alkylene group; an arylene group; or a heteroarylene group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, L is a direct bond; —O—; a methylene group; an ethylene group; an n-propylene group; an n-butylene group; a phenylene group; a biphenylylene group; a terphenylene group or a triazolylene group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, A is a halogen group; a nitrile group; an ester group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; an alkoxy group; or the group represented by Chemical Formula 3.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, A is fluorine; a nitrile group; an alkylester group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with fluorine; an alkoxy group; or the group represented by Chemical Formula 3.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, A is fluorine; a nitrile group; a methylester group; a carboxyl group (—COOH); a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with fluorine; a t-butyl group; a methoxy group; a hexyloxy group, a coumarine group; or a coumarine group substituted with a methyl group substituted with fluorine.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, at least one of R1 to R6 is represented by Chemical Formula 2, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; an aryl group unsubstituted or substituted with one or more selected from the group consisting of a halogen group, an alkyl group substituted with an aryl group, an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, the group represented by Chemical Formula 3, an alkoxy group, an aryl group, and a heteroaryl group unsubstituted or substituted with an aryl group; a heteroaryl group unsubstituted or substituted with an aryl group; or the group represented by Chemical Formula 3.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, at least one of R1 to R6 is represented by Chemical Formula 2, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; a phenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with one or more selected from the group consisting of a halogen group, an alkyl group substituted with an aryl group, an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, the group represented by Chemical Formula 3, an alkoxy group, an aryl group, and a heteroaryl group unsubstituted or substituted with an aryl group; a naphthyl group; a pyrenyl group; a fluorenyl group substituted with an alkyl group; a carbazolyl group unsubstituted or substituted with an aryl group; a dibenzofuran group; or a coumarine group unsubstituted or substituted with an alkylamine group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, at least one of R1 to R6 is represented by Chemical Formula 2, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; a phenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with one or more selected from the group consisting of a halogen group, an alkyl group substituted with an aryl group, an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group, the group represented by Chemical Formula 3, an alkoxy group, an aryl group, and a heteroaryl group unsubstituted or substituted with an aryl group; a naphthyl group; a pyrenyl group; a fluorenyl group substituted with an alkyl group; a carbazolyl group unsubstituted or substituted with an aryl group; a dibenzofuran group; or a coumarine group unsubstituted or substituted with an alkylamine group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 1, at least one of R1 to R6 is represented by Chemical Formula 2, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with fluorine; a phenyl group unsubstituted or substituted with one or more selected from the group consisting of fluorine, a t-butyl group, a methyl group substituted with a phenyl group, a methyl group substituted with fluorine, a methoxy group, a triazinyl group substituted with a phenyl group and a coumarine group; a naphthyl group; a pyrenyl group; a fluorenyl group substituted with a methyl group; a carbazolyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a phenyl group; a coumarine group unsubstituted or substituted with a dibenzofuran group or a diethylamine group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 2, L2 is a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; an alkylene group; an arylene group; or a heteroarylene group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 2, L2 is a direct bond; —O—; —N(H)—; —OC(═O)—; a methylene group; an ethylene group; an n-propylene group; an isopropylene group; an n-butylene group; a t-butylene group; a hexylene group; a phenylene group; or a triazolylene group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formulae 4 to 6, G1 to G6 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a direct bond; or an alkylene group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formulae 4 to 6, G1 to G6 are the same as or different from each other, and each independently a direct bond; a methylene group; or an ethylene group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 3, any one of Q1 to Q6 is a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2, or a site bonding to any one of R1 to R7 of Chemical Formula 1, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; a halogen group; an alkyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; or a dialkylamine group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 3, any one of Q1 to Q6 is a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2, or a site bonding to any one of R1 to R7 of Chemical Formula 1, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; a halogen group; a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with a halogen group; an ethyl group; a methoxy group; or a diethylamine group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 3, any one of Q1 to Q6 is a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2, or a site bonding to any one of R1 to R7 of Chemical Formula 1, and the rest are the same as or different from each other and each independently hydrogen; chlorine; a methyl group unsubstituted or substituted with fluorine; an ethyl group; a methoxy group; or a diethylamine group.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 3, any one of Q1 to Q6 is a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2, or a site bonding to any one of R1 to R7 of Chemical Formula 1, and adjacent two or more groups of the rest bond to each other to form a substituted or unsubstituted heteroring.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 3, any one of Q1 to Q6 is a site bonding to L2 of Chemical Formula 2, or a site bonding to any one of R1 to R7 of Chemical Formula 1, and adjacent two or more groups of the rest bond to each other to form a hexahydroquinolizine ring.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, in Chemical Formula 3, Q2, Q3 and Q4 bond to each other to form a hexahydroquinolizine ring.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 has a maximum light emission peak present in 500 nm to 550 nm in a film state. Such a compound emits green light.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 has a maximum light emission peak present in 500 nm to 550 nm in a film state, and the light emission peak has a full width at half maximum of 50 nm or less. Having such a small full width at half maximum may further increase color gamut. Herein, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 favorably has a light emission peak with a smaller full width at half maximum.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 has a maximum light emission peak present in 600 nm to 650 nm in a film state. Such a compound emits red light.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 has a maximum light emission peak present in 600 nm to 650 nm in a film state, and the light emission peak has a full width at half maximum of 60 nm or less. Having such a small full width at half maximum may further increase color gamut. Herein, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 may have a light emission peak with a full width at half maximum of 5 nm or greater.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 has quantum efficiency of 0.8 or greater.
In the present specification, the “film state” means, instead of a solution state, a state prepared to a film form with the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 alone or by mixing the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 with other components that do not affect full width at half maximum and quantum efficiency measurements.
In the present specification, the full width at half maximum means a width of a light emission peak at a half of the maximum height in a maximum light emission peak of the light emitting from the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1.
In the present specification, the quantum efficiency may be measured using methods known in the art, and for example, may be measured using an integrating sphere.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, Chemical Formula 1 is selected from among the following compounds.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the core of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 may be prepared using general preparation methods of General Formulae 1 and 2 as follows, but the method is not limited thereto.
In General Formula 1, G′1 and G′11 have the same definitions as G1 described above, and R7, L2, Ar1, L12, Ar11, n, n1, m, m1, X1 and X2 has the same definitions as described above. For example, in a structure linking a coumarine group to both sides of the boron-dipyrromethene(BODIPY) through an ester or amide bond in General Formula 1, the structure may be prepared by introducing a coumarine group to pyrrole having a carboxyl group through an ester or amide bond, and then forming a boron-dipyrromethene(BODIPY) skeleton. The result may be additionally substituted with a fluoro group of boron.
In General Formula 2, G′1 has the same definition as G1, R′1 has the same definition as R1 described above, and R7, L2, Ar1, n, m, X1 and X2 have the same definition as described above. For example, in an asymmetric structure in General Formula 2, a boron-dipyrromethene(BODIPY) skeleton is formed pyrrole and aldehyde, and then aldehyde is introduced, and halogen is introduced using N-Iodosuccinimide(NIS). Aryl and heteroaryl groups are introduced through Suzuki coupling, and then the result is oxidized to make carboxylic acid. After introducing a coumarine derivative through ester and amide bonds, the fluoro group of boron is substituted with other functional groups as necessary.
One embodiment of the present specification provides a color conversion film including a resin matrix; and the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 dispersed into the resin matrix.
The content of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 in the color conversion film may be in a range of 0.001% by weight to 10% by weight.
The color conversion film may include one type of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1, or may include two or more types thereof. For example, the color conversion film may include one type of compound emitting green light among the compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1. As another example, the color conversion film may include one type of compound emitting red light among the compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1. As still another example, the color conversion film may include one type of compound emitting green light and one type of compound emitting red light among the compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1.
The color conversion film may further include additional fluorescent substances in addition to the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1. When using a light source emitting blue light, the color conversion film preferably includes both a green light emitting fluorescent substance and a red light emitting fluorescent substance. In addition, when using a light source emitting blue light and green light, the color conversion film may only include a red light emitting fluorescent substance. However, the color conversion film is not limited thereto, and even when using a light source emitting blue light, the color conversion film may only include a red light emitting compound when a separate film including a green light emitting fluorescent substance is laminated. On the other hand, even when using a light source emitting blue light, the color conversion film may only include a green light emitting compound when a separate film including a red light emitting fluorescent substance is laminated.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the color conversion film has a haze value of 50% to 95%, and preferably 65% to 85%. When the color conversion film has a haze value in the above-mentioned range, color conversion efficiency of the color conversion film may be enhanced.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the color conversion film further includes one or more fine particles formed with one or more of organic substances and inorganic substances.
The fine particles are covered with materials suppressing the quenching of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1.
x
x
x
y
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
The inorganic fine particles include inorganic oxides, inorganic nitrides or inorganic acid nitrides. Specifically, the fine particles may be one or more selected from the group consisting of SiO, SiN, SiON, AlO, TiO, TaO, ZnO, ZrO, CeOand ZrSiO(in the formulae, x is from 0.1 to 2, and y is from 0.5 to 1.3), and among these, TiO, ZnO, ZrOand CeOare preferable.
On the surface of the fine particles, a covering layer suppressing the quenching of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 may be formed. Examples of the covering layer suppressing the quenching of fluorescent substances may include those preventing destruction of coloring or binder resins caused by fine particles having a photocatalysis function, or those insulating fine particles having semiconductor properties. Examples of materials forming such a covering layer include alumina, zirconia, silica, zirconia silicate, alumina silicate, borosilicate glass and the like.
In addition, the fine particles may be a hollow body. When using hollow fine particles, a refractive index between the air (hollow portion) and the resin matrix is large (with respect to 1.0, a refractive index of the air, the resin matrix has 1.5 to 1.6), and light scattering effect is large. In addition, it is preferable since oxygen in the air sometimes suppresses deterioration of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1.
2
2
2
Among the fine particles, fine particles having a high refractive index or fine particles having a low refractive index, and specifically, fine particles having a refractive index of 2.0 to 2.8 or 1.0 to 1.2 are preferable. Using such fine particles may lengthen a light path of light coming from a light source in the color conversion film, and the color conversion film may efficiently absorb light coming from the light source. In addition, the color conversion film may scatter converted light and enhance extraction efficiency. Accordingly, conversion efficiency of the color conversion film may be enhanced. Examples of such fine particles may include TiOfine particles (refractive index=2.7), ZnO (refractive index=2.0), CeO(refractive index=2.4), ZrO(refractive index=2.2), hollow silica, hollow glass and the like.
A first average particle diameter of the fine particles is not particularly limited as long as the haze value is in the above-mentioned range, but may be from 1 nm to 500 nm, is preferably greater than or equal to 1 nm and less than 100 nm, and is particularly preferably greater than or equal to 5 nm and less than 80 nm. The particle diameter being 500 nm or greater may cause concerns such that the fine particles may not be uniformly dispersed into the color conversion film, uniform light emission may not be obtained, or highly fine patterning using photolitho and the like may not be achieved. The particle diameter being less than 1 nm may cause concerns such that sufficient light scattering is not obtained. Meanwhile, the fine particles may aggregate and sometimes have diameters of 100 nm or greater in the color conversion film, however, there are no problems as long as the first average particle diameter is greater than or equal to 1 nm and less than 100 nm.
In addition, the added amount of the fine particles in the color conversion film is not particularly limited as long as the haze value is in the above-mentioned range, but is normally preferably from 1% by weight to 75% by weight with respect to the total weight of the color conversion film, and particularly preferably greater than or equal to 10% by weight and less than or equal to 50% by weight. Adding in less than 1% by weight may cause concerns such that sufficient light scattering may not occur, and adding in greater than 75% by weight may cause concerns such that the color conversion film is mechanically embrittled.
Meanwhile, the fine particles of organic substances or inorganic substances may be used either alone as one type, or as a mixture of two or more types.
The color conversion film may further include a resin matrix; and an additional layer including a compound dispersed into the resin matrix and emitting light in a wavelength different from the wavelength of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1. The compound emitting light in a wavelength different from the wavelength of the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 may also be the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1, or may be other known fluorescent materials.
The resin matrix material is preferably a theuttoplastic polymer or a themocurable polymer. Specifically, a poly(meth)acryl-based such as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), a polycarbonate (PC)-based, a polystyrene (PS)-based, a polyarylene (PAR)-based, a polyurethane (TPU)-based, a styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN)-based, a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based, a modified polyvinylidene fluoride (modified-PVDF)-based and the like may be used as the resin matrix material.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the color conversion film according to the embodiments described above additionally includes light diffusing particles. By dispersing light diffusing particles instead of a light diffusing film used in the art into the color conversion film for enhancing luminance, higher luminance may be exhibited compared to using a separate light diffusing film, and an adhering process may be skipped as well.
2
As the light diffusing particles, particles having a high refractive index with a resin matrix may be used, and examples thereof may include TiO, silica, borosilicate, alumina, sapphire, air or other gases, air- or gas-filled hollow beads or particles (for example, air/gas-filled glass or polymers); polystyrene, polycarbonate, polymethyl methacrylate, acryl, methyl methacrylate, styrene, melamine resin, formaldehyde resin, or polymer particles including melamine and formaldehyde resins, or any suitable combination thereof.
The light diffusing particles may have particle diameters in a range of 0.1 μm to 5 μm, for example, in a range of 0.3 μm to 1 μm. The content of the light diffusing particles may be determined as necessary, and for example, may be in a range of approximately 1 part by weight to 30 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the resin matrix.
The color conversion film according to the embodiments described above may have a thickness of 2 μm to 200 μm. Particularly, the color conversion film may exhibit high luminance even with a small thickness of 2 micrometers to 20 micrometers. This is due to the fact that the content of the fluorescent substance molecules included in the unit volume is higher compared to quantum dots.
The color conversion film according to the embodiments described above may have a substrate provided on one surface. This substrate may function as a support when preparing the color conversion film. Types of the substrate are not particularly limited, and the material or thickness is not limited as long as it is transparent and is capable of functioning as the support. Herein, transparency means having visible light transmittance of 70% or higher. For example, a PET film may be used as the substrate.
The color conversion film described above may be prepared by coating a resin solution in which the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 described above is dissolved on a substrate and drying the result, or by extruding and filming the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 described above together with a resin.
The compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is dissolved in the resin solution, and therefore, the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is uniformly distributed in the solution. This is different from a quantum dot film preparation process that requires a separate dispersion process.
As for the resin solution in which the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is dissolved, the preparation method is not particularly limited as long as the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 and the resin described above are dissolved in the solution.
According to one example, the resin solution in which the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is dissolved may be prepared using a method of preparing a first solution by dissolving the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 in a solvent, preparing a second solution by dissolving a resin in a solvent, and mixing the first solution and the second solution. When mixing the first solution and the second solution, it is preferable that these be uniformly mixed. However, the method is not limited thereto, and a method of simultaneously adding and dissolving the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 and a resin in a solvent, a method of dissolving the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 in a solvent and subsequently adding and dissolving a resin, a method of dissolving a resin in a solvent and then subsequently adding and dissolving the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1, and the like, may be used.
As the resin included in the solution, the resin matrix material described above, a monomer curable to this resin matrix resin, or a mixture thereof, may be used. For example, the monomer curable to the resin matrix resin includes a (meth)acryl-based monomer, and this may be formed to a resin matrix material by UV curing. When using such a curable monomer, an initiator required for curing may be further added as necessary.
The solvent is not particularly limited as long as it is capable of being removed by drying afterword while having no adverse effects on the coating process. Non-limiting examples of the solvent may include toluene, xylene, acetone, chloroform, various alcohol-based solvents, methylethyl ketone (MEK), methylisobutyl ketone (MIBK), ethyl acetate (EA), butyl acetate, dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylacetamide (DMAc), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP) and the like, and one type or a mixture of two or more types may be used. When the first solution and the second solution are used, solvents included in each of the solutions may be the same as or different from each other. Even when different types of solvents are used in the first solution and the second solution, these solvents preferably has compatibility so as to be mixed with each other.
The process of coating the resin solution in which the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is dissolved on a substrate may use a roll-to-roll process. For example, a process of unwinding a substrate from a substrate-wound roll, coating the resin solution in which the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is dissolved on one surface of the substrate, drying the result, and then winding the result again on the roll may be used. When a roll-to-roll process is used, viscosity of the resin solution is preferably determined in a range capable of carrying out the process, and for example, may be determined in a range of 200 cps to 2,000 cps.
As the coating method, various known methods may be used, and for example, a die coater may be used, or various bar coating methods such as a comma coater and a reverse comma coater may be used.
After the coating, a drying process is carried out. The drying process may be carried out under a condition required to remove a solvent. For example, a color conversion film including a fluorescent substance including the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 having target thickness and concentration may be obtained on a substrate by carrying out the drying in an oven located close to a coater under a condition to sufficiently evaporate a solvent, in a direction of the substrate progressing during the coating process.
When a monomer curable to the resin matrix resin is used as the resin included in the solution, curing, for example, UV curing, may be carried out prior to or at the same time as the drying.
When the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 is filmed by being extruded with a resin, extrusion methods known in the art may be used, and for example, the color conversion film may be prepared by extruding the compound represented by Chemical Formula 1 with a resin such as a polycarbonate (PC)-based, a poly(meth)acryl-based and a styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN)-based.
According to one embodiment of the present specification, the color conversion film may have a protective film or a barrier film provided on at least one surface. As the protective film or the barrier film, those known in the art may be used.
FIG. 1
FIG. 1
FIG. 1
FIG. 1
101
102
103
104
105
106
One embodiment of the present specification provides a backlight unit including the color conversion film described above. The backlight unit may have backlight unit constitutions known in the art except for including the color conversion film. is a mimetic diagram of a backlight unit structure according to one embodiment. The backlight unit according to includes a side chain-type light source (), a reflecting plate () surrounding the light source, a light guide plate () either directly emitting light from the light source or inducing light reflected from the reflecting plate, a reflective layer () provided on one surface of the light guide plate, and a color conversion film () provided on a surface of the light guide plate opposite to a surface facing the reflecting plate. A part marked in grey in is a light dispersion pattern () of the light guide plate. Light entering into the light guide plate has non-uniform light distribution due to the repetition of optical processes such as reflection, total-reflection, refraction and transmission, and in order to induce this non-uniform light distribution to uniform brightness, a two-dimensional light dispersion pattern may be used. However, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to , and the light source may use a direct type as well as a side chain type, and the reflecting plate or the reflective layer may not be included or may be replaced with other constituents as necessary, and when necessary, additional films such as a light diffusing film, a light concentrating film and a luminance enhancing film may be further provided.
One embodiment of the present specification provides a display apparatus including the backlight unit. The display apparatus is not particularly limited as long as it includes the backlight unit, and may be included in TVs, computer monitors, laptops, mobile phones and the like.
Hereinafter, the present specification will be described in detail with reference to examples. However, the examples according to the present specification may be modified to various other forms, and the scope of the present specification is not construed to be limited to the examples described below. The examples of the present specification are provided for more completely describing the present specification to those having average knowledge in the art.
Preparation of Compound P-1: After placing 2,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole-3-carboxylic acid (3.1 g, 22.2 mmol) and dichloromethane (150 mL) in a flask, 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) (3.26 g, 26.6 mmol) and N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) (5.5 g, 26.6 mmol) were added thereto, and the result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature. Umbelliferone was added thereto, and the result was stirred under reflux for 12 hours. After the temperature was lowered to room temperature, a saturated sodium hydroxide solution was introduced thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. White solid Compound P-1 (4.9 g, 78%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M+H]=284
Preparation of Compound 1-1: After mixing P1 (3.0 g, 10.6 mol), mesityl aldehyde (0.78 g, 5.2 mol), trifluoroacetic acid (0.5 mL) and dry dichloromethane (200 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred under reflux for 12 hours under nitrogen. After identifying that the starting materials disappeared using TLC, 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyanobenzoquinone (DDQ) (1.2 g, 5.3 mol) was added thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature, and then trimethylamine (26 g, 0.25 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature, and a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (65 g, 0.46 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The reactant was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with dichloromethane after adding water thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange Compound 1-1 (2.6 g, 67%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
FIG. 2
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-1, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-1 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 506 nm and 521 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.94.
+
[M-F]=723
2
3
3
Preparation of Compound P-2: After placing 2,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole-3-carboxylic acid (4.0 g, 28.7 mmol), 7-(2-bromoethoxy)-2H-chromen-2-one (8.0 g, 29.7 mmol), KCO(6.5 g, 47.0 mmol) and CHCN (150 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred for 12 hours at 70° C. After the temperature was lowered to room temperature, water was introduced thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. White solid Compound P-2 (6.1 g, 64%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M+H]=328
Preparation of Compound 1-23: After mixing P-2 (2.5 g, 7.63 mol), mesityl aldehyde (0.78 g, 5.2 mol), trifluoroacetic acid (0.2 mL) and dry dichloromethane (200 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred under reflux for 12 hours under nitrogen. After identifying that the starting materials disappeared using TLC, 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyanobenzoquinone (DDQ) (1.2 g, 5.3 mol) was added thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature, and then trimethylamine (26 g, 0.25 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature, and a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (40 g, 0.28 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The reactant was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with dichloromethane after adding water thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange Compound 1-23 (1.7 g, 39%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
FIG. 3
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-23, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-23 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 504 nm and 516 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.98.
+
[M-F]=811
2
3
3
Preparation of Compound P-3: after placing 2,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrrole-3-carboxylic acid (3.5 g, 25.1 mmol), 7-((6-bromohexyl)oxy)-2H-chromen-2-one (8.2 g, 25.2 mmol), KCO(5.3 g, 38.3 mmol) and CHCN (150 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred for 12 hours at 70° C. After the temperature was lowered to room temperature, water was introduced thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. White solid Compound P-3 (6.9 g, 71%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M+H]=384
Preparation of Compound 1-25: After mixing P-3 (4.5 g, 11.7 mol), mesityl aldehyde (0.87 g, 5.8 mol), trifluoroacetic acid (0.1 mL) and dry dichloromethane (200 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred under reflux for 12 hours under nitrogen. After identifying that the starting materials disappeared using TLC, 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyanobenzoquinone (DDQ) (1.4 g, 6.1 mol) was added thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature, and then trimethylamine (30 g, 0.29 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature, and a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (50 g, 0.35 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The reactant was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with dichloromethane after adding water thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange Compound 1-25 (2.9 g, 51%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
FIG. 4
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-25, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-25 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 505 nm and 517 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.92.
+
[M-F]=923
3
Preparation of Compound 1-71: After dissolving Compound 1-23 (1.2 g, 1.22 mmol) in dichloromethane under nitrogen, AlCl(0.38 g, 2.62 mmol) was added thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred under reflux for 2 hours, and then methanol (0.50 g, 15.6 mmol) was added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred under reflux for 5 hours, the temperature was lowered to room temperature, and then water was added to the reaction solution. The result was extracted with dichloromethane, and then dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound 1-71 (0.87 g, 82%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
FIG. 5
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-71, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-71 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 504 nm and 516 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.91.
+
[M+H]=855
Preparation of Compound P4: After mixing 2,4-dimethylpyrrole (10 g, 0.10 mol), mesityl aldehyde (7.8 g, 0.052 mol), trifluoroacetic acid (2 drops) and dry dichloromethane (500 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature under nitrogen. After identifying that the starting materials disappeared using TLC, DDQ (12 g, 0.052 mol) was added thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature, and then trimethylamine (26 g, 0.25 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature, and a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (65 g, 0.46 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The reactant was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with dichloromethane after adding water thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red Compound P4 (7.8 g, 40%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
+
[M-F]=347
3
Preparation of Compound P5: After mixing dimethylformamide (4 mL) and dichloroethane (50 mL) in a flask, the temperature was lowered to 0° C. POCl(4 mL) was slowly added dropwise thereto under nitrogen atmosphere, and the result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature. Compound P4 (3 g, 8.2 mmol) was added to the reaction solution, the temperature was raised to 60° C., and the result was stirred for 1 hour. The result was cooled to room temperature, and then placed in a mixed solution of ice and saturated aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. The result was stirred for 2 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red Compound P5 (2.9 g, 89%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
+
[M-F]=375
3
2
2
3
Preparation of Compound P6: After dissolving Compound P5 (2.1 g, 5.3 mmol) and N-iodosuccinimide (3.6 g, 16 mmol) in DMF in a flask, the result was stirred for 5 hours at 60° C. The result was cooled to room temperature, and water was added thereto to filter solids. The solids were dissolved in CHCland then washed with a saturated NaSOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate and then silica filtered. The result was vacuum distilled to remove the solvent, and went through a silica column (hexane/ethyl acetate) to obtain blackish red Compound P6 (2.3 g, 83%).
+
[M-F]=501
2
3
Preparation of Compound P7: After dissolving Compound P6 (2.0 g, 3.84 mmol) and 1-(trifluoromethyl)phenylboronic acid (0.91 g, 4.79 mmol) in toluene and ethanol, potassium carbonate (KCO, 1.60 g, 11.5 mmol) was added to the reaction solution with water, and tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium (0.2 g, 0.16 mmol) was added thereto. The result was stirred under reflux for 5 hours, cooled to room temperature, and extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red solid Compound P7 (1.71 g, 82%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=519
2
3
2
2
2
3
Preparation of Compound P8: After dissolving Compound P7 (1.5 g, 2.78 mmol) and NHSOH (0.30 g, 3.09 mol) in tetrahydrofuran, NaClO(0.26 g, 2.87 mmol) dissolved in water was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaSOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent, and as a result, red Compound P8 (1.39 g, 89%) was obtained.
+
[M-F]=535
2
3
3
Preparation of P9: After placing P8 (1.1 g, 1.98 mmol), 7-((6-bromohexyl)oxy)-2H-chromen-2-one (0.65 g, 2.4 mmol), KCO(0.5 g, 3.61 mmol) and CHCN (50 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred for 12 hours at 70° C. The temperature was lowered to room temperature, water was added thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound P9 (1.1 g, 77%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=723
3
Preparation of Compound 1-79: After dissolving Compound P9 (1.0 g, 1.34 mmol) in dichloromethane, a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (0.40 g, 2.81 mmol) was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 3 hours at room temperature, and then TMSCN (0.50 g, 5.03 mmol) was added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaHCOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound 1-79 (0.67 g, 65%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
FIG. 6
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-79, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-79 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 506 nm and 519 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.91.
+
[M+H]=757
Preparation of Compound P-10: After placing P8 (2.0 g, 3.60 mmol) and dichloromethane (100 mL) in a flask, DMAP (0.53 g, 4.33 mmol) and N,N′-DICYCLOHEXYLCARBODIIMIDE (DCC) (0.87 g, 4.21 mmol) were added thereto, and the result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature. Umbelliferone (0.65 g, 4.00 mol) was added thereto, and the result was stirred under reflux for 12 hours. After the temperature was lowered to room temperature, a saturated sodium hydroxide solution was introduced thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. White solid Compound P10 (2.1 g, 83%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=679
3
Preparation of Compound 1-80: After dissolving Compound P10 (1.2 g, 1.71 mmol) in dichloromethane, a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (0.49 g, 3.45 mmol) was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 3 hours at room temperature, and then TMSCN (0.70 g, 7.05 mmol) was added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaHCOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound 1-80 (0.71 g, 57%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
FIG. 7
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-80, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-80 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 505 nm and 517 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.99.
+
[M+H]=757
2
3
Preparation of Compound P11: After dissolving Compound P6 (2.0 g, 3.84 mmol) and (2,4-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)boronic acid (1.50 g, 5.81 mmol) in toluene and ethanol, potassium carbonate (KCO, 1.60 g, 11.5 mmol) was added to the reaction solution with water, and tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium (0.2 g, 0.16 mmol) was added thereto. The result was stirred under reflux for 5 hours, cooled to room temperature, and extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red solid Compound P11 (1.80 g, 77%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=587
2
3
2
2
2
3
Preparation of Compound P12: After dissolving Compound P11 (1.5 g, 2.47 mmol) and NHSOH (0.30 g, 3.09 mol) in tetrahydrofuran, NaClO(0.26 g, 2.87 mmol) dissolved in water was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaSOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent, and as a result, red Compound P12 (1.40 g, 90%) was obtained.
+
[M-F]=603
2
3
3
Preparation of Compound P13: After placing P12 (1.3 g, 2.08 mmol), 7-((6-bromohexyl)oxy)-2H-chromen-2-one (0.65 g, 2.4 mmol), KCO(0.5 g, 3.61 mmol) and CHCN (50 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred for 12 hours at 70° C. The temperature was lowered to room temperature, water was added thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound P13 (1.4 g, 82%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=791
3
Preparation of Compound 1-82: After dissolving Compound P13 (1.0 g, 1.23 mmol) in dichloromethane, a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (0.40 g, 2.81 mmol) was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 3 hours at room temperature, and then TMSCN (0.50 g, 5.03 mmol) was added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaHCOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound 1-82 (0.71 g, 70%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
FIG. 8
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-82, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-82 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 506 nm and 519 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.89.
+
[M+H]=825
Preparation of Compound P14: After mixing 2,4-dimethylpyrrole (10 g, 0.10 mol), 2-methoxybenzaldehyde (7.1 g, 0.052 mol), trifluoroacetic acid (2 drops) and dry dichloromethane (500 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred at room temperature for 5 hours under nitrogen. After identifying that the starting materials disappeared using TLC, DDQ (12 g, 0.052 mol) was added thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature, and then trimethylamine (26 g, 0.25 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature, and a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (65 g, 0.46 mol) was slowly added dropwise thereto. The reactant was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with dichloromethane after adding water thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red Compound P14 (9.8 g, 52%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
+
[M-F]=335
3
Preparation of Compound P15: After mixing dimethylformamide (4 mL) and dichloroethane (50 mL) in a flask, the temperature was lowered to 0° C. POCl(4 mL) was slowly added dropwise thereto under nitrogen atmosphere, and the result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature. Compound P14 (3.1 g, 8.7 mmol) was added to the reaction solution, the temperature was raised to 60° C., and the result was stirred for 1 hour. The result was cooled to room temperature, and placed in a mixed solution of ice and saturated aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. The result was stirred for 2 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red solid Compound P15 (2.7 g, 80%) was obtained through a silica-gel column (hexane/ethyl acetate).
+
[M-F]=363
3
2
2
3
Preparation of Compound P16: After dissolving Compound P15 (2.5 g, 6.5 mmol) and N-iodosuccinimide (3.0 g, 13.3 mmol) in DMF in a flask, the result was stirred for 5 hours at 60° C. The result was cooled to room temperature, and water was added thereto to filter solids. The solids were dissolved in CHCland then washed with a saturated NaSOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate and then silica filtered. The result was vacuum distilled to remove the solvent, and went through a silica column (hexane/ethyl acetate) to obtain blackish red Compound P16 (2.4 g, 72%).
+
[M-F]=489
2
3
Preparation of Compound P17: After dissolving Compound P16 (2.0 g, 3.93 mmol) and 1-(trifluoromethyl)phenylboronic acid (0.91 g, 4.79 mmol) in toluene and ethanol, potassium carbonate (KCO, 1.60 g, 11.5 mmol) was added to the reaction solution with water, and tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium (0.2 g, 0.16 mmol) was added thereto. The result was stirred under reflux for 5 hours, cooled to room temperature, and extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Red solid Compound P17 (1.70 g, 82%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=507
2
3
2
2
2
3
Preparation of Compound P18: After dissolving Compound P17 (1.5 g, 2.85 mmol) and NHSOH (0.30 g, 3.09 mol) in tetrahydrofuran, NaClO(0.26 g, 2.87 mmol) dissolved in water was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 1 hour, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaSOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent, and as a result, red Compound P18 (1.2 g, 78%) was obtained.
+
[M-F]=523
2
3
3
Preparation of Compound P19: After placing P18 (1.0 g, 1.84 mmol), 7-((6-bromohexyl)oxy)-2H-chromen-2-one (0.65 g, 2.4 mmol), KCO(0.5 g, 3.61 mmol) and CHCN (50 mL) in a flask, the result was stirred for 12 hours at 70° C. The temperature was lowered to room temperature, water was added thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound P19 (1.0 g, 74%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
+
[M-F]=711
3
Preparation of Compound 1-83: After dissolving Compound P19 (1.0 g, 1.36 mmol) in dichloromethane, a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (0.40 g, 2.81 mmol) was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 3 hours at room temperature, and then trimethylsilyl cyanide(TMSCN) (0.50 g, 5.03 mmol) was added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaHCOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound 1-83 (0.65 g, 64%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
FIG. 9
−5
is a diagram showing luminance spectrum of Compound 1-83, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-83 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 506 nm and 520 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.96.
+
[M+H]=745
Preparation of Compound P20: After placing P18 (2.0 g, 3.68 mmol) and dichloromethane (100 mL) in a flask, DMAP (0.53 g, 4.33 mmol) and N,N′-DICYCLOHEXYLCARBODIIMIDE (DCC) (0.87 g, 4.21 mmol) were added thereto, and the result was stirred for 30 minutes at room temperature. Umbelliferone (0.65 g, 4.00 mol) was added thereto, and the result was stirred under reflux for 12 hours. After the temperature was lowered to room temperature, a saturated sodium hydroxide solution was introduced thereto, and the result was extracted with chloroform. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. White solid Compound P20 (1.8 g, 71%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
[M-F]+=667
3
Preparation of Compound 1-84: After dissolving Compound P20 (1.2 g, 1.75 mmol) in dichloromethane, a boron trifluoride ethyl ether complex (0.49 g, 3.45 mmol) was slowly added dropwise thereto at 0° C. The result was stirred for 3 hours at room temperature, and then TMSCN (0.70 g, 7.05 mmol) was added dropwise thereto. The result was stirred for 5 hours at room temperature, and extracted with chloroform after adding a saturated NaHCOsolution thereto. The result was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate, filtered, and vacuum distilled to remove the solvent. Orange solid Compound 1-84 (0.66 g, 53%) was obtained through a silica-gel column.
FIG. 10
−5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-84, and maximum absorption and light emission wavelengths of Compound 1-84 in a toluene solution (1×10M) were 506 nm and 518 nm, respectively, and quantum efficiency was 0.99.
[M+H]+=701
2
2
2
A first solution was prepared by dissolving Compound 1-1 in solvent toluene. A second solution was prepared by dissolving a thermoplastic resin SAN in solvent toluene. The first solution and the second solution were mixed so that the amount of the organic fluorescent substance was 0.3 parts by weight and the amount of TiOwas 5 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the SAN, and TiOwas added thereto so that the amount of TiOwas 5 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the SAN, and the result was uniformly mixed. The solid content of the mixed solution was 20% by weight and viscosity was 200 cps. This solution was coated on a PET substrate, and the result was dried to prepare a color conversion film. The prepared color conversion film has a thickness of 10 nm to 15 mm, and a haze value of 73%. A luminance spectrum of the prepared color conversion film was measured using a spectroradiometer (SR series of TOPCON Corporation). Specifically, the prepared color conversion film was laminated on one surface of a light guide plate of a backlight unit including a LED blue backlight (maximum light emission wavelength 450 nm) and the light guide plate, and after laminating a prism sheet and a DBEF film on the color conversion film, a luminance spectrum of the film was measured. When measuring the luminance spectrum, an initial value was set so that the brightness of the blue LED light was 600 nit based on without the color conversion film. The color conversion film emitted light at 537 nm under blue LED light.
Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 22% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-23 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 532 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 20% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-25 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 534 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 23% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-71 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 526 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 18% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-79 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 537 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 10% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-80 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 537 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 9% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-82 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 532 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 11% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-83 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 537 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 12% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Compound 1-84 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 537 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 13% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Comparative Example Compound 1 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 532 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 60% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
A color conversion film was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that Comparative Example Compound 2 was used instead of Compound 1-1. The color conversion film emitted light at 538 nm under blue LED light. Under a temperature condition of 60° C., the intensity of green fluorescence decreased by 58% after 500 hours under blue backlight (600 nit) driving.
As seen from Examples 1 to 9, and Comparative Examples 1 and 2, the compounds represented by Chemical Formula 1 according to one embodiment of the present specification are capable of being used in the preparation of color conversion films having superior light resistance compared to Comparative Example Compound 1 and Comparative Example Compound 2 that are existing compounds.
101
: Side Chain-Type Light Source
102
: Reflecting Plate
103
: Light Guide Plate
104
: Reflective Layer
105
: Color Conversion Film
106
: Light Dispersion Pattern
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a mimetic diagram using a color conversion film according to one embodiment of the present specification in a backlight.
FIG. 2
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-1.
FIG. 3
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-23.
FIG. 4
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-25.
FIG. 5
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-71.
FIG. 6
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-79.
FIG. 7
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-80.
FIG. 8
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-82.
FIG. 9
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-83.
FIG. 10
is a diagram showing a luminance spectrum of Compound 1-84. | |
The chenille plant is a vigorous, upright, coarse-textured shrub that usually attains a height of 5 to 6 feet. Older specimens can grow taller with some support. The stems are heavily foliated with 6- to 8-inch-long, ovate, medium-green leaves. The flowers of chenille plant are attractive and droop in cattail-like, pendent clusters up to 18 inches in length. Flowers are showy, red, and borne by female plants during warm months of the year.
Scientific name: Acalypha hispida
Pronunciation: ack-uh-LIFE-uh HISS-pid-uh
Common name(s): chenille plant
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Plant type: shrub
USDA hardiness zones: 10 through 11 (Fig. 4)
Planting month for zone 10 and 11: year round
Origin: not native to North America
Invasive potential: not known to be invasive
Uses: hedge; specimen; foundation; border; mass planting; accent
Availability: somewhat available, may have to go out of the region to find the plant
Height: 4 to 6 feet
Spread: 6 to 8 feet
Plant habit: upright
Plant density: moderate
Growth rate: fast
Texture: coarse
Leaf arrangement: alternate
Leaf type: simple
Leaf margin: serrate
Leaf shape: ovate
Leaf venation: pinnate; arcuate
Leaf type and persistence: evergreen
Leaf blade length: 4 to 8 inches
Leaf color: green
Fall color: no fall color change
Fall characteristic: not showy
Flower color: Red
Flower characteristic: year-round flowering
Fruit shape: no fruit
Fruit length: no fruit
Fruit cover: no fruit
Fruit color: no fruit
Fruit characteristic: no fruit
Trunk/bark/branches: typically multi-trunked or clumping stems; not particularly showy
Current year stem/twig color: green
Current year stem/twig thickness: medium
Light requirement: plant grows in full sun
Soil tolerances: acidic; slightly alkaline; sand; loam; clay
Drought tolerance: moderate
Soil salt tolerance: poor
Plant spacing: 36 to 60 inches
Roots: usually not a problem
Winter interest: plant has winter interest due to unusual form, nice, persistent fruits, showy winter trunk, or winter flowers
Outstanding plant: plant has outstanding ornamental features and could be planted more
Pest resistance: long-term health usually not affected by pests
The chenille plant is a beautiful flowering shrub that is commonly used as an accent, hedge, specimen, or container plant. Its long period of bloom makes it a showy centerpiece for any tropical or subtropical garden. It is well suited for planting in a container to be set on a deck or patio.
This plant performs well in many types of well-drained landscape soils. It grows and flowers best in full sun, with little care other than irrigation needed to maintain the plant once it is established. After the plant finishes flowering, pruning may be needed to keep it a desired size.
Propagation is by cuttings.
The long red flowers of the chenille plant are a striking feature that can be used to bring color to a shrub border. Red shows best in full sun when paired with other shrubs with white and pink flowers to make the red look more intense. Shrubs with dark green glossy leaves would also contrast well with the leaves of the chenille plant. Foreground plants could include purple and white flowers and fine or medium textures such as narrow strap blades in a clumping form or tall spiky forms with narrow leaves.
There are no diseases of major concern associated with chenille plants. Scales, mites and aphids may be troublesome pests in some landscapes, especially when the plants are grown in partial shade.
This document is FPS004, one of a series of the Environmental Horticulture Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date October 1999. Reviewed February 2014. Revised November 2017 and July 2018. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
Edward F. Gilman, professor, Environmental Horticulture Department, UF/IFAS Extension, Gainesville, FL 32611; Ryan W. Klein, graduate assistant, Environmental Horticulture Department; and Gail Hansen, associate professor, Environmental Horticulture Department.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other UF/IFAS Extension publications, contact your county's UF/IFAS Extension office.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, UF/IFAS Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A & M University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, dean for UF/IFAS Extension. | http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fp004 |
Farm Laws To Be Repealed, What This Means For Small Business
India's situation is no different to the rest of the world, when it comes to the response and the revival of corona virus. Times are different now; this could be one primary reason amid the several issues a developing country like India is currently facing. What we need to understand here is that the crux of the issue is the subsidy system. Economists, farmers, state governments and the central government are aware it will not hold water in the Indian agricultural ecosystem.
The agricultural sector accounts for about 15% of the $2.7 trillion Indian economy. India’s agricultural sector has its own unique problems, some crops are grown in such excess that they rot, while on the other hand India is also among one of the malnourished nations in the world.
60 percent of India’s population is still dependent on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. The new laws would have brought private investment into the sector however the already struggling farmers who are under the vicious cycle of money borrowed in large interest, heavy debts feared privatisation of agriculture or giving the private investors a bigger role would leave them at the mercy of the big business houses.
Last year in September three laws were introduced through which farmers could sell their produce to buyers beyond government regulated wholesale markets. Here growers get a minimum price; this price is assured by the government. As per the farmers this meant the reforms meant reduction in the price of their crops. The farmers asserted the reduced government regulation would make them vulnerable to competition from big businesses and they could eventually lose price support especially for wheat and rice.
On 26 January 2020, Republic Day of India, the protest took a violent turn when farmers drove tractors through police barriers, stormed the historic Red Fort, leaving one farmer dead and several policemen and farmers injured. Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar said, “Prime Minister Modi had a clean intent to revolutionise farming. I am sad that we were not able to convince some farmers of the country about the benefits of these laws.”
The farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders since September 2020 ever since these laws have been passed. The demands include repealing the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
Prime Minister Modi said, "I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws. I urge farmers to return to their homes, their farms and their families, and I also request them to start afresh."
The law would have helped to revamp the Indian agricultural sector; this sector comprises two sections the agriculture sector and food processing; these are primarily two sectors which require big investment for modernisation. These laws would have helped to attract big investments in agriculture and food processing.
Now let’s understand what this means for the small business owners. A small business owner under agriculture or food processing would buy the produce of the farmers, let's say wheat and rice, process it and sell it to the market, typically the local market or the market at their nearest proximity. These business owners have been doing so for the past 3-4 decades and have a full time employee headcount of 300-400, each unit. These small business owners were worried that once the laws are fully implemented the big giants of business would completely take over the entire ecosystem of agriculture and within no time they would be jobless.
What we are looking at here is not only the farmers but at the entire ecosystem of agriculture and farming in India, in a context as to how the food reaches our table; the entire supply chain of the produce. At present there is a process and checklist in place which has been going on for 3-4 decades. These small businesses, who buy the product of the farmers charge about 2 percent of commission, give loans without any interest, help the farmers with seeds, fertilizers and transportation, variety of machinery, cleaning of crops and help them to sell at better prices.
The larger picture being agriculture is not only restricted to farmers. There are wholesalers, retailers, transporters; go-down owners, manufacturers of fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, seeds and machinery and these numbers are in millions. What the farmers meant if all of this goes to the biggies of business was; this same number would be jobless. This would mean breaking the supply chain of agriculture.
On the other hand, the government asserted the new laws would bring in modernisation in supply chain, adoption and implementation of technology, farm gate buyer access, and logistics synchronisation. Improvement in market efficiency and agricultural productivity would have improved. | https://opportunityindia.franchiseindia.com/article/farm-laws-to-be-repealed-what-this-means-for-small-business-34410 |
Winter is naturally a time for hibernation; a time to sleep, read books and work on art projects. It’s a time to hang out with friends, drink dark beers, and play board games by the fire. It’s a time for self-indulgent lethargy after the incessant action of the sunny summer when sitting still seems a sin; I justify it to myself as recuperation.
But this winter has been different for me. Not outwardly, but in my attitude towards it. It changed suddenly but made sense; an epiphany, a revelation, a “Eureka!” moment. It happened the day I decided I would buy a fat-bike.
On that day, the cold, clutching fist of imminent winter relaxed, and there, in its open palm, were glowing possibilities. The encroaching season no longer seemed isolating and oppressive, but exciting and inviting, with opportunities more expansive than those of the summer for those who can access them. My fat-bike was my ticket.
Riding in the lingering shadow of Anchorage’s Front Range, December.
Winter reveals a world of biking veiled by summer’s raiments. Trails once marshy or heavily rooted are paved into a flowing smoothness by snow and ice. Frozen rivers and lakes solidify as the keystones of new routes, like a Northwest Passage navigable only in the frozen winter rather than the brief thaw of summer.
New trails and singletracks materialize without explanation in the snow-laden woods, a seasonal infrastructure laid by ghosts during the long nights. The somnolent woods awaken with a labyrinth network of trails carved into them like bug tunnels in the bark of a rotting tree; they hum not with insectile invocations but with whirring hubs and chirping disc brakes like the echoes of birds flown south. There are whispers of such trails online or in hushed discussions at trailheads, but one must rely on venturesome intuition to find them. To ride a new trail is to plunge blindly into a scenic shortcut, a moose trail, or a technical track never suspected but serendipitously found. Weaving new and old trails together to create novel routes feels like riding through a puzzle, and is inexhaustibly entertaining in the winter.
The finite nature of the winter trails makes them irresistible, and they continually tempt me back into the saddle. My perennial winter pastimes have been “left in the warmth,” while it’s me who is out in the cold. My bookmark advances slowly through chapters and artworks sit as sketches while I giggle maniacally up and down snowy hills. Fatbiking has become my primary art form this winter, as I work to be strong, precise, and poised like a ballerina. I wear pointe shoes of five-inch rubber; a leotard of synthetic insulation. I bend my knees and plié atop the pedals, absorbing the terrain as I strive to flow elegantly through the woods like water.
The landscape over which I ride is a blank canvas, beautifully reinforced by its snowy whiteness. The terrain is a medium for creation and I see it through imaginative eyes. I visually connect gaps in the trees then pedal through them to create a new path, maybe one never before ridden, and, small as it may be, exemplifies the creative opportunities of fat biking. Every hill is a challenge to surmount and splash back down, the ballerina leaping to ever higher. Even the crusty snow heaped along the street is a stage for graceful feats. It’s opportunistic art; it’s live; it’s a performance done solely for the performer.
I paint in five-inch brushstrokes of tire tread, creating abstract pieces on a scale as broad as Anchorage and beyond. They always start and end at my front door, like a drawing done without picking up the pen from the paper. It’s art too big to view as a whole and wouldn’t make sense anyway; its beauty lies in its emotional outpouring, and I can feel it with the catharsis of an artist. It’s a finite art form: a dance that exists in the moment and ceases when the motion does. The marks I leave will be repaved in snow and the treads of others, like a wall of graffiti to be whitewashed and begun again. The summer is the great eraser, but the rides and routes I create live on in my muscle memory.
On the frozen coastal plain, January.
Winter’s early-descending darkness and long night once sent me home like a curfew, but now they entice me, calling to me in sweet whispers like Sirens. They seduce me into the Stygian woods where I find myself alone under amber clouds saturated with city lights. The solitary beam of my light pierces the inky air in front of me like the lance of a jousting knight. It’s serenely quiet save the constant, gentle crunch of my wide tires on the snow. I sail through the landscape like the swift light of satellites passing soundlessly in the night sky above. It’s a mesmerizing, otherworldly environment, suspended in time, where the world falls away and I disappear, too. It’s conducive to thinking, allowing thoughts to be exhaled as steamy breath and hang in the dense air to be better examined and pondered. Such exhaled thoughts condense and cling onto my beard as an icy rime, only to melt and drip away once home, leaving me more collected and clear-headed than before.
Like a hand-cranked flashlight, pedaling recharges my energy drained by winter’s darkness, and with that warmth, I can embrace the winter for its beauty. Biking through an ethereal ice fog or across a beach of icebergs are phenomena not to be wished away for warmer weather but to be marveled at from the saddle of my fat-bike. | https://fat-bike.com/2018/02/the-art-and-form-of-fatbiking-by-daniel-smith/ |
MinEx CRC researchers have identified centrifuge operating parameters (most importantly bowl rotation speeds) required to optimise separation of solids and drilling fluids at flow rates and fluid viscosities typical of coiled tubing (CT) drilling.
Centrifuges, for the separation of solid phases from drilling fluids, are critical components of the Hydraulic Processing System (HPS) which delivers clean drilling fluid vital for CT drilling. To date, the centrifuges used for solid separation in the drilling industry have been optimised for fluid parameters typical of diamond drilling. There has been little understanding of centrifuge performance over the range of fluid parameters encountered during CT drilling, including higher fluid viscosity, higher flow rates and coarser solid load than diamond drilling.
MinEx CRC established a stand-alone project to address the issue of centrifuge performance in the context of CT drilling. The project relies on extensive experimental study, characterising the performance of centrifuge decanter under different CT drilling conditions. We have set up a field-scale centrifuge decanter in our dynamic loop experimental facility at Curtin University. Our first experiments have shown a sensitive relationship between centrifuge performance and bowl rotation speed – which in some circumstances requires adjustment of the centrifuge outside the typical operating range. Preliminary findings suggest that the optimised operating parameters are achievable (and safe!) and can be accommodated in the HPS design.
Our findings pave the way for an efficient CT drilling platform and will be used to tune and optimise the control system of the centrifuge component of the HPS - to match and constantly adjust to fluid characteristics and drilling conditions. We look forward to deploying a prototype version of the optimised centrifuge and control system in CT drilling operations during 2021.
PROTOTYPE OF LIBS DOWNHOLE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS TOOL COMPLETE
MinEx CRC researchers have built the first prototype of a downhole chemical analysis tool based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. This prototype will allow almost real-time in situ collection of geochemical data and will be tested under simulated and real downhole conditions.
MinEx CRC aims to deliver a tool capable of being lowered into a small-diameter drillhole with the ability of providing real-time elemental analysis of the exposed drillhole surface. Based on the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (or LIBS) technique, the tool has the unique ability of being sensitive to almost every element of the periodic table – especially the light elements Lithium, Sodium, Carbon and Boron…even right down to Hydrogen!
Initially, the team built and tested a proof-of-concept benchtop prototype and tested its performance for analysis of a moving multi-mineral surface. The successful results of this work led directly to the design of an ultra-compact and powerful pulsed laser, combined with some very clever re-engineering of existing high-resolution ultra-compact spectrometers, which formed the basis of the downhole LIBS prototype. Close working relationships between the overseas laser and spectrometer manufacturers, and CSIRO colleagues expert in optics, electronics and mechanical engineering, has resulted in a world-first ultra-compact downhole elemental analyser that contains both the laser and the spectrometers.
We will continue to test and further develop the downhole assay tool prototype and its performance under the most challenging downhole conditions so that future company drilling programs, as well as the National Drilling Initiative, are able to benefit from obtaining rapid geochemistry data in in ultra-short turnaround times alongside the drilling program. This revolutionary capability promises to deliver almost real-time decision making out in the field.
COMPLETION OF THE FIRST NATIONAL DRILLING INITIATIVE CAMPAIGNS IN THE BARKLY REGION OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
MinEx CRC has completed two drilling campaigns in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory. We drilled a single 1750 m hole deep hole in the South Nicholson basin, close to the Queensland/NT boarder, and ten holes totalling 4000 m in the East Tennant area, between Tennant Creek and the Barkly homestead.
There have been very few samples of the deeply buried basement rocks in the Barkly region, which lies between the highly mineralised Mt Isa and Tennant Creek mineral provinces. This lack of samples has severely limited our understanding of the geology and mineral prospectivity of the area and has discouraged exploration. The NDI drilling provides some of the first samples ever so that we can start to understand the basic stratigraphy, lithology, structure, alteration and also data on groundwater.
The drilling was preceded by an extensive precompetitive geoscience data acquisition program called ‘Exploring for the Future’ that was delivered by Geoscience Australia and supported by the Northern Territory Geological Survey. This work suggested a couple of areas of great interest for further investigation by drilling.
The drilling was conducted by DDH1, and managed in the field by OmniGeoX. It was delivered on time, within budget, with no lost time incidents, and it’s fair to say that the program more than achieved the science objectives. High praise needs to go to Geoscience Australia for the years of geoscientific work that has gone into the area selection and drill targeting; to OmniGeoX for managing the field activities including data acquisition, DDH1 for conducting the drilling, and to the Northern Territory Geological Survey for various areas of support.
All of the data acquired during drilling and wireline logging, together with Hylogger and Minalyse scanning, will be made publicly available shortly via the MinEx CRC Portal, and over the next year or so more specialised analytical work will be conducted and released by the MinEx CRC research consortium.
This precompetitive drilling campaign provides some of the first data in what looks like promising areas for use by both explorers and policy makers. Minerals and energy industries have already shown strong interest in the areas ahead of drilling, but this geoscience data will also be of use to other users, and will make a contribution to the long term development of the Barkly Region. | https://minexcrc.com.au/2020-q4/ |
As stated by Sacks, F. et al., reductions in sodium intake by this amount per day correlated with greater decreases in blood pressure when the starting sodium intake level was already at the U.S. recommended dietary allowance, than when the starting level was higher (higher levels are the actual average in the U.S.). These results led researchers to postulate that the adoption of a national lower daily allowance for sodium than the currently held 2,400 mg could be based on the sound scientific results provided by this study. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating a diet of 2300 mg of sodium a day or lower, with a recommendation of 1500 mg/day in adults who have elevated blood pressure; the 1500 mg/day is the low sodium level tested in the DASH-Sodium study.
Season one ends with a cliffhanger: Sheila’s condition is deteriorating, and the family chains her up in the basement for fear that she’ll run wild and infect others. This is standard zombie procedure — the uninfected are always quarantining the infected in a futile effort to prevent the spread of the disease. For a second, it looks like Santa Clarita Diet is going to become a more standard zombie narrative, all about the danger of contact and the struggle to keep people apart.
Your body consumes calories, even while you’re resting. A sedentary person (no exercise) burns an average of about 1600 calories in a day. These calories, however, are usually replaced with what you do eat. Through the first 3 Days of the diet you’ll eat less than what you consume, which means there’s an additional deficit of about 400 calories per day. So, without exercising, you can expect to cut out 1400 calories per day during the first 3 days of the Military Diet. Add in some walking and dedicate a bit of time to exercise, and you’ll eliminate another 600 calories or more! Based on these numbers, you’d cut out about 2000 calories per day, resulting in a weight loss of less than 3 pounds during the first 3 days of the Military Diet.
The study provided all foods and beverages to participants for eight weeks. None of the diets were vegetarian or used specialty foods. After two weeks, participants who added fruits and vegetables to a typical American diet or those on the DASH diet had lower blood pressure than those who followed a typical American diet alone. However, the participants on the DASH diet had the greatest effect of lowering their high blood pressure.
DASH researchers studied three different diets on 459 people (27% of subjects had high blood pressure; the rest had normal). Keeping sodium levels constant (3,000 milligrams each day) they compared the traditional American diet (high in total fat, low in potassium, magnesium and calcium) to a diet high in fruits and vegetables (still not ideal in calcium or fat levels) and to a combination diet (the DASH diet - high in fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy foods and also low in total fat from animal products).
PREMIER found that after six months, blood pressure levels declined in all three groups. The two groups that received counseling and followed a treatment plan had more weight loss than the advice-only group. However, participants who received counseling and followed the DASH diet had the greatest reductions in their blood pressure. The study results showed that people can lose weight and lower their blood pressure by following the DASH diet and increasing their physical activity.
This study included 412 adults who followed either a typical American diet or the DASH diet. The study provided all foods and beverages to participants for one month. Their daily sodium intake levels were either high, at 3,300 mg, which is similar to the current average U.S. daily sodium intake of about 3,600 mg; medium at 2,300 mg; or low at 1,500 mg.
Abby goes to the storage unit and finds the dead man in the freezer. Joel talks to Novak’s Grandmother for help translating the prints. She tells him it is an old story about zombies from a book that might have a cure. Sheila is reluctant about a cure at first as she likes the side effects of being a zombie but finally agrees she wants a cure. Joel finds a possible source for the book, Anton. Abby tells Eric about the dead guy she found. Eric tells Abby he found out his mom is having an affair. Joel asks Rick to run a check for Anton. Dan blackmails Joel into killing a guy named Loki. Joel tells Sheila that Dan knows about Gary. Sheila wants to kill Loki for food and is willing to go alone. Abby complains to Eric about her parents' lying and he tries to kiss her. Sheila and Joel try to kill Loki and fail. Sheila is worried she bit Loki. Abby notices blood on Sheila’s briefcase but does not confront her mom about it. Loki is on the floor of a hotel room surrounded by vomit like Sheila was before. | https://justdietplan.com/santa-clarita-diet/preventing-constipation-elderly.html |
The Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) were among a large group of countries at COP 24 insisting that the global response to climate change be driven by science.
During 2018 the CARICOM Member States tried to include the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C as an agenda item at COP 24. However, they were unable to do so. At COP 24 they used two approaches to highlight the importance of the Special Report to the process. In the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) under the agenda item on Research and Systematic Observations (RSO), they proposed a paragraph welcoming the Special Report. Led by Ms Cheryl Jeffers of St Kitts and Nevis, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), the group also tried to insert paragraphs highlighting key messages from the 2018 State of the Climate presented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the work of a Task Force of Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Although these were supported by most of the countries present, including the African Group, the Least Developed Countries Group (LDCs), the Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) and the European Union (EU), it was opposed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia and the United States. As a result, when the SBSTA session ended, there were no agreed conclusions on this issue and discussions will resume at the next session in May 2019.
Undeterred, CARICOM continued to press the case the following week and were able to get reference to the IPCC Special Report in the main COP decision. It invited countries to consider the information contained in the report when they addressed relevant issues. In addition, SBSTA will discuss the contents of the report in May. IPCC assessments and reports will also be used to inform the global stocktake to be undertaken in 2023 to assess the implementation of the Paris Agreement and inform subsequent countries nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
In the decision adopting the Paris Agreement in 2015, the IPCC was requested to prepare this special report. Leonard Nurse, UWI (Barbados); Felicia Whyte, Kimberly Stephenson, Tannecia Stephenson and Michael Taylor, UWI (Jamaica); and Adelle Thomas of the University of the Bahamas contributed to the preparation of the report. During 2018 as the report was circulated for comments, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre with support from Climate Analytics and Charles and Associates organized regional workshops with CARICOM national IPCC and UNFCCC Focal Points to review the report and provide comments on its contents.
The IPCC will produce two additional special reports in 2019, and CARICOM scientists will once again play an important role in their preparation. Adrian Spence, International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (Jamaica); Kenel Delusca, Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies of Haiti; and Noureddin Benkeblia and Donovan Campbell, UWI (Jamaica) will be contributing authors to the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land. For the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere on a Changing Climate, Michael Sutherland, UWI (Trinidad and Tobago) has been selected to assist in preparing the report.
News from COP 24 – Carlos Fuller, International and Regional Liaison Officer of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and Climate Change Negotiator
Carlos Fuller, International and Regional Liaison Officer of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and Climate Change Negotiator on the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP 24):
Climate Change Talks Reach Crucial Stage
Negotiations on climate change at COP 24 in Katowice, Poland have now reached a crucial stage. Technical negotiations on elements of the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP) ended at 5 pm yesterday. At a plenary meeting later that evening, the COP President announced that there were many outstanding issues remaining. He said that negotiations could now longer continue in the present mode. He has appointed pairs of ministers representing developed and developing countries to undertake consultations on 5 clusters: Transparency, Mitigation and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the Global Stocktake (GST), Adaptation, and Cooperative Approaches. Two ministers from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) were among those selected. Singapore will join Norway in facilitating discussions on Mitigation and NDCs, while the Marshall Islands and Luxemburg will undertake the GST. Germany and Egypt will continue their consultations on Finance while Poland as the COP President is undertaking consultations on the contents of elements to be included in COP decisions.
AOSIS representing the interests of SIDS is advocating strongly for inclusion of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming at 1.5°C and the outcomes of the Talanoa Dialogue.
Belize at High-level Segment of the Talanoa Dialogue
Carlos Fuller, International and Regional Liaison Officer at the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre represented Belize at the high-level segment of the Talanoa Dialogue. In his opening statement he noted Belize’s vulnerability to climate change and the reason the country supported the call to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. Quoting from the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) 2018 State of the Climate Report that 2018 was turning out to be the fourth warmest year on record, he maintained that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had now reached 405 parts per million (ppm). The last time that concentrations were that high was 3 to 5 million years ago when sea levels were 15 feet higher than present levels. That means that Belize City and other coastal communities and all the cayes would have been under water.
He went on to note that the recently approved Report on Global Warming of 1.5 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserted that the global temperature was now one degree higher than the pre-industrial level and the countries like Belize were already experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change. At 1.5 degrees, conditions would get worse but were manageable, however, at 2 degrees, ecosystems like coral reefs would be unable to survive. The Caribbean would become so acidic from the carbon dioxide it was absorbing from the atmosphere that shell fish like conch, lobster and shrimp, would find it difficult to grow their shells.
He pointed out that the report said that it was still possible to achieve the 1.5-degree target. However, action was required immediately and that emissions of greenhouse gases would have to be reduced by 50% by 2030, and by 2050 the world would have to become carbon neutral. This would require a massive transformation of all sectors of the economy including energy, agriculture, industry and forestry. It would require a massive injection of capital, transformation of the work force and international cooperation. Such a paradigm shift would stimulate the global economy to unprecedented levels of growth that would include all levels of society, raise standards of living and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Mr Fuller was joined in the Dialogue by the Ministers of Latvia and South Africa and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Youth Organization. The Talanoa Dialogue was mandated by the COP decision which adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015 to inform the revision of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020. The present NDCs will limit global warming to 3 degrees Celsius while the Paris Agreement’s objective is to limit it to far below 2 degrees and possibly 1.5 degrees.
Talanoa Dialogue Concludes
The COP 23 and COP 24 Presidencies chaired the meeting which closed the Talanoa Dialogue at COP 24 in Katowice, Poland. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Manuel Guteres in his opening statement noted that the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C concluded that the 1.5-degree target was still achievable. He called upon Parties to communicate more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) leading up to and at the Summit he would convene in September 2019. Ministers from Poland and Fiji reported on the Ministerial Talanoa roundtables convened yesterday. Switzerland announced that it would reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 50% by 2030 in accordance with the findings of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 and that it was now developing its long-term emission reduction target for 2050. He highlighted the call in the joint submission by the Environmental Integrity Group (EIG), the Independent Association of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (AILAC) and CARICOM for Parties to enhance their NDCs by 2020.
Minister Steele of Grenada highlighted the need for Parties to undertake rapid action to increase their mitigation ambition in accordance with the finding of the IPCC Special Report. This would require enhanced financial, technical and capacity building support to enable this ambition both for the mitigation target but also for the adaptation actions that would be required in a 1.5-degree world. Towards this end he called for a strong COP decision that incorporated these elements including the call for more ambitious NDCs. He looked forward to the UN Secretary-General’s Summit as an important political moment to raise ambition.
The European Union (EU) also called for a COP decision as an outcome of the Talanoa Dialogue process and that the UN Secretary General’s Summit would be the next opportunity for Parties to announce their enhanced NDCs. The Maldives on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) called for the Talanoa process to continue. At the conclusion of the meeting the Polish Presidency noted the benefits of the 1.5-degree target. He invited Timothy and Hanna, two youth representatives from Fiji and Poland to join the head table where they delivered a joint declaration. In his closing statement the Prime Minister of Fiji issued the Talanoa Call for Action. He welcomed the IPCC Special Report and thanked the scientists who contributed to it. He said that Fiji would join the Marshall Islands in submitting a more ambitious NDC and called for others to come to the SG’s Summit with similar concrete plans. He asked for the Talanoa process to continue to the Summit and beyond.
View Carlos Fuller’s input on the Dialogue at time period 1:20:00 by clicking on the link: DREKETITalanoa Dialogue (MR – 12)
CARICOM Unified on COP24 Expectations
The twenty-fourth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate, known as COP24, will take place in Poland from December second to the fourteenth. The key objective of this year’s conference is to adopt the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement. It brings together world leaders and champions of the environment in a number of high-level events. Belize is part of the block of countries identified as Small Island Developing States. Last week, CARICOM member states of the grouping met in Barbados to prepare for the conference. The Caribbean Community Climate Change Center’s Carlos Fuller shares the region’s expectation of the event:
Carlos Fuller, International & Regional Liaison Officer, CCCCC
“For us, COP24 is an important one because it is the most significant COP after the Paris Agreement, which will actually provide the rules of the Paris Agreement. So, when you read through the Paris Agreement, for example, it says many things. It establishes a transparency framework – well what is it? We have to say what that is. It establishes a compliance committee, so what will the compliance committee do? These are the things that will set the stage for the implementation of Paris Agreement. These are the technical parts. However, there are two aspects of the Paris Agreement that will happen at the COP that are very important for the Small Island Developing States. The first of all is this IPCC Special Report on one point five degrees global warming. We know, for example, that report was actually commissioned by COP21 which adopted the Paris Agreement. It requested the IPCC to prepare this report at the request of Small Island Developing States, because we were concerned that within the Paris Agreement while it gives the goal of two point zero, it also says let us strive for one point five. So, this report feeds into aspects of it and there are parts of that report that are very alarming for small island developing states.”
Andrea Polanco
“With the IPCC Report, does it change the way you are going to go into COP24?”
Carlos Fuller
“Most definitely. It shows us the sense of urgency that it is much greater now. It also shows us that the kind of financing that we are asking for, it has changed the landscape totally. What was being provided will not be enough for countries to reduce their emissions to greenhouse gases, much less to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change which we in Belize are already experiencing.”
CREDIT: Channel 5 Belize
IPCC Report Front and Center of CARICOM’s Approach to COP24
And so if you’re wondering what exactly the IPCC Report means for the small island developing states; the news is grim. For coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems it may mean a massive die out if we can’t keep global temperatures down to one point five degrees Celsius. Fuller said that the report has a big impact on the SIDS’ approach to COP24. But not all is doom and gloom, as there is roughly about twelve years for countries to cut emissions and bring down the global temperatures.
Carlos Fuller, International & Regional Liaison Officer, CCCCC
“First of all, it tells us that already the earth has warmed by one point one degrees Celsius, so we only have point four degrees Celsius more to go before we reach the one point five degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. We are already feeling the effects of that one degree rise already. At one point five it is going to be worse, but at two degrees it is going to be alarming. Ecosystems that could potentially adapt at one point five will not be able to survive at two degrees Celsius. For us, at one point five, we will lose seventy-five to ninety percent of our coral reefs. At two degrees, it is totally dead. That, obviously, we cannot accept. The good part of the report says it is still achievable to reach the one point five degrees Celsius target. Current greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are not enough to lead us to one point five yet. So, if we do something now it can be achieved but we only have ten years to do it because after 2030 unless we address it, we have lost the one point five target. So, it can be done and we know that it will require a huge investment in transforming our economies from fossil fuel based to renewable energy where Belize is doing a great role. But it has to be all sectors, electricity, transport, agriculture, forestry – so all sectors must contribute to that. So, we want that to come out at the COP and we know that we might face some setbacks there.”
CREDIT: Channel 5 Belize
Commonwealth brainstorms climate change responses
The Commonwealth is bringing together global experts to thrash out new ideas for not just reducing climate change but actually reversing its effects by mimicking success stories in nature.
At a two-day gathering on Friday and Saturday at the 52-country organisation’s headquarters in London, a diverse band of experts in fields such as biomimicry, carbon sequestration, design and regeneration traded ideas for practical schemes that could pull carbon out of the air and put it back into the Earth.
Rather than a series of presentations, the conference instead saw experts from around the world huddle in groups to brainstorm.
“Some of our island states in the Pacific and the Caribbean will be hit first and potentially disappear, therefore climate change has been an issue of real importance to the Commonwealth,” Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland told AFP.
– Termite mound buildings –
Examples were shared of concrete absorbing carbon, ecologically destroyed landscapes flourishing again through getting carbon back into the soil, and getting more productive agriculture through mimicking the ecosystems of wild, untended land.
There were discussions on buildings designed like termite mounds that ventilate themselves with cool air, or making ships’ hulls like shark skin.
Also mooted were vertical axis wind turbines arranged in school-of-fish formation so the ones behind gain momentum from the vortices, creating far more wind power than regular wind farms.
“It’s stunning, but this is not inventing anything new. Life’s been at it for 3.8 billion years,” biomimicry expert Janine Benyus told AFP.
“We’re talking about bringing carbon home — rebalancing the problem of too much carbon in the air and not enough in the soil,” she added, stepping out of a workshop.
With its diverse membership covering a quarter of the world’s countries, action within the Commonwealth often paves the way for wider global agreements.
The climate change accords reached at its biennial summit in Malta last December were instrumental in the Paris COP21 UN climate conference deal struck later that month, which agreed to cap global warming at less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
– ‘Practical, practical, practical’ –
Scotland will take forward ideas and outcomes from the London workshop to the COP22 summit in Marrakesh in November.
“We’re setting off the starter pistol for this race,” the secretary-general said.
“The Commonwealth is seeking to be the platform through which ideas can be transferred.
However, in the arena of climate change, many intriguing proposals get ditched on the grounds of cost, practicality or fears that they could end up inflicting environmental damage.
“We’re looking at how we can share real solutions and help each other to get there faster,” said Scotland.
“We’re saying ‘practical, practical, practical’. If it works, it’s affordable, implementable and makes the difference, then we need people to understand they can believe in it.”
Some sessions focused on so-called big picture ideas, looking at Earth as a complete system.
Delegates discussed how carbon can be used as a resource, in which returning it to the ground can bring about lasting soil fertility and jobs and thereby political stability.
“Life creates conditions conducive to life. It’s about creating new virtuous circles rather than vicious ones,” said Daniel Wahl, who designs regenerative cultures.
“If we do a good job, we can find the funding because the will is there,” he told AFP.
“The time of ‘them and us’ thinking is past. The people who were against each other now have to come together.
“People are dying today from the effects of climate change. To them, it’s not an intellectual debate any more.”
Credit: Daily Mail Online
Tackling climate change in the Caribbean
This achievement should be celebrated, especially by Small Island Development States (SIDS), a 41-nation group—nearly half of them in the Caribbean—that has been advocating for increased ambition on climate change for nearly a quarter century.
SIDS are even more vulnerable to climate change impacts — and risk losing more. Global warming has very high associated damages and costs to families, communities and entire countries, including their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
What does this mean for the Caribbean? Climate change is recognized as one of the most serious challenges to the Caribbean. With the likelihood that climate change will exacerbate the frequency and intensity of the yearly hurricane season, comprehensive measures are needed to protect at-risk communities.
Moreover, scenarios based on moderate curbing of greenhouse gas emissions reveal that surface temperature would increase between 1.2 and 2.3 °C across the Caribbean in this century. In turn, rainfall is expected to decrease about 5 to 6 per cent. As a result, it will be the only insular region in the world to experience a decrease in water availability in the future.
The combined impact of higher temperatures and less water would likely result in longer dry periods and increased frequency of droughts, which threaten agriculture, livelihoods, sanitation and ecosystems.
Perhaps the most dangerous hazard is sea level rise. The sea level may rise up to 0.6 meters in the Caribbean by the end of the century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This could actually flood low-lying areas, posing huge threats, particularly to the smallest islands, and impacting human settlements and infrastructure in coastal zones. It also poses serious threats to tourism, a crucial sector for Caribbean economies: up to 60 per cent of current resorts lie around the coast and these would be greatly damaged by sea level increase.
Sea level rise also risks saline water penetrating into freshwater aquifers, threatening crucial water resources for agriculture, tourism and human consumption, unless expensive treatments operations are put into place.
In light of these prospects, adapting to climate change becomes an urgent necessity for SIDS—including in the Caribbean. It is therefore not surprising that all Caribbean countries have submitted a section on adaptation within their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), which are the voluntary commitments that pave the way for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
In their INDCs, Caribbean countries overwhelmingly highlight the conservation of water resources and the protection of coastal areas as their main worries. Most of them also consider adaptation initiatives in the economic and productive sectors, mainly agriculture, fisheries, tourism and forestry.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been supporting Caribbean countries in their adaptation efforts for many years now, through environmental, energy-related and risk reduction projects, among others.
This week we launched a new partnership with the Government of Japan, the US$15 million Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership (J-CCCP), in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The initiative will be implemented in eight Caribbean countries: Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, benefitting an estimated 200,000 women and men in 50 communities.
It will set out a roadmap to mitigate and adapt to climate change, in line with countries’ long-term strategies, helping put in practice Caribbean countries’ actions and policies to reduce greenhouse as emissions and adapt to climate change. It will also boost access to sustainable energy and help reduce fossil fuel imports and dependence, setting the region on a low-emission development path, while addressing critical balance of payments constraints.
When considering adaptation measures to the different impacts of climate change there are multiple options. Some rely on infrastructure, such as dikes to control sea level rise, but this can be particularly expensive for SIDS, where the ratio of coastal area to land mass is very high.
In this context, ecosystem-based adaptation activities are much more cost-effective, and, in countries with diverse developmental priorities and where financial resources are limited, they become an attractive alternative. This means healthy, well-functioning ecosystems to boost natural resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change, reducing people’s vulnerabilities as well.
UNDP, in partnership with national and local governments in the Caribbean, has been championing ecosystem-based adaptation and risk reduction with very rewarding results.
For example, the Government of Cuba partnered with UNDP, scientific institutes and forestry enterprises to restore mangrove forests along 84 km of the country’s southern shore to slow down saline intrusion from the sea level rise and reduce disaster risks, as the mangrove acts as a protective barrier against hurricanes.
In Grenada, in coordination with the Government and the German International Cooperation Agency, we supported the establishment of a Community Climate Change Adaptation Fund, a small grants mechanism, to provide opportunities to communities to cope with the effects of climate change and extreme weather conditions. We have engaged with local stakeholders to develop climate smart agricultural projects, and climate resilient fisheries, among other activities in the tourism and water resources sectors.
UNDP’s support is directed to balance social and economic development with environmental protection, directly benefitting communities. Our approach is necessarily aligned with the recently approved 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its associated Sustainable Development Goals, delivering on protecting ecosystems and natural resources, promoting food security and sanitation, while also helping reduce poverty and promoting sustainable economic growth.
While there is significant potential for climate change adaptation in SIDS, it will require additional external resources, technologies and strengthening of local capacities. In UNDP we are ideally placed to continue working hand-in-hand with Caribbean countries as they implement their INDCs and find their own solutions to climate-change adaptation, while also sharing knowledge and experiences within the region and beyond.
Jessica Faieta is United Nations Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Credit: Caribbean 360
‘1.5 To Stay Alive’ Campaign Hailed A Success By CARICOM
“CARICOM’s interests were strongly represented in a focused and coordinated manner by heads of government, ministers, the CARICOM secretary-general (Irwin LaRocque)and his staff, and a team of experienced and skilled negotiators led by Dr the Honourable James Fletcher. We are satisfied that our strong advocacy helped to ensure that the [final] agreement reflected the region’s position on our major red-line issues,” Stuart, who is also prime minister of Barbados, said in a release issued by the CARICOM Secretariat through Panos Caribbean.
“The region’s successful campaign, built around the slogan ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’, received energetic support from several groups and organisations, including youth and cultural artistes, whose efforts must be applauded,” added Stuart.
The campaign kicked off in October with a launch event held in St Lucia. At the same time, a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account were established to promote Caribbean negotiating positions and to expose the region’s climate challenges.
Later, a theme song – the collaborative effort of a number of regional acts – was released.
Several other activities, including a Selfie Video Challenge and a flash mob, were also implemented to get Caribbean people in the know and behind the campaign effort.
At the talks, the region, for the first time, had a pavilion – called the Wider Caribbean Pavilion – that afforded the space for strategy meetings by regional negotiators and networking among players.
Caribbean artistes Aaron Silk of Jamaica and Adrian ‘The Doc’ Martinez of Belize were also on hand to spread, through music, the ‘1.5 To Stay Alive’ message, and were big hits with participants.
PAID OFF
In the end, Stuart said it all paid off.
“We believe that the actions and investment approved in the agreement will bring us closer to the goal of maintaining global average temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius and along a clear trajectory downwards towards 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels,” he said.
“That agreement will also help to realise the goals of lower greenhouse gas emissions, greater resilience, and sustainable development, especially among the small-island and low-lying coastal developing states (SIDS), with the most vulnerable populations such as the countries of the Caribbean. We determinedly and successfully promoted recognition of the special circumstances and vulnerabilities of SIDS, which are among the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but are the most threatened by climate change,” Stuart added.
One Jamaican actor involved in the negotiations agreed that the Caribbean could feel satisfied with the result.
“The CARICOM region can be satisfied with the outcome, which retains the recognition under the (United Nations Framework) Convention (on Climate Change), of the fact that SIDS have specific needs and face special circumstances which render our territories particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. We have also secured a decision for equal funding for adaptation and mitigation,” noted Colonel Oral Khan, a member of the Jamaica delegation to Paris and chief technical director in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change.
“This is very significant for us as the science is telling us that the concentration of greenhouse gases is already at a level that can be catastrophic. We, therefore, cannot await the benefits from current mitigation efforts, which will be realised over the next half a century. There are things we must do now to protect vital sectors of our economy and the lives of our people,” he added.
What remains is to have these things actioned.
“The international community must now retain the energising and uplifting spirit of Paris in the process going forward. The world expects no less,” Stuart said.
Credit: Jamaica Gleaner
Vacancy: Belize & Saint Lucia National ESD Project Coordinator/Consultant (NC)
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) is recruiting a National Coordinator/Consultant (NC) for the Energy for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean Buildings Project (“ESD”). The overarching goal is to develop and implement measures for promoting sustainable energy development within the buildings sector and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and make the energy sector more efficient and increase the use of renewable energy in five (5) pilot countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
Peruse the advertisement for the ESD Project Consultant here.
Qualified candidates should send an email expressing interest in the position (in less than 250 words), work references and a CV to [email protected].
Caribbean seeks to take full advantage of new U.N. climate fund
The South Korea-based Green Climate Fund (GCF) is open for business, and Caribbean countries are hoping that it will prove to be much more beneficial than other global initiatives established to deal with the impact of climate change.
“Despite our region’s well-known, high vulnerability and exposure to climate change, Caribbean countries have not accessed or mobilised international climate finance at levels commensurate with our needs,” said Dr. Warren Smith, the president of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
The CDB, which ended its annual board of governors meeting here on Thursday, May 29, had the opportunity for a first-hand dialogue on the operations on the GCF, through its executive director, Hela Cheikhrouhou, who delivered the 15th annual William Demas Memorial lecture.
But even as she addressed the topic “The Green Climate Fund; Great Expectations,” Smith reminded his audience that on a daily basis the Caribbean was becoming more aware of the severe threat posed by climate change.
“Seven Caribbean countries…are among the top 10 countries, which, relative to their GDP, suffered the highest average economic losses from climate-related disasters during the period 1993-2012.
“It is estimated that annual losses could be between five and 30 percent of GDP within the next few decades,” he added.
According to a Tufts University report, published after the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study and comparing an optimistic rapid stabilisation case with a pessimistic business-as-usual case, the cost of inaction in the Caribbean will have dramatic consequences in three key categories. Namely hurricane damages, loss of tourism revenue and infrastructure damage due to sea-level rise.
The costs of inaction would amount to 22 percent of GDP for the Caribbean as a whole by 2100 and would reach an astonishing 75 percent or more of GDP by 2100 in Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Turks and Caicos.
“In the Caribbean, the concern of Small Island Developing States is all too familiar – the devastating effects of hurricanes have been witnessed by many. Although Caribbean nations have contributed little to the release of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change, they will pay a heavy price for global inaction in reducing emissions,” Cheikhrouhou warned.
Executive director of the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), Dr. Kenrick Leslie told IPS that regional countries were now putting their project proposals together to make sure they could take full advantage of the GCF.
“The CARICOM [Caribbean Community] heads of government, for instance have asked the centre to help in putting together what they consider bankable projects and we are in the process of going to each member state to ensure that we have projects that as soon as the GCF comes on line we would be among the first to be able to present these projects for consideration.”
Leslie said that in the past, Caribbean countries had been faced with various obstacles in order to access funds from the various global initiatives to deal with climate change.
“For instance if we mention the Clean Development Mechanism [CDM], the cost was prohibitive because our programmes were so small that the monies you would need upfront to do it were not attractive to the investors.”
He said the Caribbean also suffered a similar fate from the Adaptation Fund, noting “we have moved to another level where they said we will have greater access, but again the process was much more difficult than we had anticipated.”
The GCF was agreed at the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Cancun, Mexico. Its purpose is to make a significant contribution to the global efforts to limit warming to 2°C by providing financial support to developing countries to help limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. There are hopes that the fund could top 100 billion dollars per annum by 2020.
“Our vision is to devise new paradigms for climate finance, maximise the impact of public finance in a creative way, and attract new sources of public and private finance to catalyse investment in adaptation and mitigation projects in the developing world,” the Tunisian-born Cheikhrouhou told IPS.
She said that by catalysing public and private funding at the international, regional, and national levels through dedicated programming in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and as a driver of climate resilient development, the GCF is poised to play a relevant and timely role in climate action globally.
Cheikhrohou said that it would be most advisable if Caribbean countries “can think of programmatic approaches to submit proposals that are aggregating a series of projects or a project in a series of countries.”
She said that by adopting such a strategy, it would allow regional countries “to reach the scale that would simplify the transaction costs for each sub activity for the country” and that that she believes the GCF has “built on the lessons learnt from the other mechanisms and institutions in formulating our approach.
“To some extent there is embedded in the way of doing work this idea of following the lead of the countries making sure they are the ones to come forward with their strategic priorities and making sure we have the tools to accompany them through the cycle of activities, projects or programmes starting with the preparatory support for the development of projects,” she told IPS.
Selwin Hart, the climate change finance advisor with the CDB, said the GCF provides an important opportunity for regional countries to not only adapt to climate change but also to mitigate its effects. He is also convinced that it would assist the Caribbean move towards renewable energy and energy efficiency.
“The cost of energy in the Caribbean is the highest in the world. This represents a serious strike on competitiveness, economic growth and job creation and the GCF presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for countries to have a stable source to financing to address the vulnerabilities both as it relates to importing fossil fuels as well as the impacts of climate change,” he said.
Credit: Thomas Reuters Foundation; CMC/pr/ir/2014
Climate, Economy, Finance- Everything you need to know about the IPCC 5th Assessment Report- Mitigation of Climate Change
On April 15th the third and final volume of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change was presented. The report is the most comprehensive survey of scientific knowledge about climate change, updated after the 2007 edition. Working Group 3 of the Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on actions and policies for mitigating climate change, that is on the possibility of reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The report makes clear why climate change cannot be dealt with solely from an environmental point of view, given its powerful financial and economic repercussions, on both the global and domestic levels. While the continuous rise in global emissions furthers us from the aim of maintaining temperature increase below 2° C at the end of the century, science is seeking ways to control climate change that also take into account economic efficiency and equity, for example through market instruments that reduce emissions wherever this is a less expensive option.
The video “All you need to know about the IPCC 5th Assessment Report – Mitigation of Climate Change“ explores the contents of the Report narrated by the Italian authors:
- Carlo Carraro – ICCG Director, Vice-Chair of the Working Group 3 and Member of the Bureau of the IPCC
- Alessandro Lanza – CMCC / IPCC WG3 Lead Author
- Massimo Tavoni – CMCC / FEEM / IPCC WG3 Lead Author
The video was produced jointly by the International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG), the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (CMCC) and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM). Created by Jacopo Crimi and Mauro Buonocore, with illustrations by Neva. | https://caribbeanclimateblog.com/tag/greenhouse-gas-ghg/ |
Monday, February 20th, Los Angeles. Ca – The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) tonight announced the winners of the 2017 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories at concurrent ceremonies at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles and the Edison Ballroom in New York City.
In addition, the WGAW presented several honorary awards during its ceremony: Oscar-nominated actor James Woods (Salvador, Nixon) presented the WGAW’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement to Academy Award and WGA-winning screenwriter-director Oliver Stone (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK); Emmy-winning The Newsroom star Jeff Daniels presented the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement to Oscar and WGA-winning The Social Network screenwriter and The West Wing / The Newsroom Creator Aaron Sorkin; Emmy-nominated actress Kerry Washington (Confirmation, Scandal) presented the Paul Selvin Award to screenwriter Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) for her script for the HBO telefilm, Confirmation, which embodies “the spirit of constitutional rights and civil liberties which are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere;” actor Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day: Resurgence, Jurassic Park) presented the Valentine Davies Award to acclaimed screenwriter-director Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’s Diary) for his humanitarian service and charitable efforts around the globe; Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse) presented the Jean Renoir Award for International Screenwriting Achievement to late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us, Certified Copy), whose son Ahmad Kiarostami accepted on his behalf; and writer Howard Michael Gould (Instant Mom) presented the Morgan Cox Award to Emmy-nominated M*A*S*H writer and past WGAW Board of Directors member Dan Wilcox for his Guild service. | https://hollywoodpresscorps.com/2017-writers-guild-awards-winners-announced/ |
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for determining points in space for guiding the movement of a robot arm, and, more particularly, for determining break points in successive linear motion sections which in total approximate an ideal robot arm motion trajectory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For controlling the motion of robot arms, a desired ideal robot arm motion trajectory is resolved into a series of N short individual linear segments which approximate the trajectory. Each linear segment is determined by a beginning and an end point. A determination of break points, points at which the robot arm must physically change linear direction, should relate to a predetermined position tolerance of the particular robot arm, the position tolerance being defined as the minimum distance a given robot arm is capable of traveling without appreciable error. Such a system which considers the predetermined position tolerance of a particular robot arm is known. Due to the fact that only the robot arm motion break points need to be provided to a control system for the robot arm and movement between these break points is controlled by an interpolator, a fast and technically simple control of the robot arm motion trajectory is obtained.
A robot arm trajectory, however, need not comprise as many motion sections as linear segments Consequently, the problem with prior art robot arm control is that they do not tend to optimize the determination of break points for the robot arm motion sections. The determination of the break points, in prior art systems, is done individually by means of a manual-motion key at a robot arm control panel or through a particular calculation algorithm developed by a computer programmer. Thus, in the case of manually manipulating a robot arm through its path, the determination of the break points depends on the skill of the operator. In the case of a separate computer calculated determination, the skill of the programmer is critical. Both prior art methods lead to reproducible solutions only if the trajectory relates to clearly distinguishable geometric forms.
Prior systems of this nature are disclosed in French Pat. No. 1, 557, 915 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,538, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an automatic method of determining break points which efficiently takes into consideration the position tolerance of the particular robot arms and, at the same time, limits the number of necessary break points to a number less than were involved in an initial resolution of the trajectory path.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The problems and related problems of prior art arrangements and methods are solved by the principles of the present invention. A method of determining break points for the movement of a robot arm in accordance with the present invention comprises the following steps:
(a) resolving the ideal motion trajectory into N short linear segments from a starting point, the first point of the ideal motion trajectory, through N-1 intermediate points, to a final point, the destination point of the ideal motion trajectory;
(b) storing the coordinates of all N+1 points of the N ideal motion trajectory linear segments;
(c) storing the coordinates of the starting point of the trajectory as a current starting point of a first extended line and therefore as a first point in space through which the robot arm is capable of moving;
(d) utilizing the intermediate point on the ideal motion trajectory immediately following the current starting point as a first extension point and as a current auxiliary point for a temporary fixation of the extended line in space from the current starting point through the current auxiliary point toward a current extension point;
(e) defining the extended line in space by the coordinates of the respective current starting point and the coordinates of the current auxiliary point;
(f) establishing the current extension point on the extended line as that point on the extended line closest to a next previously unconsidered intermediate point on the ideal motion trajectory;
(g) calculating the minimum distance between the next previously unconsidered intermediate point of the ideal motion trajectory and the current extension point;
(h) if the distance is greater than a predetermined position tolerance for the robot arm, storing the immediately preceding extension point in memory as the break point of a robot arm linear motion section and as a current starting point of a subsequent robot arm linear motion section;
(i) if the distance is less than the predetermined position tolerance of the robot arm, dividing the distance between the current auxiliary and the just considered intermediate point on the ideal motion trajectory in accordance with a count of the already considered intermediate points since the determination of the current starting point and relocating the current auxiliary point to a dividing point closest to the current auxiliary point;
(j) in this event, repeating the process steps (e), (f), (g), (h) and (i) until the test of step (h) is satisfied;
(k) repeating steps (d) through (j) until all N+1 trajectory points have been considered.
In this method, the determined break points in space are relatively distant from each other. The less the curvature of the robot arm motion trajectory the farther the break points are separate from each other. This results in a data reduction compared with the N+1 points of the N original short linear segments which facilitates optimum utilization of data storage, and unnecessarily short motion sections are avoided.
In one embodiment of the invention, the division of the distance from the current auxiliary point to the next point on the trajectory is by dividing a line between the points into equal length segments according to process step (j). Thereby, an extremely simple relationship is obtained according to which the relocation of a current auxiliary point is varied depending on a count of points on the trajectory already taken into consideration since the determination of the last break point.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a device, for carrying out the method according to the invention;
FIGS. 2 to 8 are graphical representations of a curved trajectory example of an ideal motion trajectory indicating the process steps which lead from the ideal motion trajectory to a lesser number of robot arm linear motion sections approximating the trajectory; and
FIG. 9 is a flow chart of the steps executed to obtain the motion described in FIGS. 2-8 using the apparatus diagramed in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring to the block diagram of FIG. 1, a robot R has an arm the motion of which is to be controlled in accordance with an ideal motion trajectory, as is given by a pattern V. The pattern V, be it a printed pattern or derived from a model is scanned by means of a converter U1, and the ideal motion trajectory is resolved by the converter U1 into N short linear segments from a start point on the trajectory, a first robot arm location, to a final robot arm location, the last point on the trajectory. The N short linear segments can be approximately equidistant from each other. In the converter U1, all the coordinates of the N+1 points along the ideal motion trajectory are subsequently stored in accordance with a predetermined coordinate system. The stored coordinates of the N+1 points are fed to a second converter U2 with the aid of which the break points of successive robot arm linear motion sections are determined according to the method of the present invention. The totality of these break points approximates the ideal motion trajectory for the robot R having a predetermined position tolerance. The coordinates of the break points (two are shown) are stored in a third converter U3 and are then made available to a controller S for the robot R, where the controller S makes possible an interpolation of the linear motion sections from one break point to the next, if necessary.
The aforementioned elements may be implemented using conventional means such as commercially available miniprocessors or microprocessors, cf. U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,538.
In the trajectory of FIG. 2, the ideal motion trajectory for the robot R is shown by way of example to comprise a curved pattern. A location 0 is assumed as the starting point of the ideal motion trajectory, and a point 7 as the destination. Between these two points 0 and 7, the intermediate points 1 through 6 are arranged along approximately equidistant short linear segments. (The points 0 and 7 are indicated by marks on the ideal motion trajectory.) According to the method of the present invention, the starting point 0 of the trajectory is chosen as a first starting point of a first extended line. The point on the ideal motion trajectory immediately following this starting point, i.e., the point 1, is utilized as a current auxiliary point A for preliminarily fixing an extended line starting at point 0 through point A toward the next point 2 along the trajectory. Thus, the extended line is obtained from the starting point 0 through the auxiliary point A and extends to a point P1 having a minimal distance from the next point 2 on the trajectory. In the example shown, the starting point of the extended line as well as all subsequent auxiliary points are marked by circular dots.
In this example, it is assumed that the distance to the next point 2 from the extension point is smaller than a given position tolerance for the robot arm. In accordance with the present method, the position of the auxiliary point A is then relocated to a new auxiliary point B which is located between point 2, the just considered point on the trajectory, and the current auxiliary point A. This means that the direction of the first extended line (or first attempted robot arm linear motion section) has been corrected as indicated in FIG. 3. A new extended line or attempted robot arm linear motion section is now defined by an extended line which extends from the current starting point 0 through the new current auxiliary point B. In the event there are just two linear motion segments or three points on the trajectory to be considered, a default approximation of trajectory 0-1-2 according to the present invention may be the extended line from point 0 through point B toward point 2. The present invention is best applied in situations where there are a large number N of linear segments and a relatively high predetermined position tolerance so that a large data reduction results.
Referring to FIG. 3, a new extension point P2 is established on the new extended line closest to the next point 3 on the trajectory. The distance from the new extension point P2 (or from the extended line through points 0 and B) to point 3 is now calculated. In the example shown, it is again assumed that this new distance is still smaller than the predetermined position tolerance. Since this is now the third short linear segment that has been taken into consideration since the determination of the current starting point 0, current auxiliary point is again relocated. It is relocated along a distance between the auxiliary point B and the just considered point 3 on the trajectory in such a manner that this distance between the auxiliary point B and the point 3 on the trajectory is divided into three parts. The division point nearest the current auxiliary point becomes the new current auxiliary point, that is, the point C now is established in memory as the new current auxiliary point.
In the presentation according to FIG. 4, it is shown how a new extended line or attempted robot arm linear motion section is extended from the current starting location 0 through the current auxiliary point C. In this example, it is assumed that the resulting extended line has a minimum distance from the point 4 of the ideal motion trajectory such that the distance is still smaller than the predetermined position tolerance. Accordingly, a new current auxiliary point is determined which lies on the line between the current auxiliary point C and the next location 4 on the trajectory. The distance between points C and 4 is divided into four parts since now the fourth point on the trajectory or linear segment is being considered since the determination of the current starting point 0. The division point nearest to point C is point D. A new extended line starting from the starting point 0 now runs, as is shown in FIG. 5, from point 0 through point D to a point closest to the next point on the trajectory to be considered, point 5.
Referring to FIG. 5, the event finally occurs that the resulting minimum distance to point 5 from extension point P4 has a length which is larger that the predetermined position tolerance of the robot arm. In this case, the end point, in other words, the first break point of the first linear motion section is determined as the preceding extension point, namely the extension point on the extended line through the points 0 and C toward the point 4 on the trajectory. This end point is shown in FIG. 4 as the break point P3.
Referring now to FIG. 6, it is shown how the second linear motion section is obtained by the method according to the present invention. The break point P3 is now chosen as the current starting point for the second linear motion section, and the point 5 of the ideal motion trajectory is selected as the current auxiliary point for locating the first extended line or attempted second robot arm linear motion section. That is point 5 is made the current auxiliary point E. This straight line from point P3 through point E is examined as to its distance from the next point 6 on the trajectory and, since in the example shown, the resulting distance is assumed to be smaller than the predetermined position tolerance, the distance between the location 5 which had served as a preliminary auxiliary point E is divided by two, there having been two points on the trajectory considered since the selection of the current starting point P3. The new current auxiliary point G is determined to be at a location half the distance between points 5 and 6.
In accordance with FIG. 7, the next step of the present method involves extending a straight line from the first break point P3 through the new auxiliary point F toward the next (and last) point 7 of the trajectory. The minimum distance from location 7 to the extended line (at extension point P6) is determined as is shown in FIG. 7. Since the resulting distance is assumed to be smaller than the predetermined position tolerance and since three short linear segments and three points on the trajectory have been taken into consideration since the determination of the current starting point or break point P3 for the second motion section, the distance between the last point 7 of the ideal motion trajectory and the current auxiliary point F is divided into three parts. The division point closest to the last auxiliary point F becomes the new current auxiliary point G. Now, there are no more trajectory points to consider, the last point 7 having already been considered.
Referring to FIG. 8, the final break point for the location of the second linear motion section may be determined along the extended line from the break point E through the current auxiliary point G. The robot arm may stop, for example, at extension point P7 closest on the extended line through points P3 and G to the last trajectory point 7.
Referring briefly to FIG. 1, the ideal motion trajectory may be approximated by two linear motion sections just established which are then interpolated by the controller of the robot.
FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating the processing steps used to manipulate the robot art as described above.
While in the example shown, the ideal motion trajectory extends in a two-dimensional plane, it is also possible to apply the present method to a motion trajectory set in three-dimensional space, a three- dimensional movement being within the capability of many industrial robots. It is also conceivable that an ideal motion trajectory may be determined by circular motion sections rather than linear sections which in prior art controllers can likewise be interpolated without particular difficulty. | |
The Women’s ICC development squad of ICC East Asia-Pacific (ICC EAP) will be taking part in the 2019 Toyota Australian Country Cricket Championships (Toyota ACCC) in Toowoomba, Queensland from 03rd – 11th Jan, 2020. The scores for the tournament can be accessed on the CountryChamps website.
ICC EAP Women’s squad will be competing against women’s teams from New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland in the single round-robin format competition in the T20 format. The EAP Women’s squad consists of 7 players from Papua New Guinea and 2 players each from Vanuatu, Japan and Indonesia.
In the 2019 edition, ICC EAP Women squad finished their group campaign with three wins and as many losses to finish on 12 points. They managed to beat both NT Strike Women and New South Wales country in rounds 4 & 5, before going down against Queensland country in the final round of group stage fixtures.
Papua New Guinea’s Brenda Tau was the standout performer with the bat, accumulating 213 runs in 7 matches with an average of over 35. PNG’s Kaia Arua and Vanuatu’s Valenta Langiatu were the next highest scorers for ICC EAP squad with 96 and 93 runs in the competition. In the bowling department, PNG’s Vicky Ara’a picked up 10 wickets in 7 matches, followed by Kaia Arua (7 wickets) and Sibona Jimmy (6 wickets) in as many games.
ICC EAP Women’s Squad Schedule in 2019 Toyota ACCC (all timings local): | https://czarsportzauto.com/schedule-announced-for-icc-east-asia-pacific-womens-squad-in-2020-toyota-accc/ |
Rooted in the guiding principles of President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush, the George W. Bush Presidential Center engages communities in the United States and around the world by cultivating leaders and advancing policies to solve today’s most pressing challenges. The Bush Center is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, and the George W. Bush Institute, the non-partisan, public-policy arm of the Bush Center. The Bush Center is located on the campus of SMU in Dallas, Texas, and also includes a 15-acre park, a full-service restaurant, Café 43, and a museum store.
Housed within the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the George W. Bush Institute is an action-oriented, nonpartisan policy organization with the mission of cultivating leaders and advancing policies to solve today’s most pressing challenges. It raises current and thought-provoking issues and builds programs to address the challenges facing our nation and our world. The work of the Bush Institute is inspired by the principles that guided the Bushes in public life: education is the foundation of a successful life; freedom is a universal human desire; free enterprise is the engine of economic prosperity; and every human life is precious.
Roles and Responsibilities
The Editorial Director reports to the Managing Director, Leadership and Programming, and is part of the Bush Institute’s senior leadership. The Editorial Director is accountable for the publication of The Catalyst: A Journal of Thought and other editorial projects in line with the overall editorial strategy overall of the George W. Bush Institute.
Specific responsibilities include:
- Lead the development of an overall publishing strategy for the Bush Institute that sets editorial products apart from other thought journals, enhances the brand, and helps meet organizational goals.
- Work with other Bush Institute departments to oversee the strategy of related editorial series or longform publications and ensure coordination across organization.
- Work with internal and external audiences to understand publishing needs.
- Lead a collaborative process for planning and publishing that includes multiple departments.
- Develop and own the publishing and project plan that supports a quality publication and that ensures a consistent Institute voice.
- Support the External Affairs team as they develop a strategic marketing plan that helps The Catalyst reach its intended audience, as well as expands the target audience.
- Source innovative content and authors.
- Support training and coaching of internal authors as needed.
- Stay abreast of leading-edge practices in publishing and help the Bush Institute to produce audience-centric and market appropriate products.
- Edit all content for The Catalyst, and write, co-write, and ghost-write when necessary.
- Oversee internal and contracted editorial resources and ensure work meets high standards of quality, satisfies the requirements of the publishing plan, and meets deadlines.
- Maintain a network of editorial resources, and contract as needed to address volume fluctuation to meet deadlines.
- In collaboration with the internal Evaluation and Research department, develop and execute a system to evaluate the outcomes of the editorial function.
- Implement a simple and effective review/approval process.
- Be a team member on the Bush Institute leadership team, forging partnerships and integration with other areas and contributing to shared goals.
Qualifications and Experience
The Editorial Director should have a minimum of 10 years of experience as a senior editor, editor in chief, or other role with expert writing and editing responsibilities for a policy-related organization or publisher. An undergraduate degree is required and an advanced degree preferred. The ideal candidate would have experience writing and publishing in a wide variety of formats, to a wide variety of audiences. Experience publishing a digital journal is strongly preferred. The position requires experience managing complex publishing projects with diverse stakeholders and a demonstrated track record in getting things done in collaboration with the team.
Ideally the candidate would possess:
- Entrepreneurial spirit
- Journalism background is preferred, but not required
- Superior verbal and written communication skills
- Creative and innovative approach and flexible style
- Ability to translate communication needs into effective publishing solutions
- Existing contacts with editorial resources in the field
- A make-it-happen commitment to deadlines and a collaborative and inclusive team style
- Ability to balance demands of multiple priorities
- Successful track record in strategic marketing of content
- Experience in multiple editorial positions
- The highest ethical, professional, and personal standards and values.
The George W. Bush Presidential Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply for this position.
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit stationary at a desk and use computer equipment. | https://dfwcommunicators.com/job/editorial-director/ |
What is palpation in physical examination?
What is palpation in physical examination?
Palpation is a method of feeling with the fingers or hands during a physical examination. The health care provider touches and feels your body to examine the size, consistency, texture, location, and tenderness of an organ or body part.
What is physical examination of urine?
Physical examination of urine includes description of color, odor, clarity, volume, and specific gravity. Chemical examination of urine includes the identification of protein, blood cells, glucose, pH, bilirubin, urobilinogen, ketone bodies, nitrites, and leukocyte esterase.
What is the importance of physical examination of urine?
Why the Test is Performed As part of a routine medical exam to screen for early signs of disease. If you have signs of diabetes or kidney disease, or to monitor you if you are being treated for these conditions. To check for blood in the urine. To diagnose a urinary tract infection.
What are the types of urine test?
Examples of specific urinalysis tests that may be done to check for problems include:
- Red blood cell urine test.
- Glucose urine test.
- Protein urine test.
- Urine pH level test.
- Ketones urine test.
- Bilirubin urine test.
- Urine specific gravity test.
How do you perform the chemical examination?
The test pads have chemicals in them. When a strip is briefly, but completely, dipped into urine, the test pads absorb the urine and a chemical reaction changes the colour of the pad.
What is RBC in a urine test?
Blood in the urine means there are red blood cells (RBCs) in the urine. Often, the urine looks normal to the naked eye. But when checked under a microscope, it contains a high number of red blood cells. In some cases, the urine is pink, red, or the color of tea, which you can see without a microscope.
What does blood 3+ in urine mean?
Hematuria Causes and Risk Factors You might have blood in your urine because of: Urinary tract or kidney infections. Bladder or kidney stones. Certain kidney diseases, such as inflammation in the filtering system (glomerulonephritis) An enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia) or prostate cancer.
How do you read a urine report?
Dipstick test
- Acidity (pH). The pH level indicates the amount of acid in urine.
- Concentration. A measure of concentration, or specific gravity, shows how concentrated particles are in your urine.
- Protein. Low levels of protein in urine are normal.
- Sugar.
- Ketones.
- Bilirubin.
- Evidence of infection.
- Blood.
What is the normal report of urine test?
Urine Routine Test Normal Values
|Reference range||Interpretation|
|Specific gravity||1.005 to 1.025|
|pH||4.5 to 8|
|Blood||≤3 RBCs|
|Glucose||≤130 mg/d(milligrams per day)|
What color is dilute urine?
Within the normal range of urine color, you may see: Pale yellow: This is a healthy color. Your body is functioning normally and hydration levels are optimal. However, if pale yellow becomes clear, you may be overhydrated. | https://rehabilitationrobotics.net/what-is-palpation-in-physical-examination/ |
MDS makes every effort to publish accurate information on the website. "Google Translate" is provided as a free tool for visitors to read content in one's native language. Translations are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Neither MDS nor its employees assume liability for erroneous translations of website content.
Speaker:
Anthony Lang, OC, MD, FRCPC
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Webinar Topic: Musings on Disease Modification for Parkinson's Disease
Webinar Description: This lecture will summarize the reasons for believing that "one drug will not fit all" for disease modification in Parkinson's disease and will highlight the related hypothesis that initial involvement of the substantia nigra (e.g., Braak Stage 3) may trigger an accelerated process driven by factors unique to dopaminergic neurons independent of the status of alpha synuclein aggregation.
Learning Objectives:
Target Audience: Clinical and basic neuroscientists interested in disease modification in Parkinson’s disease.
This lecture will be made available for on-demand viewing starting on December 2, 2020.
Accreditation Statement:
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Credit Designation Statement:
The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society designates this activity for a maximum of 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.
Satisfactory Completion
Participants must complete an evaluation for each session they attend to receive continuing medical education credit. Your chosen session(s) must be attended in their entirety. Partial credit for individual sessions is not available.
Content Validity Statement:
All recommendations involving clinical medicine in MDS activities are based on evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the case of patients. All scientific research referred to, reported or used in CME in support or justification of a patient care recommendations conforms to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis. Activities that promote recommendations, treatment or manners of practicing medicine not within the definition of CME or are knowing to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits or are knowing to be ineffective in the treatment of patients do not constitute valid CME.
Disclosure of Financial Relationships:
All individuals in control of content for this webinar are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with commercial interests as defined by the ACCME. Disclosure information is available here.
Webinar Slides – Anthony Lang - Musings on Disease Modification for Parkinson's Disease
To complete your evaluation and claim your CME certificate, please click the link below.
Evaluation & Certificate
Visit the Contact Us page for important contact information.
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Milwaukee, WI 53202-3823 USA
TEL: +1 (414) 276-2145
FAX: +1 (414) 276-3349
[email protected]
Contact Us
The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) is a professional society of more than 10,000 clinicians, scientists and other healthcare professionals dedicated to improving the care of patients with movement disorders through education and research.
Copyright © 1998-2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS). All Rights Reserved.
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Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID serviceExpiration: | https://www.movementdisorders.org/MDS/Education/Workshops-Conferences/MDS-Webinars/Live/President-Perspective/PRESWEB7.htm |
Playing out of tune effect
Hello I’m new on this forum, and I started playing guitar 8 months ago after 2 years of composing and producing songs on Albleton.
I’ve been wondering how certain guitarest manage to have a slightly out of tune guitar sound while they play, sounding lazy and harmonically out balanced but still remaining pleasant to hear. I’ve been trying with a chorus, phazer and a flanger but I don’t manage to reach this kind of sound with any of these effects, it certainly colors and brings some dissonance richness to it but doesn’t goal the feel I’m aiming to. So I was asking myself if this sound technique is done while the guitarest is playing ? with is tremolo or pressuring with is naked hand the bridge, while the recording procedure ? or while the postproduction ? | https://guitarnoise.com/community/guitar-players-discussion/playing-out-of-tune-effect/ |
Making Music, Making History
Over the last four hundred years Boston has nurtured the creation and performance of numerous musical genres. Distinguished by the breadth and intensity of its musical life, Boston has been home to talented and influential composers, conductors and performers; world-class orchestras and conservatories; and community music societies representing a broad range of musical genres. Located in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, the MHS is literally surrounded by several premier musical institutions. In addition to sharing walls with two of these institutions, (Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory) the MHS also counts the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New England Conservatory, the Handel and Haydn Society, and Boston University School of Music as its near neighbors. Over the next several months the MHS will offer several public programs that bring Boston’s history makers and music makers together, using music as a lens to investigate Boston’s history.
Our goal is to introduce fans of music to the history behind some of their favorite songs, venues, and performers, and to the local, national, and even global historical context of specific musical moments. We also want to expose our devoted corps of intellectually curious adults to a new way of investigating Boston’s past. We will begin with two programs in spring 2013. On 13 March, prize-winning author Megan Marshall will offer insights from her newest book Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, her biography of the 19th-century heroine who spent her last years in Rome and Florence as a war correspondent covering the early stages of Italy’s Risorgimento. Folk ensemble Newpoli will be on hand to conjure the vibrant music that Fuller came to love as emblematic of Italy. Together with the audience, Ms. Marshall and Newpoli will discuss what music can tell us about Fuller’s life in Italy and how Italian history was presented and commemorated in nineteenth-century America.
On 29 May, we will collaborate with Berklee professor Peter Cokkinias and the Boston Saxophone Quartet to explore the music of the Civil War era. This two-hour program will feature familiar tunes from the 1860s that were sung around the parlor piano, as well as songs written specifically for the newest instrument of the era: the saxophone. The Quartet will also perform several pieces composed by Patrick Gilmore, the band leader who established the concert band as an American institution and removed music from the home and concert hall to the parade ground and bandstand. In the early years of the Civil War, Gilmore’s band became attached to the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, accompanying the troops to North Carolina in 1861–1862. Audience members will sing along to familiar camps songs and discuss the role of musicians in the Civil War.
Planning is also underway for a third program, which will take audiences out in the field to experience musical venues in the fall of 2013. Our “Tempos of Turbulence” walking tour will immerse participants in the music of the Society’s Back Bay neighborhood. We will focus our tour narrative on stories that demonstrate how the creation and enjoyments of music in early twentieth-century Boston were intertwined with larger, political, cultural, and social issues. For example, at Berklee College of Music, participants will learn about the founding of the institution in 1945, and why its creator, composer Lee Berk, chose to focus on training musicians in jazz, blues, and other forms of American popular music in the years after World War II. At Symphony Hall, we will hear examples of works by German, Austrian, and Hungarian composers, which dominated the repertoires of symphonies in cities like Boston in the years prior to WWI, and explore (visually and aurally) American responses to this music in the years during and after the war. Just across the street from Symphony Hall, a block of jazz clubs dominated Massachusetts Avenue in the 1940s. We will use these “lost” venues to discuss the influence of black culture on the music scene in mid-century Boston, as well as the moment when jazz music began to spread from the African American community to clubs attended by an ethnic and economic cross-section of the population.
You too can experience theses musical moments at the MHS! Visit our web calendar to learn more about upcoming events and how to reserve your spot on the guest list.
| |
Calculate economic order quantity to minimizes total inventory holding costs and ordering costs.
EOQ is useful when demand for a product is constant over the a particular range of tim and when each new order is delivered in full at the point when your inventory reaches zero.
There is a fixed cost for each order placed, regardless of the number of units ordered. There is also a cost for each unit held in storage, commonly known as holding cost, sometimes expressed as a percentage of the purchase cost of the item.
Use EOQ to determine the optimal number of units to order such that you can minimize the total cost associated with the purchase, delivery and storage of the product. | https://ko.appszoom.com/iphone-app/economic-order-quantity-krbnt.html |
Marginalized Youth, Mental Health, and Connection with Others: A Review of the Literature
For marginalized youth, the transition to adulthood is a stage of life in which inequalities can be either magnified or reduced. While most descriptions of these young people highlight their difficulties achieving self-sufficiency, the ability to form connections with others is an equally significant marker of adult maturity. Given that social isolation poses serious risks to health and well-being, the relational experiences of marginalized youth are a critical component of the transition to adulthood. Experiences of trauma, marginalization, and involvement in public systems of care can place these youth at heightened risk for mental health difficulties, all of which can pose particular challenges for interpersonal relationships. This critical review of the literature explores the research on the relational experiences of marginalized young people living with emotional and behavioral challenges. It discusses the unique developmental context of marginalized youth, including experiences with trauma, mental illness, marginalization, and involvement in public systems of care. It then reviews the benefits young people derive from mutually empathic connections with others. The review explores facilitators of connection for marginalized youth, as well as barriers to connection for these young people. Following this review, the article identifies several gaps in the literature, and ends with a call for both practitioners and researchers to focus on the importance of connection as an underappreciated and crucial resource for marginalized youth.
Rethinking classroom quality: What we know and what we are learning
As the federal and state governments increasingly invest in ECE programs to improve their quality, MDRC is leading several studies that conceive and measure the quality of ECE classrooms in new and innovative ways. In particular, MDRC is focusing on instructional quality by examining promising instructional practices, such as the use of rich content and individualized activity settings and the promotion of higher-order skills within a broad range of learning domains. In doing so, MDRC aims to improve the understanding of the critical aspects of instructional quality that promote school readiness among low-income children and their sustained academic success as they move through elementary school and beyond.
Intimate Partner Violence in India: Abuse in India’s Empowered Action Group States
Married women in India experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at alarming rates. This study explores regional differences in Indian women’s physical IPV experiences by looking at the effect of living in eight Empowered Action Group (EAG) states. It is hypothesized that women in EAG states will be more likely to have experienced physical IPV than women living outside EAG states. A sample of 65,587 women was selected from the 2005-2006 India National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3). Counter to our hypothesis, logistic regression results show that living in an EAG state decreases likelihood of physical IPV in the past 12 months.
MRI Insights Into Adolescent Neurocircuitry—A Vision for the Future
Adolescence is the time of onset of many psychiatric disorders. Half of pediatric patients present with comorbid psychiatric disorders that complicate both their medical and psychiatric care. Currently, diagnosis and treatment decisions are based on symptoms. The field urgently needs brain-based diagnosis and personalized care. Neuroimaging can shed light on how aberrations in brain circuits might underlie psychiatric disorders and their development in adolescents. In this perspective article, we summarize recent MRI literature that provides insights into development of psychiatric disorders in adolescents. We specifically focus on studies of brain structural and functional connectivity. Ninety-six included studies demonstrate the potential of MRI to assess psychiatrically relevant constructs, diagnose psychiatric disorders, predict their development or predict response to treatment. Limitations of the included studies are discussed, and recommendations for future research are offered. We also present a vision for the role that neuroimaging may play in pediatrics and primary care in the future: a routine neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric imaging (NPPI) protocol for adolescent patients, which would include a 30-min brain scan, a quality control and safety read of the scan, followed by computer-based calculation of the structural and functional brain network metrics that can be compared to the normative data by the pediatrician. We also perform a cost-benefit analysis to support this vision and provide a roadmap of the steps required for this vision to be implemented.
Associations Between Service Members’ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Partner Accommodation Over Time
When service members manifest symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), intimate partners may engage in behaviors to accommodate their partners’ experiences (e.g., helping service members avoid situations that could make them uncomfortable, not expressing own thoughts and feelings to minimize PTSD‐related conflict), which may inadvertently serve to maintain or increase PTSD symptoms over time. In a sample of 274 male service member/female civilian couples, we evaluated hypothesized bidirectional pathways between self‐reported service member PTSD symptoms and partner accommodation, assessed four times over an approximately 18‐month period. A random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model disaggregating between and within effects revealed that, on average, couples in which the service member had higher levels of total PTSD symptoms also scored higher in partner accommodation, between‐couple correlation, r = .40. In addition, at time points when service members’ PTSD symptoms were higher relative to their own average symptom level, their partners’ level of accommodation was also higher than their personal average, within‐couple correlation r = .22. Longitudinally, service member PTSD symptom scores higher than their personal average predicted subsequent increases in partner accommodation, β = .19, but not vice versa, β = .03. Overall, the findings indicate both stable and time‐specific significant associations between service member PTSD symptoms and partner accommodation and suggest that higher levels of PTSD symptoms are a significant driver of later increases in partner accommodation. These findings add further support for treating PTSD in an interpersonal context to address the disorder and concomitant relational processes that can adversely impact individual and relational well‐being.
Children and the Welfare State: The Need for a Child-Centered Analysis
Variation in child well-being across rich Western nations suggests that the welfare state may play a role in shaping child well-being. However, welfare scholars have largely overlooked children in their analyses. This paper seeks to bring children to the center of welfare state analysis by examining how comparative welfare state theory can consider child well-being. The paper begins with an examination of Esping-Andersen’s seminal work, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, which has come to frame welfare state analysis for nearly three decades. Next, the paper explores the main critiques of Esping-Andersen’s work, with special attention paid to the feminist critique and the construction of alternative feminist and family policy regimes. Finally, this paper extends and reworks Esping-Andersen’s Three Worlds to offer a new framework for conducting child-centered welfare state analyses.
“Listen and Let It Flow”: A Researcher and Participant Reflect on the Qualitative Research Experience
Ethnographic research involves prolonged and often personal interaction between the researcher and research participants. This paper is a collaboration between a social work researcher and a research participant who became acquainted through the researcher’s ethnographic fieldwork for her dissertation. Despite differing in numerous and significant ways, not the least of which are age, class, education, and race, the two women developed a quasi-friendship after the researcher exited the field–a time when many researcher-participant relationships wane or terminate entirely. The two recorded and transcribed a series of informal conversations wherein they reflected on their experiences in the research process. Of particular salience is the research participant’s perspective of the immaterial benefits she experienced through her participation in the research and her perception of the qualities of a “good” qualitative researcher: one who approaches listening as a practice and cultivates relationships with participants slowly and naturally. The authors’ reflections indicate that participants may be able to offer valuable feedback on the research experience, and researchers might use participants’ unique perspectives to alter their research approach and/or techniques.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Student Mental Health: A Longitudinal Examination of Risk and Protective Factors
The spread of the novel coronavirus has led to unprecedented changes in daily living. College students may face unique challenges associated with these changes. In the present study, college students (N = 205) completed a battery of questionnaires in April of 2020, after having completed similar measures 8, 5, and 2 months prior as part of a larger study. A repeated measures ANOVA suggested significantly greater depression and anxiety symptom severity during the pandemic than at any other time during the 2019-2020 academic year. Static and modifiable factors associated with psychological distress and controlling for pre-existing psychological distress were examined. Cognitive and behavioral avoidance was the most consistent predictor of psychological distress during the pandemic. Online social engagement and problematic Internet use also conferred greater risk. Women and Latinx participants were more likely to experience elevated distress during the pandemic, even when controlling for distress prior to the pandemic.
“Mental Health Is for Crazy People”: Perceptions and Barriers to Mental Health Service Use among Refugees from Burma
Good mental health is essential to successful integration for refugee populations that resettle in the U.S. We explored perceptions of mental illnesses and barriers to mental health service use as well as solutions to current mental health problems from the perspective of refugees. The interviews with a convenience sampling of 11 community leaders (6 men and 5 women) from various Burmese ethnic communities revealed three major categories, including sources of mental illnesses (e.g. traumatic experiences and post-resettlement challenges), barriers to service use (e.g. lack of understanding about mental health, linguistic challenges, cultural stigma, alternative treatments, and unresponsive system), and proposed community solutions (e.g. community education, culturally-competent providers, and beyond mental health treatment). The findings suggest that the ethnic community can be a source of potential solutions to mitigate barriers to mental health service use.
Getting a Clinical Innovation into Practice: An Introduction to Implementation Strategies
Just as there is a robust science that supports development and rigorous testing of clinical innovations, the emerging field of implementation science is developing new theory-based knowledge regarding a growing portfolio of meticulously tested implementation strategies that seek to improve uptake of evidence-based practices by targeting barriers at multiple levels within health care settings. Studying and documenting implementation strategies associated with uptake during the development and trial of a clinical innovation could subsequently position the researcher for a more seamless transition and handoff of the innovation to clinical and operational leaders.The objective of this manuscript is to introduce the concept of implementation strategies: what they are; the rigor with which they are defined and applied to address barriers to clinical innovation adoption; how strategy selection may vary based on contextual, innovation, and recipient factors; how to document the application of strategies over the course of an implementation study; and how testing their effectiveness is the focus of implementation research trials.
Adherence to Cervical Cancer Screening in Korean American Immigrant Women: Identifying Malleable Variables for Intervention Development
Despite Korean American women having a high incidence rate of cervical cancer, many are unaware of the significance of Pap test. The purpose of this research was to examine the rates of Pap test receipt and factors associated with the uptake. The study was guided by Andersen’s Model of Health Service Use and used a cross-sectional research design. A sample of 230 women residing in metro-Atlanta, Georgia, participated in this study. Results. Slightly more than half (55.7%) had lifetime Pap tests while less than half (45.7%) had it within the last 3 years. Binary logistic regression indicated that marital status, monthly income, and annual checkups were significantly correlated with receiving Pap tests. Special attention is needed for women who are unmarried and have low income to increase Pap test receipt. Suggested intervention programs include better communication strategies, extended Medicare coverage, and outreach programs within Korean American community.
Assessing trustworthiness: Marginalized youth and the central relational paradox in treatment
Marginalized youth are at elevated risk for mental health difficulties, yet they encounter numerous barriers to engagement with mental health services. Past negative experiences with family, social workers, and systems of care contribute to distrust of service providers and ambivalence about engaging in trusting relationships with adults. This longitudinal qualitative study explored how marginalized youth living with mental health conditions make decisions about trust in their relationships with helping professionals. Semi-structured, open-ended in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 young women living with a mood or anxiety disorder, exploring trust, mutuality, and disconnection in relationships between marginalized youth and helping professionals. Eleven of the participants also participated in a second interview, 3 months later, that explored participants’ relationships with friends and family. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis and interpreted through the lens of relational-cultural theory. Results indicated that the majority of interview participants described feeling unseen, judged, or invalidated in their relationships with family members. Four themes emerged as factors in the assessment of the trustworthiness of service providers: genuine caring; understanding; non-judgmental acceptance; and adult respect for youth agency. Concerns about confidentiality and mandated reporting informed participants’ decisions about disclosure in these relationships. Analysis of findings reveals evidence of the central relational paradox in these descriptions of helping relationships, reflecting the simultaneous appeal and peril of vulnerability in relationships, especially relationships characterized by power differentials. Findings suggest that practitioners working with marginalized youth can expect both openness and guardedness in the treatment relationship.
The Effect of Mentoring on School Attendance and Academic Outcomes: A Randomized Evaluation of the Check & Connect Program
Chronic absenteeism in early grades has been found to be predictive of high school dropout, but little is known about effective solutions to reduce absenteeism. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation of Check & Connect (C&C), a school-based mentoring program, to evaluate its impact on school attendance and academic outcomes. The study was conducted in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) from 2011-2015. For students who began the program in grades 5-7, the program decreased student absences and caused participating students to fail fewer courses. However, there were no measurable effects of participating in the program for students who began the program in grades 1-4.
Mixed-Methods Randomized Evaluation of FAMS: A Mobile Phone-Delivered Intervention to Improve Family/Friend Involvement in Adults’ Type 2 Diabetes Self-Care
Family and friends have both helpful and harmful effects on adults’ diabetes self-management. Family-focused Add-on to Motivate Self-care (FAMS) is a mobile phone-delivered intervention designed to improve family/friend involvement, self-efficacy, and self-care via monthly phone coaching, texts tailored to goals, and the option to invite a support person to receive texts. We sought to evaluate how FAMS was received by a diverse group of adults with Type 2 diabetes and if FAMS improved diabetes-specific family/friend involvement (increased helpful and reduced harmful), diabetes self-efficacy, and self-care (diet and physical activity). We also assessed if improvements in family/friend involvement mediated improvements in self-efficacy and self-care. Methods Participants were prospectively assigned to enhanced treatment as usual (control), an individualized text messaging intervention alone, or the individualized text messaging intervention plus FAMS for 6 months. Participants completed surveys at baseline, 3 and 6 months, and postintervention interviews. Between-group and multiple mediator analyses followed intention-to-treat principles. Retention, engagement, and fidelity were high. FAMS was well received and helped participants realize the value of involving family/friends in their care. Relative to control, FAMS participants had improved family/friend involvement, self-efficacy, and diet (but not physical activity) at 3 and 6 months (all ps < .05). Improvements in family/friend involvement mediated effects on self-efficacy and diet for FAMS participants but not for the individualized intervention group. The promise of effectively engaging patients’ family and friends lies in sustained long-term behavior change. This work represents a first step toward this goal by demonstrating how content targeting helpful and harmful family/friend involvement can drive short-term effects.
Can Center-Based Care Reduce Summer Slowdown Prior to Kindergarten? Exploring Variation by Family Income, Race/Ethnicity, and Dual Language Learner Status
This study examines growth in language and math skills during the summer before kindergarten; considers variation by family income, race/ethnicity, and dual language learner status; and tests whether summer center-based care sustains preschool gains. Growth in skills slowed during summer for all children, but the patterns varied by domain and group. Non-White and dual language learner students showed the largest drop-off in language skills during summer. Lower-income students demonstrated slower summer growth in math skills than their higher-income peers. Students enrolled in summer center-based care had faster growth in math skills than those who did not attend care. Yet lower-income students who attended center-based care showed slower growth in language skills during summer than similar nonattenders. Implications are discussed.
On the Front Lines of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Occupational Experiences of the Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault Workforce
In the face of increasing risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to understand the experiences of the workforce providing support to survivors, as well as the evolving service delivery methods, shifting safety planning approaches, and occupational stress of frontline workers. We addressed this gap by conducting an online survey of members of IPV and sexual assault workforce using a broad, web-based recruitment strategy. In total, 352 staff from 24 states participated. We collaborated with practitioner networks and anti-violence coalitions to develop the brief survey, which included questions about work and health, safety planning, and stress. We used chi-square, t-test, and ANOVA analysis techniques to analyze differences within position and demographic variables. For qualitative data, we used thematic analysis to analyze responses from four open-ended questions. The sample was majority female-identified (93.7%) and essential workers in dual IPV and sexual assault programs (80.7%). Findings demonstrated that since the pandemic began, IPV and sexual assault staff are experiencing more personal and professional stressors, perceive a decrease in client safety, and lack resources needed to help survivors and themselves. Common problems included a lack of food or supplies at home and work and housing and financial support for survivors. There was a 51% increase in the use of video conference for work, which contributed to workforce strain. Reductions in overall service capacity and a shift to remote service provision have implications for both survivors and staff. These findings suggest a critical need for additional training, infrastructure, and support for the IPV and sexual assault workforce. There is an urgent need to classify IPV and sexual assault staff as first responders and address the occupational stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Problem Children” and “Children with Problems”: Discipline and Innocence in a Gentrifying Elementary School
This article examines the ways Hazel, a white girl entering kindergarten, became known as a child with a problem rather than a problem child in her gentrifying school. Building on a year of classroom observations and interviews with students, school staff, and parents, author Alexandra Freidus identifies the role of racialized discourses related to disposition, medicalization, family, and community in shaping Hazel’s reputation and contrasts Hazel’s reputation with that of Marquise, a Black boy in her class. Hazel’s and Marquise’s storylines teach us that to fully understand and address the differences in how Black and white children are disciplined, we need to look closely at the allowances and affordances we make for some students, as well as how we disproportionately punish others. By examining the ways educators in a gentrifying school construct white innocence and Black culpability, this study illustrates the relational nature of the “school discipline gap” and helps us understand how and why some children are disproportionately subject to surveillance and exclusion and others are not.
A Meta-Analysis of Acculturation and Enculturation: Bilinear, Multidimensional, and Context-Dependent Processes
Acculturation and enculturation are currently conceptualized as bilinear, multidimensional, and context-dependent cultural socialization processes (Yoon et al., 2013). Yet, this conceptualization requires further specification and empirical evidence. Our work is timely given the downward shift in productivity of traditional acculturation research and the need for a new direction. We examined the constructs and processes of acculturation and enculturation by meta-analytically synthesizing the findings of 255 publications (343 independent samples). In support of a bilinear (vs. unilinear) conceptualization, we found that acculturation and enculturation were only slightly associated with each other, r = −.18. In support of multidimensionality and context-dependency, their relationship varied by dimension (e.g., nonsignificant association of mainstream and ethnic identities vs. significant associations in other dimensions), geographic region, and race. Additionally, acculturation and enculturation rates/patterns varied by dimension; extrinsic changes (e.g., behavior) proceeded faster than intrinsic changes (e.g., values, identity). We discuss a direction for future research and implications for practice, advocacy, and education/training.
Medu-14. Genomic analysis of ETMR guides efficacious DFMO drug combinations
Embryonal tumor with multilayered rosettes (ETMR), formerly termed ETANTR, is a rare pediatric tumor carrying a poor prognosis and occurring primarily in patients less than 4 years of age. The median overall survival of <1 year for patients diagnosed with these primitive neuroectodermal (PNET)-like tumors demands the development of novel treatment regimens. Recent clinical and experimental data shows treatment with the highly tolerated drug DFMO (α-difluoromethylornithine) improves overall survival in neuroblastoma patients; and ETMR patients currently receiving DFMO on our expanded use trial have displayed clinical benefit. In neuroblastoma, DFMO reduces tumor burden through G1 cell cycle arrest, induction of senescence, and targeted cytotoxicity towards cancer stem cells. The effect of DFMO on tumors is mediated through polyamine depletion leading to disruption of the Lin28/Let-7 axis. We hypothesize that; ETMR, characterized by particularly high Lin28 expression, will be responsive to DFMO treatment. We have shown that DFMO treatment of the BT-183 and BIO-296-08 ETMR cell lines leads to a reduced number of viable cells, reducing viable cell number by 50% at 144 hours of exposure (CellTiter Glo). This reduction in viable cells is coupled with a simultaneous reduction in the overall expression of Lin28 as well as a reduction in the proportion and viability of the cancer stem cell subpopulation (flow cytometry). High throughput drug testing of BT-183 and RNA sequencing of six individual ETMR tumors identified temozolomide and the HDAC inhibitor panobinostat as ideal combination agents in treating ETMR cells. Treatment with temozolomide (IC50 2–6µM) and panobinostat (IC50 2-6nM), even in the presence of DFMO, resulted in a potent reduction in ETMR cell viability (CellTiter Glo). These data warrant further work elucidating the mechanism of this therapy and provides rationale for the development of clinical trials incorporating the use of DFMO in this lethal disease.
Repeated Disasters and Chronic Environmental Changes Impede, Generational Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge
The purpose of this study was to elucidate meaning from shared cultural perceptions of experiencing hurricanes and other environmental changes among an Indigenous community on the Gulf Coast. This study contributes to the scarce research exploring environmental determinants of Indigenous health disparities, and epidemic and widespread problem. | https://www.fahsbeckfund.org/publications/page/8/ |
Little population-based data among middle-aged adults exists examining the relationships between depressive symptoms, alcohol use, and socio-economic status (SES). This study aimed to describe the relationships between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at different levels of SES and to determine differences across SES levels among a population-based sample of 40 and 45 year old adults in Norway.
This analysis was based on data from two Norwegian health studies conducted in 2000 and 2001, and included community-dwelling Norwegian men and women aged 40 and 45 years. Self-reported frequency and quantity of alcoholic drinks was used to calculate past-year typical quantity of drinks consumed and frequency of 5+ drinks per occasion, or heavy episodic drinking (HED). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 10-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist, and SES was measured as education level and employment status. To observe the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at each level of SES we fitted multinomial logistic regression models using each alcohol outcome as a dependent variable stratified by level of education and employment. To observe differences across levels of SES, we examined the interaction between depressive symptoms and SES level in multinomial logistic regression models for each alcohol measures.
Having depressive symptoms was significantly associated with an increased risk of 5+ typical drinks among people in the lowest (RRR = 1.60, p ≤ 0.05) education level, and not among people in the highest. Conversely, significant associations were observed among all levels of employment. For frequency of HED, depressive symptoms was not significantly associated with frequency of HED at any education level. Depressive symptoms was associated with 13+ past year HED episodes among people with no employment (RRR = 1.97, p ≤ 0.05), and part-time employment (RRR = 2.33, p ≤ 0.01), and no association was observed among people with full-time employment. A significant interaction was observed for depressive symptoms and employment for risk of 13+ past-year HED episodes.
The results show a variety of associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol use among people with lower SES, and suggest type of alcohol use and SES measure may influence the observation of an association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at different SES levels.
Depressive symptoms are the most common mood disorder symptoms in the general population , and are especially prevalent among people engaging in harmful drinking . While the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use can vary when different assessments are employed , depressive symptoms are consistently associated with the usual quantity of drinks consumed [4, 5] and with heavy episodic drinking .
Midlife is an important time to study alcohol use and symptoms of depression because of their impact on the development and course of chronic conditions, many of which have onsets in mid- to- older-age. Heavy alcohol use and depressive symptoms are each well-documented factors for the increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Among middle-aged men, a recent study identified an association between a higher volume of alcohol consumed and a faster cognitive decline . Relatedly, having depressive symptoms or engaging in heavy alcohol use concurrent with a chronic somatic disorder can accelerate disease progression and increase mortality [7, 10]. Identifying circumstances in midlife that have an effect on the relationship between drinking and depressive symptoms could be useful in targeting interventions to groups particularly vulnerable to the negative consequences of concomitant harmful alcohol use and depressive symptoms.
Socio-economic status (SES) may be related to the pattern and severity of alcohol use. In a cross-sectional analysis of data from the GENACIS study, a multi-national study comprising 33 countries of various income levels and over 100,000 participants, higher SES was associated with more frequent alcohol use at both the individual and country level . Similarly, van Oers et al. observed that abstinence from alcohol decreases as education level increases and other studies show that low SES predicts risky alcohol-related behavioural problems and higher alcohol-related mortality . Other studies relate low SES with heavy episodic drinking (HED), often defined as drinking five or more drinks at one occasion, and which is known to confer greater alcohol-related risk than frequent moderate alcohol consumption [14, 15]. This evidence highlights the importance of being distinctive about country and the socio-economic context as well as distinguishing drinking pattern rather than merely any use or frequency of use when studying the relationship between SES and alcohol consumption.
Studies on the relationship between SES and depressive symptoms generally find that low SES is related to a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms . Several indicators of SES, including one’s own and parent’s education, employment, income and disability benefits are associated with antidepressant use. Von Soest et al. showed that antidepressant use as a proxy measure for depression was associated with low levels of income and education among Norwegian adults. In contrast, the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study in the US found few differences in the rate of a major depressive episode across socio-economic status, observing a statistically insignificant higher incidence of MD among the unemployed compared to those with employment . However, fulfilling criteria for MD is more stringent than experiencing symptoms of depression, such that the relationship between depressive symptoms and SES may be different than that of MD and SES. Similarly, a variety of metrics have been employed to measure SES, and different measures can produce different results. A recent study from Sweden by Linander et al. identified longitudinal associations of the SES measures of financial strain and living on social welfare with psychological distress, and no associations between either occupation or education and psychological distress . Another Swedish study showed that depression is more strongly related to alcohol related problems in middle-aged and older individuals compared to younger adults . In a high income, egalitarian country such as Norway, the association between SES and health has often been measured by educational level and employment status [17, 21]. However, studies such as Linander’s suggest employing a variety of measures may improve the validity of the SES construct, even in a high income, low inequality setting.
Although there is a substantial body of work on the associations between alcohol use and depressive symptoms , and each of these constructs and SES, there is less research on the relationship of all three, and in particular potential differences in the associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at different levels of of SES. Thus, this study aimed to observe the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at each level of SES, and to observe differences across levels of SES in the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use in a population-based sample of 40- and 45- year-old community-dwelling Norwegians.
We used data from two Norwegian health studies conducted in 2000 and 2001: The Health Study in Oppland and Hedmark (OPPHED), and the Oslo Health Study (HUBRO). Næss and colleagues have described in detail the study design and procedures for these surveys . In short, The OPPHED Study invited 25,000 people to participate and enrolled 6142 from Oppland and 6362 from Hedmark for a total response rate of 50 %. The HUBRO Study invited 40,000 people to participate and enrolled 18,770 (46 %) participants. Both surveys sampled participants from the following birth cohorts: 1925, 1940, 1955, 1960, and 1970. This study used data from the 1955 and 1960 birth cohorts in both studies. Participants at the time of the survey were 40 and 45 years old, respectively. Between the two surveys, a total of 24,997 individuals born in 1955 and 1960 were eligible to participate, and 12,261 were enrolled, garnering a total response rate of 50.5 %.
The research complied with the Helsinki Declaration. Both OPPHED and HUBRO studies were approved by the Norwegian Data Inspectorate and the Regional Committees for Medical Research Ethics in Norway. All participants signed an informed consent form prior to data collection.
We included in this study a total of 10,872 participants who took a medical examination and had valid responses for all of the following items in the survey questionnaire: years of education, employment status, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-10 item version (HSCL-10), frequency of alcohol use, past year typical quantity consumed and past year frequency of five or more drinks. We excluded individuals with incomplete information on the following items: HSCL-10 (n = 752), lifetime alcohol-use and use during the past year (n = 130), employment (n = 187), and education (n = 198). For the 532 subjects with 1 or 2 missing items on the HSCL-10, we imputed the sample mean for missing item values. A description of missing data and significant differences on a variety of characteristics between persons with and without missing data is provided as Additional file 1.
We used the validated Norwegian version of the 10-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) to determine the occurrence of depressive symptoms (21). To each of the ten items participants identified the level of symptom experienced over the past week on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (extremely). We calculated sum scores and averaged over the number of items, producing a range of scores from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest). Consistent with standard cut-offs, we considered a score equal to or greater than 1.85 indicative of depression .
We classified participants as current drinkers if they reported consuming any alcohol in the last 12 months; those who were abstinent during the previous 12 months we classified as either lifetime abstainers if they reported no lifetime alcohol use or former drinkers if they reported drinking alcohol in their lifetime but no use in the last 12 months. Alcohol consumption among drinkers was measured for past year use.
Typical quantity of drinks per drinking occasion over the previous year was assessed with the question “How many drinks do you typically have when you are drinking?”, and responses were recorded as the number of drinks. For the analyses, typical number of drinks per occasion was converted into a categorical variable with the following categories: 1–2 drinks, 3–4 drinks, 5+ drinks.
Frequency of five or more drinks per occasion, or heavy episodic drinking, was assessed with the question “How often over the last year did you have five or more drinks in a day?”, and responses were recorded as the number of times. For the analyses, frequency of HED was used as a categorical variable with the following categories: none, 1–6 times per year, 7–12 times per year, 13 + times per year. Frequency of HED was categorized as such to reflect less than monthly, monthly, or greater than monthly frequency of HED in the past year. Monthly frequency of HED has been commonly used in previous studies .
We measured socioeconomic status as education level and employment status. Education was measured as years of education completed. We categorized years of education into tertiles. The first tertile included 0–11 years of education, the second included 12–15 years and the third included 16 or older years. According to the educational system present in Norway for the 1955 and 1960 birth cohorts, the first tertile corresponds with education up to the completion of secondary education in Norway; the second tertile corresponds with completion of bachelor-degree level education; and the third tertile indicates a higher university level education. Employment status was assessed with the question “Are you currently in paid employment?” with possible responses of full time, part time and not currently in paid employment.
Self-reported health status was assessed on a four point scale ranging from “bad” to “very good”. Current, previous and ever smoking tobacco was also queried. Additional covariates included area of residence (Oslo, Hedmark or Oppland), and cohabitation with a spouse or partner.
Descriptive statistics are presented as frequencies and percentages. Differences in alcohol use and depressive symptoms across education and employment were tested with chi-square tests of independence. To observe the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use within each level of education and employment, we stratified by education and employment and fitted multinomial regression models for typical quantity of drinks consumed and frequency of past year HED separately. Adjusted models included age, gender, cohabitation status, area of residence, self-reported health status and smoking. To observe whether the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use measures varied by education and employment status, we fitted adjusted multinomial logistic regression models for each alcohol outcome for education and employment separately, including an interaction term between depressive symptoms and the SES measure. Relative Risk Ratios and 95 % Confidence Intervals are presented, and analysis was carried out using STATA version 11.
The sample was comprised of 5954 (54.8 %) women and 5509 (50.1 %) people aged 40. Half the sample (51.2 %) resided in Oslo, with the remaining half evenly split between Hedmark (24.8 %) and Oppland (24.1 %). Over three-quarters (75.9 %) of the sample were cohabitating with a spouse or partner. Under a fifth of the sample (17.4 %) reported “not good” health, while 58.4 and 22.8 % reported good and very good health, respectively. Approximately a third of the respondents (32.9 %) were current smokers, and a quarter of the respondents (26.1 %) were previous smokers. Overall, 10.8 % of the sample reported levels of depressive symptoms above the standard cut-off. Approximately 3.5 % were lifetime abstainers and the same proportion was formers drinkers; the remaining 92.9 % were current drinkers. Self-reported drinking is reported in Table 1.
The distribution of depressive symptoms and alcohol use across the different levels of education and employment are presented in Table 1. People in the lowest tertile of years of education and with no current employment had the highest rates of depressive symptoms at 15.1 and 35.0 %, respectively (p < 0.001). Current drinkers were most common among people in the highest tertile of education (94.9 %) and with full-time employment (92.9 %). The number of typical quantity of drinks was negatively associated with level of education, where having 1–2 drinks was most common among people in the highest education tertile (64.1 %) vs. people in the lowest tertile (49.0 %, p < 0.001) and having a typical quantity of drinks of 5+ was highest among people in the lowest tertile of education compared to people in the highest, at 18.0 % vs. 6.1 %, respectively, (p < 0.001). Conversely, there was a positive association between frequency of past year HED with education, where people in the highest education tertile had a higher proportion of having 7–12 past year episodes HED than people in the lowest (14.4 % vs. 12.4 %, p < 0.05). There were no differences across education for having 1–6 HED episodes in the past year. We noted a similar observation for HED frequency across levels of employment.
Unadjusted and adjusted associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol use across education and employment are presented in Tables 2 and 3. For typical number of drinks within levels of education, adjusted models showed, having depressive symptoms was significantly associated with an increased risk of having consumed five or more typical drinks relative to having 1–2 typical drinks among people in the lowest (RRR = 1.60, p ≤ 0.05) and middle (RRR = 1.68, p ≤ 0.05) tertiles of education, whereas no significant association was observed among people in the highest tertile of education. Conversely, significant associations between depressive symptoms and having five or more typical drinks relative to 1–2 typical drinks were observed among both people with no current employment (RRR = 2.00, p < 0.01), part-time employment (RRR = 2.06, p ≤ 0.05) and people with full-time employment (RRR = 1.35, p < 0.05). For frequency of HED, adjusted models showed depressive symptoms was not significantly associated with any level of frequency of HED within any of the levels of education. Within employment levels, depressive symptoms was associated with having 13+ past year HED episodes relative to 1–6 HED episodes among people with no employment (RRR = 1.97, p < 0.05), and part-time employment (RRR = 2.33, p ≤ 0.01) in adjusted models, whereas no association was observed among people with full-time employment.
Assessing the interaction between depressive symptoms and education and employment separately to assess differences in the associations between depressive symptoms and measures of alcohol use at different levels of SES revealed only one significant difference. We observed that depressive symptoms affect the relative risk of having 13+ past-year HED episodes vs. 1–6 episodes differently across employment strata. In the adjusted model, the relative risk of depressive symptoms on 13+ past year HED episodes vs. 1–6 episodes among people with part-time employment was greater than the relative risk of depressive symptoms on 13+ past year HED episodes vs. 1–6 episodes among people with full-time employment (RRR = 1.95, p = 0.03). Among people with no employment, the relative risk of depressive symptoms on 13+ past year HED episodes vs. 1–6 episodes was greater than the relative risk of depressive symptoms on 13+ past year HED episodes vs 1–6 episodes among people full-time employment (RRR = 1.76, p = 0.04).
This study observed associations between depressive symptoms and two measures of alcohol use at different levels of education and employment as measures of SES. We observed associations between depressive symptoms and typical quantity of drinks consumed in the past year at the lowest and middle levels of education, and associations at all levels of employment. We observed no associations between depressive symptoms and past-year HED frequency at any level of education, and associations among people with no and part-time employment only. We also found evidence showing differences in the associations between depressive symptoms and frequency of past-year HED across levels of employment, where people with no and part-time employment had stronger associations than people with full-time employment. The results show mixed support for the hypothesis that there is a stronger association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use among people with lower SES, and suggest type of alcohol use and SES measure may influence the observation of an association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use at different SES levels.
Our findings that some associations between measures of alcohol use and depressive symptoms were statistically significant within particular indicators of lower SES is consistent with epidemiologic work showing that people experiencing greater social disadvantage suffer poor health outcomes, including somatic and mental health disorders. Suggested mechanisms driving this disparity are a differential in exposure to chronic stressors [26, 27] or enhanced vulnerability to negative health- related consequences when exposed to risk factors . Either of these mechanisms is plausible regarding the relationship between alcohol use and depression, and warrant study in future research to elucidate mechanisms driving the socioeconomic disparity in the association between alcohol use and depressive symptoms.
The association between alcohol use measured as typical quantity of drinks and depressive symptoms is consistent with previous studies. Graham et al. reported a small, positive relationship between volume of drinking and depression in a population-based survey of over 14,000 Canadians . In a sample of adults aged 65 or older, Graham and colleagues similarly reported an association between alcohol volume and psychological well-being . However, consistent with our results of a stronger relationship between depressive symptoms and HED compared to typical quantity of drinks, Graham’s study further reported the strongest relationship between heavy drinking and poorer psychological well-being .
For typical number of drinks consumed, an association with depression was observed at lower levels of education and not at higher levels, where depression was associated with an increased likelihood of consuming a higher number of typical drinks. We did not observe this pattern for employment, that is, we observed an association between depression and typical number consumed at all levels of employment. These contradictory findings likely reflect that no single measure of socioeconomic status can provide a complete picture of socioeconomic position. A recent study from Australia estimated the relative magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in health by income, education and an area-based socioeconomic index, and found substantial variations according to type of SES measure . Our different findings between education and employment could potentially also reflect the differential effects of proximal versus distal socioeconomic conditions on the relationship between depressive symptoms and the typical number of drinks consumed; namely the impact of having current, disposable income and gainful employment versus the impact of a history or the long-term condition of low SES as represented by lower educational attainment. The latter might suggest sustained, chronic low SES, as opposed to the transient state of being in a temporary financially disadvantaged position by being without current employment. This temporality may be an important aspect of the impact of SES on the relationship between depression and alcohol use, especially when alcohol consumption is measured as typical quantity of use, and should be considered in future studies of the effect of SES on the relationship between alcohol use and depressive symptoms.
In contrast to the observations we identified for the association between depressive symptoms and typical quantity consumed by education and employment, the associations between depressive symptoms and HED were only observed for the employment measure of SES, where depression was associated with more frequent HED episodes among people with no and part-time employment. Moreover, we observed an interaction between employment and depressive symptoms on the effect on risk of past-year HED frequency, where stronger associations between depressive symptoms and having 13+ past-year HED episodes were observed among people having no and part-time employment compared to those in full-time employment. This suggests employment may moderate the association between depressive symptoms and HED frequency, where people with lower level so employment are at greater risk of HED when depressive symptoms are present than people at higher levels of employment. This may speak to the measure of HED as a more acutely harmful pattern of drinking for health than any use or typical consumption , and is supported by the consistent evidence linking HED with depressive symptoms across different measures of depression and depressive affect [4, 6]. This supports the development of prevention interventions for people not engaged in gainful employment or in part-time employment who are experiencing depressive symptoms in an effort to prevent or lessen the frequency of HED episodes and their potential negative consequences.
The limitations of this study deserve mention. First, the response rate was on the lower end of what is considered acceptable for population-based surveys, and there were significant differences across various sociodemographic characteristics between those who were missing data on key variables and excluded from the dataset and those who had valid responses. This low response rate and the systematic differences in missing data mean this sample is not representative of the Oslo, Hedmark and Oppland municipalities from which they were drawn. Relatedly, the survey was conducted nearly 15 years ago when recorded adult per capita pure alcohol consumption was 5.7 L compared to 6.1 L in 2014, but drinking patterns and drinking norms have changed only marginally among middle-aged drinkers in Norway (www.ssb.no) Thus, generalizations to the current, middle-aged general populations of these regions should be done with some care. Also, there is a selection bias towards those who are more likely to participate in health surveys and respond to questions on depressive symptoms and alcohol. But in terms of the associations we investigated, beyond the low response rate, the pattern of missing data may introduce bias into the observed associations. That people who were unemployed and less well educated were often missing responses on depressive symptoms and alcohol use measures indicates we might have underestimated the effect sizes of SES. This would occur if levels of depressive symptoms and alcohol use were higher among the unemployed and less well educated, as we observed in the sample analyzed. In such a case, the exclusion of these cases may have biased the associations towards the null. However, since no data exists for non-responders to examine this possibility, we also acknowledge that no bias or a bias against the null is possible. Self-reports of alcohol use are always subject to under-reporting, and may therefore below estimates of true alcohol consumption. Moreover, the frequency of past-year HED was assessed as the number of times overall and not according to a monthly or weekly timeframe. While the categories we constructed for the frequency of past-year HED were an attempt to correspond these numbers to monthly or less than monthly HED frequencies, they are not precise and limit this measures utility. In addition to more refined measures of HED frequency, using other measures of alcohol consumption in future studies, particularly standardized measures and gender-specific measures, would help further our understanding of the relationships between depressive symptoms, alcohol use, and socio-economic status. Our measures of socio-economic status as employment status and years of education are crude, and additional measures such as household and individual income, and parent’s background would serve to refine this measure. Finally, as this is cross-sectional data we cannot infer about the causality between depressive symptoms and alcohol use, or the point on this causal pathway at which the effect of SES takes place.
Overall, these findings suggest people with lower levels of education and without full-time employment to have a greater risk of experiencing depressive symptoms when consuming higher amounts of alcohol, either as their typical mode of intake or as heavy episodic drinking. Alternatively, it suggests that people experiencing depressive symptoms may be at a greater risk of developing harmful drinking patterns. Also, in either case, identifying that groups with lower SES are more vulnerable to alcohol-related and mental health harms supports calls for prevention interventions targeting this group, especially because this group may be less likely to seek and receive treatment for their maladies . Our findings also suggest that having several and varied measures of SES and alcohol use are an important methodological consideration when studying the impact of SES on the relationship between depressive symptoms and alcohol use.
The authors would like to acknowledge the organizers of the OPPHED and HUBRO studies and the study participants for providing the data used for this work. We would also like to thank the participants of the annual meeting of the Kettil Bruun Society for helpful comments.
JGB, PM and SPN designed the study. JGB secured the data. PM and BP performed the statistical analysis. BP and CT prepared the first draft of the manuscript. PM, SPN and JGB participated in interpretation of the findings and contributed to the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript to be published. | https://0-bmcpublichealth-biomedcentral-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-2479-6 |
1958. Original copyright American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. Copyright has expired.
Basically, the Buckley-Leverett theory involves two systems which are similar in nature but are differentiated by time. These systems may be described by the fractional flow and frontal advance equations which essentially characterize the mechanics of oil movement while being expelled from the reservoir.
The development of this equation is based on Darcy's law describing fluid flow through porous media and applies to the flow at only one point (it is a point function). For simplification, the fractional flow equation is written in the above form because the capillary forces always increase the fractional flow of the displacing phase regardless of the direction of flow or the displacing phase.
Two general applications of the Buckley-Leverett frontal advance theory involve the system in which the oil is being displaced by an expanding gas cap overlying the oil zone and that in which the oil is being displaced by water.
A system in which gas is the displacing phase may be thought of as having two forces effecting the displacement process. These forces are the gravitational force and that force exerted by the displacing gas. The gravitational effects control the displacing efficiency of the gas. The gravitational effect will be less at higher rates of flow, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the displacement of the oil by the gas. The more efficient displacements occur at flow rates which are less than the gravity free fall rate. Capillary forces can be neglected without materially changing the magnitude of the gas saturation.
The Mile Six pool is used herein to illustrate the calculating procedures in evaluating gas drive-gravity drainage field performance. These calculations represent the determination of the gas-oil contact when the distribution of the hydrocarbon pore volume is considered. | https://www.onepetro.org/journal-paper/SPE-835-G |
This is a new RO1 grant application to study the evolutionary diversification of the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni, and its snail host, Biomphalaria spp. Schistosomiasis is one of the most serious of parasitic diseases, and future control efforts will require a better understanding of the basic biology of these parasites, including their evolutionary biology. Moreover an important key to understanding schistosome evolution is to comprehend their dependence on snails as intermediate hosts, yet there exists a lack of even rudimentary knowledge of the evolutionary relationships among these snail vectors, and how those relationships might influence schistosome evolution. However, in order to obtain a 'global' perspective on past and present evolution of S. mansoni and its snail host species, representative samples across the entire geographic range of these organisms would be required for a comprehensive analysis. Accordingly, the PI proposes to obtain samples of S. mansoni populations and corresponding host snails covering their geographic ranges, and, using genomic and mitochondrial target gene sequence analyses in conjunction with powerful molecular phylogenetic techniques, he will then construct a series of cladograms or trees to develop robust hypotheses regarding evolutionary relationships among S. mansoni populations, and among their snail hosts. The data generated will address questions of how genetic variation in S. mansoni is apportioned among and within continents, whether this variation results from geographic isolation or is driven by coevolution with their hosts, and what factors influence variability within parasite populations. Hypotheses also will be provided regarding the origins of Biomphalaria, whether susceptibility is an ancestral or derived trait, how Biomphalaria is related to other snail host genera, and how snail evolution may have influenced schistosome evolution.
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What is the most useless Greek god?
In Greek mythology, Koalemos is the god of stupidity, mentioned once by Aristophanes, and being found also in Lives by Plutarch.
What are the 3 most powerful Greek gods?
Gods and GoddessesZeus. The most powerful of all, Zeus was god of the sky and the king of Mount Olympus. Hera. Hera was goddess of marriage and the queen of Olympus. Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, and the protector of sailors. Artemis. Athena. Hephaestus. Hestia. Hermes.
Who is the prettiest Greek god?
The goddess of sex, love, and passion is Aphrodite, and she is considered the most beautiful Greek goddess in Mythology. There are two versions of how Aphrodite was born.
What are the top 5 Greek gods?
Top 10 Ancient Greek GodsAres. Cronos. Apollo. Dionysus. Prometheus. Poseidon. Hades. Zeus. Zeus was the god of the whole known universe that the Olympians won from the Titans.
Who is the weakest God?
Cupid (Eros) is the weakest figure in ancient Greek mythology. He’s a boy with a bow and arrow, and not great aim. Ancient myths express profound truths, though, so Cupid is also the strongest. According to Pindar, “even the gods abhor his power.”
Who is the strongest son of Zeus?
Heracles
Who is Zeus afraid of?
When Zeus realized what Hypnos did, he chased after him. The answer is simple: he was afraid of making Nyx angry. This story is unique because Zeus usually is not afraid of angering the other gods or goddesses. In fact, many myths feature situations in which gods or men are afraid of angering Zeus.
Who is Zeus’s favorite son?
Apollo
Who was Zeus’s favorite child?
Athena
Who is Poseidon’s favorite child?
Percy
Why did Zeus eat his wife?
In some versions of Greek mythology, Zeus ate his wife Metis because it was known that their second child would be more powerful than him. As ruler of heaven Zeus led the gods to victory against the Giants (offspring of Gaea and Tartarus) and successfully crushed several revolts against him by his fellow gods.
Who kills Zeus?
In Greek mythology, Zeus is not killed at all. Zeus is king of the Greek gods and goddesses, a role he takes on after defeating his own father….
Can Zeus beat Odin?
Odin wipes the floor with Thor every time they fight. So the fact that Thor was able to hold his own against Zeus speaks volumes and I think is good enough evidence to say that between Odin and Zeus, Odin is more powerful than Zeus, perhaps even more than just “Slightly more powerful.”
Can Zeus beat Thanos?
On a normal day, Zeus would wreck Thanos, but he is never winning while Thanos has the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos using it makes him the strongest being in the Marvel universe. He defeated the cosmic entities of the Marvel Universe, beings more powerful than gods.
Can Thor beat Zeus?
This would depend on which versions we are talking about. Zeus is a sky-father and is the equal of Odin, Thor’s own father. And Odin would beat the jeebus out of Thor in a heartbeat. So naturally, Zeus would win the battle.
Is Odin The son of Zeus?
Odin is the son of Bor, son of Buri, who was born from a cow on back of Ymir’s the Titan. Like Zeus, Odin is the direct descendant of the Titans, and when Ymir eventually turned evil, Odin and his two brothers killed Ymir in order to create the world of man and gods alike.
Is Zeus the father of Thor?
Differences between Thor and Zeus The first main difference between Thor and Zeus comes from each god’s relationship with his father. Thor was extremely close with his father, Odin, while Zeus hated his father, Titan god Cronus.
Is Odin stronger than Thanos?
Odin is more durable and stronger than Thanos and, as a mere side effect of his battles (collateral damage, essentially) entire galaxies can be destroyed (something which happened in his fight with Seth, for example). | https://www.leonieclaire.com/the-best-writing-tips/what-is-the-most-useless-greek-god/ |
Cycle3 IT Staffing is seeking a Senior Project Manager.
Opportunity to join a technology based company on a contract with multiple growth opportunities within that company located in St. Louis County.
Establishes and implements project management processes and methodologies for the IT community to ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, adhere to high quality standards and meet customer expectations
Responsible for assembling project plans and teamwork assignments, directing and monitoring work efforts on a daily basis, identifying resource needs, performing quality reviews; and escalating functional, quality, timeline issues appropriately. Responsible for tracking key project milestones and adjusting project plans and/or resources
Coordinates communication with all areas of the enterprise that impacts the scope, budget, risk and resources of the work effort being managed
Manages one or more cross-functional projects of high complexity.
Responsible for the management of one or more medium to large-sized, moderately to highly complex projects.
- Advanced ability to oversee and manage large, complex, diverse and strategic projects that impact the organization as a whole.
- Advanced understanding and ability to manage complex program and project budgets.
- Advanced ability in implementing program and project plans, monitoring progress, resource usage and quality.
- Advanced knowledge in conducting risk assessments and developing plans for eliminating or mitigating the risks identified. | http://www.cycle3it.com/job/senior-project-manager-17/ |
DOCUMENTARY FILM MASTERWORKS
During its astonishing 170-year history, the saxophone has been seen by some as both the most seductive and the most feared of musical instruments. From Adolphe Sax’s workshop in the 1840’s to the era of jazz, playing it was forbidden by both the Nazis and the Communists and it was banned by the Pope, yet it gradually conquered all of the music genres. In his newest award-winning documentary, “THE DEVIL’S HORN: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool” (86 min., 2016), Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein illuminates the fascinating story of the saxophone, while featuring some of its most legendary players. “The Devil’s Horn” also explores the sax’s long-standing curse that stemmed from the difficult life of its mad inventor, and is still said to affect saxophonists who fall prey to the instrument’s dark powers. | https://oakmontvillage.com/article/music-lovers-7-15-2019/ |
Musician turned sommelier Dom Robinson shares the wines that altered his professional path and led him to Melbourne. Dom is the head sommelier at one of Australia’s most celebrated restaurants, Attica.
Dom Robinson, head sommelier at Melbourne's Attica.
01. 1998 Lake’s Folly Cabernets
This is the first wine that I put to my nose, and probably the first wine I ever tried. Dad has been on the mailing list at Lake’s Folly since the early 1990s, so for as long as I can remember, special occasions have been marked with a dusty old bottle of Folly from under the stairs. It was the ritual that I found so fascinating, and the deeper I dug into the story of the vineyard, the more I was drawn to a life in wine. Every now and then, I’ll crack a bottle with Mum and Dad, and it immediately takes me back.
02. 2014 Mac Forbes Woori Yallock Pinot Noir
This wine made me move to Melbourne. I’d just started working at Sydney’s Five Way Cellars when Mac released these single-site wines. The guys at the shop couldn’t stop raving about them, so I took a bottle of Woori home to have with my housemates over dinner. Something just clicked that night and it all made sense – I could see what Mac was on about, and what that site was all about. I needed a better understanding of where this came from; I needed to be in Melbourne to be closer to what I just tried. What Mac is doing is incredibly important. His curiosity and deep love for the Valley is infectious and so inspiring.
It was the ritual that I found so fascinating, and the deeper I dug into the story of the vineyard, the more I was drawn to a life in wine.
04. 2006 Domaine Prieuré Roch Les Suchots 1er Cru
This is from the late co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Henri-Frédéric Roch. It was a striking bottle, shared with a good friend from Tassie, at a restaurant that no longer exists. I can still recall the texture and sensation of this incredibly broad wine. It starts with quite a bit of impact, and then it is like it’s being teased out in both directions. I can still see the shape of the palate, and it had the most extravagant nose I have ever come close to. It was a great bottle having its perfect moment, and one I’ll never forget. You really want wines like that to live up to your expectation, and that bottle certainly took me to another place.
05. 2016 Envinate Benje Tinto
These guys have a reputation for really out-there wines. This is from their project in the Canary Islands, sourced from old-vine parcels of listan prieto, from basalt slopes 1000m above sea level. The vines look like trees and the grapes are enormous, like table grapes. This was one of several wines I shared with friends who have become family here in Melbourne. Most of the line-up were genuine unicorns – old, rare and expensive – but this had a different personality. It was bursting with layers of wild berries and spice. I couldn’t believe a wine made with that fruit could be so compelling – so crunchy and distinctive. Just another reminder it’s a big world out there.
This article first appeared in issue #59 of Halliday magazine. Become a member to receive the print publication as well as digital access. | https://www.winecompanion.com.au/articles/q-a-with-halliday/fast-five-dom-robinson |
The residents of Walker County rank 65th out of 67 Alabama counties in regards to their health and well-being. Rates of diabetes, premature death, and infant and child mortality are higher than the Alabama average.
74% of Walker County’s 66,661 residents live in rural areas. Even so, Walker County has a much lower rate of accessibility to recreational areas for physical activity than other Alabamians.
With 22.1% of our county population living in poverty, and a median income below the state and national averages, 12,500 Walker County citizens rely on SNAP benefits (food stamps).
More than 8,600 children in Walker County depend on free or reduced school lunch programs. Far too many don’t have enough food to maintain a healthy lifestyle or have access to food that is safe and nutritious.
54% of Walker County’s restaurants are fast food establishments, making it difficult to make healthy choices on a budget. Unhealthy choices are more readily available and selected more often.
The Walker County Health Action Partnership is collaborating to turn these trends around. We’d like you to join us in our efforts.
Obesity is more prevalent in
- Adults who earn less than $15,000 per year
- The unemployed
- Adults who did not graduate high school
Obesity-related health problems include Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, arthritis, cancer, and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Approximately 33% of cancer deaths are linked to obesity or lack of physical activity.
Health Action Partnership Goals
Our Goals
Healthy Food Choices: improve healthy food access
Livable Communities: increase active living and improve environments
Healthy People: improve community wellness
Healthy Food Choices Goal
It’s hard to eat healthy food when it’s out of reach. Walker County needs to improve access to fresh produce so that everyone can eat healthy. Rural Alabama is rich with agriculture. We need to connect local farmers with merchants and customers to provide healthier choices and reduce the rate of obesity in adults and children. Examples such as Camp McDowell’s Farm School set a standard for integrating gardening with education and business development.
Livable Communities Goal
To increase opportunities for physical activity, we’re working to equip Walker County with safe places to walk, ride bicycles, or just play. We want to create an environment where it’s easy to get to the places you need to go, whether it’s walking to school or to shops or to visit friends. More safe sidewalks and trails improve foot traffic and reduce time spent riding in cars and buses. Walker County has opportunities to increase our greenways, blueways, and open spaces with rails-to-trails projects, access to Black Water Creek, and more success stories like the “pocket” park in Jasper.
Healthy People Goal
A healthy community thrives in many ways. Higher rates of obesity and related diseases lead to more sick days and lower productivity from the workforce. Tobacco usage is 5% higher in Walker County than the rest of Alabama (higher than the national average). Smoke-free policies and support programs for cessation are a priority for Walker County to prevent tobacco-related disease. New businesses want to establish themselves in areas with amenities such as parks, greenways, and healthy food options. Improving the health of Walker County’s people and improving the environment of Walker County is an economic win. Healthy communities succeed by providing better opportunities for their residents to live longer and be more productive. | http://www.walkerhealthaction.org/goals/ |
Assemblymember Waldron – The Grape State of California
Assemblymember Marie Waldron — Last week the Assembly Select committee on Wine and also the Governmental Organization Committee, met in San Diego to discuss issues facing California’s wine industry. The bi-partisan committees heard from local vintners, the San Diego County Vintners Association, the Wine Institute, the Association of African-American Vintners and the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. Discussions ranged from complex interstate commerce issues, legal matters, regulations and enforcement, to tariffs, the impacts of Brexit and the new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Since many committee members hail from wine growing regions in Northern California, I was very happy to help represent the interests of our local wine industry. After all, wine is a big deal down here in San Diego and SW Riverside.
Take Temecula for instance. Temecula’s first commercial vineyard was planted in 1968. Temecula Valley’s 40-plus licensed wineries produce more than 500,000 cases annually, on vineyards covering over 2,400 acres. Due to its unique geography, cool, moderate and warm-climate varieties thrive in the Temecula Valley, including Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Grenache. Overall, Riverside County vineyards produced 1,746 tons of wine grapes in 2016, with an annual regional economic impact of $78 million.
San Diego County has a well-established history in the wine industry. The first vineyards in California were planted by the Friars at Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1769. In 2017, 1,210 acres were harvested by the County’s 115 wineries, producing 2,783 tons of grapes. Leading local varieties include Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Grenache. Our local wine industry generated a $50 million regional economic impact in 2017, up from just over $30 million in 2016.
With 90% of the nation’s wine exports originating in California, we must do all we can to make sure our region’s vineyards continue to thrive.
Calendar & Upcoming Events
The Pride of Vista Lions Club meets the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month at Coyote Cafe 1450 N. Santa Fe Ave, Vista. Programs and Business are conducted at both meetings depending on speaker availability. [...]
ista – Culture Caravan still has a few seats available for “Mission Inn’s 26th Annual Festival of Lights” in Riverside. The hotel will be illuminated with 5 million dazzling lights, 200 animated characters, a Winter Wonderland[...]
The Woman’s Club of Vista meets at 10:30 AM for a luncheon at the Shadowridge Golf Club, 1980 Gateway Drive, Vista. ( Dark July & August) September through January Luncheon is $18. All are welcome. [email protected] or[...] | |
A new study finds that when we are taught to identify and understand our own inner parts, or sub-personalities — such as the “inner manager” or the “inner child” we become far more understanding of the mental states of others, essentially increasing our levels of social intelligence and empathy.
For three months, 161 adult participants aged 20 to 55 were split into two groups and taught how to develop their perspective-taking skills through a variety of methods. The training was based on the Internal Family Systems model which views the self as being composed of different complex inner parts, each with its own defining set of behaviors, thoughts and emotions.
In this approach, each part may be identified as having a healthy and productive role or an extreme role, but each is still validated and recognized as important.
During the study, participants were taught to identify and label their own sub-personalities, as well as those of others. The findings show that after training, the participants could easily identify prototypical inner parts such as “the inner manager” or “the inner child” in their own personalities.
The degree to which participants improved their understanding of themselves, as reflected in the number of different inner parts they could identify, directly correlated with how well they improved in terms of their own flexibility and ability to accurately infer and understand the mental state of others.
In fact, the more negative inner parts they could identify in themselves, the better their awareness and understanding of other people’s negative frames of mind.
“There is a close link between getting better in understanding oneself and improvement in social intelligence,” said Dr. Anne Böckler of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science. Böckler conducted the study with Julius Maximilians University Würzburg in Germany.
The realization that people who learn to better identify negative aspects of themselves are better able to understand others has interesting implications for our ever-changing world, according to the researchers.
“This insight could prove important in an increasingly complex and interconnected world where taking the view of others, especially those from different cultures or with different religious backgrounds, becomes ever more difficult — and ever more necessary,” Böckler said.
The study suggests that taking the time to identify and understand our own inner mental states holds promise in therapeutic as well as non-clinical settings, all of which aim to foster psychological health and social intelligence.
The findings are published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. | https://psychcentral.com/news/2017/05/21/key-to-empathy-may-be-in-knowing-yourself/120821.html |
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a telecommunication billing method and apparatus for specifying and calculating the billing charges associated with value-added communication calls.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The new value-added services (e.g., 700 number, 800 number and 900 number services) are designed for mass calling to a service provider (sponsor) number with the calling party generally paying for the call. These 900 number services (e.g., DIAL-IT® 900-service offered by American Telephone and Telegraph Co.-AT &T) allow sponsors to offer a variety of value-added telecommunication services (Dial-A-Prayer, Televoting, etc.), to their clientele for which additional charges are assessed. To access the service, the clientele (callers) dial, illustratively, a 900-NXX-XXXX number and are routed to a Carrier Switch Network (CSN) Mass Announcement System (MAS) where the callers listen to the sponsor's prerecorded announcement. At present, the sponsors select the rate callers will pay for the service when the 900 number is assigned by the CSN. The 900 number and the rate selected by a sponsor are stored in a table in a CSN billing system. When a call is made to a sponsor's 900 number, the central office switch in the Local Exchange Company (LEC) makes a call record including the calling and called party of each call. These call records are transported periodically (typically every month) from the LEC to the CSN, and rated using the appropriate sponsor's rate table. This rating process involves a table look-up process to determine each caller's charge for a call to a particular sponsor's number. The resulting caller charge records are then returned to the LEC which includes the charges as part of the callers' monthly bill.
New CSN services now provide the sponsor more flexibility in defining their services by routing the value-added calls to a sponsor- selected location. One such service is the MultiQuest® telecommunications service offered by AT &T. These new services enable a sponsor to provide a greater variety of value-added services which may now include interactive dialog between the caller and the sponsor's agent. There is a continuing need for the CSN to add more flexible billing for these sponsor-provided value-added services.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the billing method and apparatus of the present invention, a caller is billed for charges incurred during a call made over a communication network to a sponsor location (equivalently referred to herein as called party) by 1) establishing an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) call connection between the network and the called party location, 2) the network transmitting to the called location, over that same connection, the caller's identification number, and 3) the network receiving from the called location, over that same connection, billing information specifying charges incurred by the caller during the call.
This arrangement provides the sponsor with more flexibility in billing callers for a sponsor's value-added services. Billing flexibility is achieved in accordance with the invention by creating a separate billing record for each call using sponsor-provided call billing parameters which can be updated during the call by the sponsor. Desirably, determining sponsor charges and creating a billing record on a call-by- call basis eliminates the need for the table look-up procedure required by the prior art call billing methods.
Another billing arrangement known to applicants which also solves the previously-described problems is described in the allowed patent application of I. Benyacar, et al., Ser. No. 509,662 filed on Apr. 16, 1990, and entitled "Method and Apparatus for the Billing of Value- Added Communication Calls." The Benyacar application, however, solves these problems by enabling the called-party location to access the network's operations support system (DSD-NCP 180 of FIG. 1) substantially in real time to specify call rating data and other associated call rate modifiers. In Benyacar, call rating information is sent to the network's operations support system via a separate connection which connection is different from the caller-to-called-party location connection, whereas, according to the present invention, call billing information is sent to the network's billing recording toll switch (e.g., the terminating toll switch) (TTS/SN 160 of FIG. 1) using the same caller-to-called-party location connection.
In accordance with various features of the present invention, caller charges may be specified as call billing parameters which may be changed in real time during the call and which may vary depending on the call type, time-of-day, geographic region, etc. These called party or sponsor- specified caller charges are then incorporated into the standard Automated Message Accounting (AMA) record generated by the CSN for each call and sent to a network billing system which processes the sponsor- specified caller charges for inclusion in the network bill sent to the customer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
In the drawing,
FIG. 1 shows, in block diagram form, an illustrative carrier switch network (CSN) useful in describing the operation of the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows a call flow diagram of the operation of the billing system and the CSN in accordance with the operation of the present invention;
FIG. 3 describes the mechanism by which the sponsor sends the rate information to the billing toll switch (the parameter messages are also shown in the figure); and
FIG. 4 shows a typical AMA billing record used to bill callers for calls made over the network.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Before proceeding with the operating description of the inventive method and apparatus for billing value-added communication calls, it should be recognized that the apparatus and method of the invention may be adapted for use with a variety of different systems which can be arranged to implement the switching network configuration shown in FIG. 1. Since the various systems shown in FIG. 1 utilize a variety of hardware and programming techniques, no attempt is made to describe the existing programs used to control these various systems. However, using the following description as a guide, the operations of the present invention should be integrated into the control structure of the various systems of FIG. 1, and tailored to cooperate with other features and operations of those systems. Thus, in order to avoid confusion and enable those skilled in the art to practice the claimed invention, this specification will describe the operation of the present invention using the network block diagram of FIG. 1, the call flow diagrams of FIGS. 2 and 3 and the billing record shown in FIG. 4. In the following description, the first digit of an element's reference number designates the figure where the element is located (e.g., 101 is located in FIG. 1).
With reference to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a block diagram of a well-known switching network configuration useful in describing the operation of the present invention. The drawing illustrates a Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) 101 and a Carrier Switch Network (CSN) 100. The LEC 101 serves telephone station 103, and enables this station to complete calls to other stations (not shown) of the network in a well- known manner. The CSN 100 also enables station 103 to access value-added services provided by vendors (sponsors) via equipment such as enhanced services platform (ESP) 170 connected to CSN 100. The ESP 170, using ISDN interface 179, may connect to CSN 100 directly via ISDN facility 190 or indirectly via ISDN facility 191, LEC 106 and facility 192.
The CSN 100, illustratively, may comprise Originating Toll Switch (OTS) 110, Operator Services Position System (OSPS) 120, Action Point (ACP) 130, billing system 140; routing network 150, Terminating Toll Switch (TTS)/Service Node (SN) 160, Network Control Point (NCP) 180 and Announcement System 145.
While LEC 101 is shown, illustratively, to connect via facility 102 to OTS 110 in FIG. 1, it may equivalently also connect directly to ACP 130. Thus, OTS 110, and ACP 130 are points in CSN 100 which usually interface to other networks (e.g., LEC) or may directly connect to telephone stations (e.g., 103). Since OTS 110, in our example, does not contain the ACP software, it is considered a non-ACP switch. Consequently, all calls originated through OTS 110 must be directed to a toll switching office having ACP 130 software (e.g., 130), hereinafter designated as an ACP 130. The ACP 130 is characterized as having a Common Channel Signaling (CCS) network connection to centralized data bases referred to as a Network Control Point (NCP). Some NCPs, e.g., 180, have Direct Services Dialing (DSD) capability which permits direct access by ACP 130 offices using dialing codes. The DSD-NCP 180 is hereinafter referred to as NCP 180. The structure and general operation of ACPs and NCPs is described in R. L. Asmuth, U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,094 which is incorporated herein by reference.
The operation of Network Control Point (NCP) 180 is also described, for example, in the D. Sheinbein, et al., article on pp. 1737- 1744 Bell System Technical Journal, (BSTJ), September, 1982, Volume 61, No. 7, part 3. The changes in the operation of NCP 180 to perform the functions of the present invention are described in later paragraphs.
The CCS 189 direct signaling facilities which link ACP 130 and NCP 180 are, basically, a packet switching system for routing messages in accordance with their address data contents. CCS 189 network features are disclosed in the February, 1978, Bell System Technical Journal, (BSTJ) No. 2 and in W. B. Smith, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,613 of Nov. 30, 1971.
An illustrative OSPS 110 is described in the article written by N. X. DeLessio, et al.: "An Integrated Operator Services Capability for the 5ESS Switching System", International Switching Symposium, (Florence), Session 22C, Paper 3, pp. 1-5, May, 1984.
It should be noted that the structural details of LEC 101, toll office OTS 110 and the OSPS 120 form no part of the present invention and are only described herein to the extent necessary for an understanding of the invention.
LEC 101 may be, illustratively, a 5ESS® (electronic switching system). The 5ESS is extensively described by K. E. Martersteck, et al., in AT &T Technical Journal, Volume 64, No. 6, part 2, pp. 1305-1564, July/August, 1985. The above-identified disclosures and the citations referred to therein may be consulted for a complete understanding of the construction and operations of a typical toll office.
The OTS 110, ACP 130 and TTS/SN 160 may be, illustratively, an electronic program-controlled telephone system of the No. 4ESS design as described by A. E. Ritchie, et al., in the Bell System Technical Journal, (BSTJ), September, 1977, Volume 56, No. 7.
The TTS/SN 160 and LEC 106 each include an ISDN interface 161 and 162, respectively, which enables ISDN signaling between the No. 4ESS system and the sponsor's enhanced service platform (ESP) 170 via ISDN facilities 190 and 191, respectively.
Sponsor ESP 170 also includes an ISDN interface 179 to ISDN facility 190 or 191. The ISDN Facilities 190 and 191 may provide either Primary Rate interface (PRI) ISDN service or Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN service. The well-known ISDN technology is described in the AT & T Technical Journal, Vol. 66 Iss. 3, May-June, 1987, and, Vol. 65, Iss. 1, January-February, 1986, which is incorporated by reference herein. In addition, it is assumed that all ISDN equipment utilize the well-known ISDN Q.931 protocol, and support ISDN applications as defined in AT & T Network's ISDN Primary Rate Interface Specification, Technical Reference 41449, April 1989, and AT &T Network's ISDN Primary Rate Interface and Special Applications Specification, Technical Reference 41459, April 1989.
As is known in the art, each PRI ISDN trunk consists of 23 lines, or "B" channels, that are available for use in sending and receiving information. In addition, each trunk also consists of a "D" channel which is used for sending signalling and control data in order to manage the information carried by the 23 B channels. Each BRI ISDN trunk is comprised of 2 B channels and a D channel. The present description assumes that the ISDN interfaces 161, 162 and interface 179, and ISDN facilities 190 and 191, as utilized and described herein operate in the standard well-known manner.
In accordance with the present invention, one or more B channel(s) are used for communication between the caller 103 and the called location ESP 170, while the D channel is used for communicating signaling and control messages including caller identification and billing information between network 100 and ESP 170.
The sponsor-enhanced service platform 170 may provide any of a variety of well-known services such as information database service, consulting service, marketing service, etc. The ESP 170 may typically include a processor 171 comprising CPU 172 and memory 173 including program memory 174 and data memory 175. The ESP 170 may, illustratively, be part of or an adjunct to a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), not shown, at the sponsor location. Program memory stores the program required to manage the various services provided by ESP 170 including the interactions with the caller. The data memory 175, illustratively shown as part of processor 171, contains an operational billing database as well as the information databases required to provide the various services provided by ESP 170. Alternatively, data memory 175 may be part of a data base system (not shown) which is accessible by processor 171. Announcement circuit 176 provides the various announcements used by ESP 170 to output the menu to the caller and to interact with the caller. The touch-tone receiver 177 enables the detection of user touch tone inputs in response to voice announcement inquiries outputted to the user by ESP 170. The speech recognizer 178 enables ESP 170 to determine a caller voice response to system inquiries.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In accordance with the method and apparatus of the present invention, when a customer (e.g., caller at station 103) dials a value- added call to a sponsor number, the call is routed to a sponsor location (e.g., ESP 170) and any sponsor-specified charges incurred during the call are separately determined for each call and included in the network bill to the caller. It should be understood that the term "sponsor" as used herein includes any person acting on behalf of the sponsor. The sponsor- specified charges are incurred for value-added services provided by the sponsor during the call. The sponsor-specified charges are determined using sponsor-provided call billing parameters which may change substantially in real time by the sponsor. Note, while a value- added call is described herein as using a 900 access code, it should be understood that other service access codes could be used to signify a value-added call. While the present invention has been described for value-added service calls using 900 numbers, it should be understood that it may also be used with other telecommunication services, for example 976-XXXX number calls or 700 or 800-number calls.
The present invention enables the sponsor (at ESP 170) to interactively specify call billing parameters which specify the caller charges. These sponsor-specified caller charges are transported on a call- by-ball basis from ESP 170 via ISDN facility 190 or 191 (and TSS/SN 160, routing network 150 and ACP 130) to the billing system 140. Note, the billing system 140 could, alternatively, be connected to the originating toll switch 110 or the terminating toll switch 160. The billing system 140 recognizes and processes the sponsor-specified charges for inclusion in the network bill to the customer (caller).
With joint reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 we describe, in more detail, the inventive method and apparatus for the billing of a value- added communication call originated by a caller at station 103 and terminating at sponsor equipment 170. One illustrative value-added communication service which the present invention may be adapted and utilized with is the previously-referenced MultiQuest telecommunication service.
Assume initially, in Step 201, that a caller at station 103 dials 1- 900-NXX-XXXX where the N digit is any number between 2-9 and each of the X digits is any number between 0-9. The caller may have selected to call this 900 number based on seeing or hearing the sponsor advertisement in various media.
The LEC 101 receives the dialed number and, in step 203, selects the long distance carrier using the dialed 900 number. In our example, we assume that the dialed 900 number specified AT &T as the Carrier Switch Network (CSN) 100. Note, while the operation of the present invention is described with reference to the AT &T CSN 100, the present invention could be adopted in a straightforward manner to operate with other CSN arrangements. In step 205, LEC 101 routes the call to CSN 100 where it is received by OTS 110. In should be noted that the originating LEC 101 may be either an Equal Access End Office (EAEO) or a Non-Conforming Office (NCO). An EAEO location has Automatic Number Identification (ANI) capability which enables the caller's number to be provided to OTS 110. The ANI number is required for billing the calling party for any calling charges and any value-added service charges.
If the caller's LEC 101 is an NCO location, ANI is not available and, hence, the caller's number must be obtained by CSN 100 directly or by using the assistance of an operator.
The OTS 110 recognizes the dialed number as a value-added service number (e.g., a MultiQuest service call) and routes the call, in step 207, to ACP 130 for further call processing. ACP 130 determines from the incoming trunk group identity that the call is a direct-dialed call and not an operator-assisted call. Note, in an alternate embodiment, both direct-dialed (1-900 calls) and operator-assisted calls (0-900 calls) may be received at the ACP 130, via OTS 110, without OSPS 120 intervention. In such a case, the ACP 130 forwards calls to the OSPS 120. It should be noted that the operation of the present invention is the same for both of these embodiments.
In step 209, ACP 130 determines whether an ANI number is received from OTS 110, if so, call processing continues in step 233; if not, the call is blocked or terminated with an appropriate message in step 211. An illustrative message (from announcement system 145) in step 211 informs the caller that "your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please redial your call as 0-900-NXX-XXXX".
For direct-dialed calls which are blocked (i.e., those without ANI numbers) as well as those calls or which the caller desires operator assistance, the caller dials 0-900-NXX-XXXX (step 213). When CSN 100 is the AT &T network, the caller may also reach OSPS 120 without the intermediate LEC 101 screening.
LEC 101 identifies the call as an AT &T network call and routes the call to CSN 100, in step 215. In step 217, the call is sent by LEC 101 to an OSPS 120 for operator assistance. The OSPS 120 identifies the call as a value-added service call, in step 219, by interpreting the dialed number. If the call is not a value-added call, then it is handled, in step 221, in the appropriate manner by OSPS 120. That is, the call may be appropriately completed or blocked.
If the call is recognized as a value-added call, OSPS 120 may automatically collect the caller's telephone or charge card number or may connect an operator to collect the caller's number. The caller's telephone number (ANI) or charge card number will be used to bill charges incurred by the caller during the call.
Under the automatic card number collection procedure, in step 223, OSPS 120 provides a "bong" tone to the caller, collects the charge card number, (e.g., an AT &T credit card number or commercial credit card number), and requests and receives a credit card validation. In step 225, OSPS 120 forwards the card number to the ACP 130 for call processing. Note, some telephone credit cards use ANI plus a PIN (4- digit personal identification code) as the credit card validation. If the caller enters digits which correspond to the Sponsor-Created Credit Cards (SCC), these numbers are forwarded to the ACP for further call processing. Validation of these card numbers are performed within the network at the NCP. If the caller does not enter the digits, the call is connected to an operator who obtains the caller's number (ANI) and/or charge card number (i.e., billing number), which is forwarded to the ACP 130 for further call processing.
In step 233, ACP 130 sends a query, which includes the 10-digit dialed number (called party) and the ANI and/or billing number, over the CCS network 189 to NCP 180. The CCS network 189 routes the query, based on the dialed number, to the appropriate NCP, NCP 180 in our example.
In step 239, NCP 180 uses the dialed number (DN) (900-NXX-XXXX) to access the NCP data base to identify the sponsor assigned to the dialed number. In step 241, NCP 180 returns the APN routing number (SSS- TTT- XXXX) as well as a BIL command message specifying the parameters for an automatic message accounting (AMA) record (FIG. 4) of this call.
In step 243, the ACP 130 routes the call to the terminating toll switch TTS 160 or local switch LEC 106 indicated by the SSS digits of the routing number. In our example, we assume the call is routed through routing network 150 to TTS 160. In step 245, TTS 160 routes the call to the called (i.e., sponsor's) location (e.g., ESP 170 in FIG. 1). At this point, TTS 160 sends a signaling message including the caller's identification, as part of the well-known ISDN call setup procedure. The signaling message may be in a SETUP message. This information is sent over the D channel of the ISDN connection. A caller's identification is defined herein to mean a network call identification number (which can be translated into the caller's station number), caller's station number, caller's billing number, a subaccount indicator (caller's subaccount number) or other identification which ensures that the proper party will be billed for the call.
In step 247, when answer supervision is returned by the sponsor's ESP 170, the ACP 130 will start timing the call. Note, ESP 170 may also time the call connection for its own purposes.
In response to the receipt of the SETUP message, ESP 170 sends response back to TTS 160 to indicate that the call identification information has been received (e.g., CONNECT message).
In step 248, an attendant or announcement circuit 176 at the sponsor ESP 170 sends a greeting to the user and requests various user information, e.g., name, account number or other identifiers. The sponsor collects the caller response and may do a credit check on a caller using the provided information. If the credit check indicates that the call should not be accepted, then a suitable message is outputted to the caller and the call is terminated.
If the credit check indicates the call should be continued, ESP 170 outputs a menu of various sponsor's services available to the user. If ESP 170 uses an attendant, the attendant would recite the menu and collect the responses. If ESP 170 is automated, the menu selection process may use an interactive voice response format which enables the user to enter selections, using touch-tone entries, at station 103, in response to voice queries from the sponsor ESP 170. The touch-tone receiver 177 would receive the user's selection. Alternatively, the sponsor ESP 170 may include speech recognition equipment 178 which can determine the user selections. Moreover, if the user station 103 includes a video display terminal or computer, a text message can be outputted to the caller. Additionally, if the user station 103 includes a facsimile machine, data in facsimile form can be sent thereto from ESP 170.
After the attendant, touch-tone receiver 177 or speech recognizer 178 collects the caller's response, ESP 170 selects appropriate billing parameters for the call. The sponsor provides the caller with the desired information service requested by connecting the caller to an information consultant or by outputting information directly from a database (in voice, text or fax form). Note, according to another aspect of the invention, the caller may, during the call, request a connection to more than one sponsor-provided feature or service. In such a scenario, the sponsor 170 may bill the caller at a rate which is appropriate for each of the requested services.
During step 249, before the call is terminated, the sponsor 170 sends a signaling message to the terminating toll switch 160 via ISDN interface 179 and facility 190 or 191, respectively. Note, according to another feature, a separate signaling message can be sent each time the caller has selected a different service which requires a different rating or billing information. The rating or billing information for the various services provided is passed from the sponsor's ESP 170 via TTS 160 to the billing system where billing data are being collected, using either a connection-oriented or connectionless architecture. Note, the billing system 140 could be connected to the ACP 130, as shown in FIG. 1, or alternatively to the originating toll switch 110 or the terminating toll switch 160.
If the architecture is connection-oriented, a well-known ISDN network- to-user Temporary Signaling Connection (TSC) will be used. If the architecture is connectionless, one or more of the well-known ISDN REGISTER messages may be used. This signaling message contains call identification, call timing and call rating information, referred to as the sponsor-specified caller rate information, as illustrated in 310 of FIG. 3. In response, TTS/SN 160 returns a response message ESP 170 to indicate a receipt of the information (e.g., FACILITY message).
The call identification information is the information originally provided by the network. Note, it is contemplated that the terminating toll switch TTS 160, and ESP 170 may be arranged to receive additional information, e.g., third party billing, credit card billing, as part of the call identification information. A caller-provided subaccount indicator (see 420 of FIG. 4) may also be provided by ESP 170 to the network.
The call rate information would include the actual charges incurred by the caller, based on the caller-selected services provided by the sponsor ESP 170. The rate information may also be specified using a variety of call length and call rate parameter combinations illustrated in section 420 of AMA billing record of FIG. 4. Thus, for an Initial Period Length (IPL) an Initial Period Rate (IPR) may be charged and an Additional Period Rate (APR) charged for the Additional Period Length (APL). A Free Period Length (FPL) may be provided by the sponsor as well as a Rate Modifier (RM) which provides discounts to be applied to the calling charges. Note, the sponsor may specify a caller charge which does not vary with time by, for example, sending it as an IPR parameter with an APR parameter of zero. Thus, the caller charge would not vary with connection time.
The sponsor may adjust the call rating information to vary with the time of day, day of week, and day of year. The sponsor billing information may identify the type of call being billed (e.g., 421) which may vary in accordance with the selection response (touch tone digits or voice) of services by the caller. Note, if the caller selects more than one sponsor-provided service, then the billing record of FIG. 4 may require separate fields 420 and 421 to store billing parameters for each service or feature selected by the caller.
The sponsor may also vary charges depending on the caller's geographic area. The sponsor may also permit the caller to directly specify billing charge, for example, where the sponsor is a fund raiser and the user wants to make a donation to a charitable organization. Additionally, the sponsor may also provide a textual descriptor (text describing the charges incurred by the caller) as part of the billing information. Finally, the sponsor may optionally specify various call timing information back to the network. This may include the previously- mentioned IPL, APL, and FPL shown in 420 of FIG. 4.
In step 250, the terminating toll switch 160 sends a signaling message containing the call identification, call timing and call rating information to the billing recording toll switch ACP 130 via routing network 150.
With reference to FIG. 3, the ACP 130 receives the sponsor- specified caller rate information 310 and adds an additional set of parameters to the message. The information set added by ACP 130 is called ACP Specified Information (ASI) 360. The ASI includes, but is not limited to, the following parameters to the message sent to the billing systems. The ACP 130 defines a set of parameters collectively called Call Processing Information (CPI). This includes parameters such as Time of Call, Elapsed Time, etc. The ACP 130 receives Caller Entered Digits (CED) which are sent to the billing system and to the sponsor. The Call Disposition Information includes the response parameters from ACP 130 to the billing systems, and the sponsor, detailing the disposition of the particular call.
We again return to the call flow description of FIG. 2. In step 251, when the call is terminated the ACP 130 creates an AMA billing record shown in 370 of FIG. 3. FIG. 4 illustrates a typical AMA billing record structure and typical parameters therein which may be utilized for billing for a sponsor-provided value-added service (e.g., MultiQuest service). Some of the various parameters (401-409) of the AMA structure are obtained from the network message of FIG. 3 as well as from the ANI, dialed number and APN information associated with the value-added call. The significant billing parameters in the AMA record are the Billing Number (BN) 404-405, Connect Time (CT) 408, Elapsed Time (ET) 409, and Service Charge Information SCI 420. The Connect Time (CT) and the Elapsed Time (ET) are the values determined by ACP 130 in step 247.
In step 252, Billing System 140 generates the caller's and the sponsor's bills from the AMA billing record received from ACP 130 in a well-known manner. For calls originated through the originating toll switch 110 (1+calls) a caller's bill may appear on the telephone bill to station 103. For calls originating through OSPS 120 (i.e., 0+calls) a caller's bill may appear on a third-party telephone bill, on a carrier credit card, or on a commercial credit card. The caller's bill may also include the textual descriptors provided by the sponsor as part of the billing information.
The billing system 140 processes the AMA records to create aggregate and detailed call volumes and traffic parameters (e.g., geographic, time of day, calls blocked, etc.). The billing system also calculates the aggregate and detailed breakdown of revenues either payable to or receivable from the sponsor. The detailed sponsor billing records also contain subaccount indicators provided by the sponsor on a per call basis. This allows the sponsor to bill their clients or process the billing records in an appropriate manner.
The present invention may also be utilized to enable the sponsor to bill the caller for goods purchased over the telephone from the sponsor in addition to services provided by the sponsor. Furthermore, the invention may be utilized to accept caller-specified charges (e.g., donation made to a charity sponsor) which are entered by the caller, verified by the sponsor, and incorporated in the AMA record.
The sponsor can change the rate in real time. In one example, assume that the sponsor is in the business of providing expert consultation services. When the caller makes a call and pays the sponsor's premium charges, the caller may not wish to hear an answering machine. To better serve their clients, the sponsor might wish to set the rate to zero when the experts are not available (making it, in effect, a toll free call to the caller). When the experts return, the sponsor might reset the charges back to the original value. This improves the quality of the service to both caller and sponsor.
In a second example, assume the sponsor is advertising their service using television media. If the sponsor is not sure what price the products will bear, the sponsor can adjust the rate and determine the demand for the product in real time. This allows the sponsor to offer "limited time sale" of their goods and services.
The sponsor can specify that the rate varies by the caller's geographical location. This allows the sponsor to price their products differently in different regions. In doing so, they can stimulate their products in new regions of the country.
What has been described is merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. Other arrangements and methods can be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope scope | |
The 5F-AKB-48, or 5F-APINACA is a synthetic cannabinoid drug containing a substituted indazole group. This indazole moeity is substituted at R1 with a fluoropentyl chain, a substitution shared with 5F-PB-22.And the indazole is substituted at R3 with a carboxamide group. This group is N-substituted at its terminal amine group with an adamantane group. This group consists of four fused cyclohexane rings in a unique structure called a diamondoid. 5F-AKB-48 is an analog of STS-135 in which the core indole structure is substituted with an indazole base.Buy 5F-AKB-48 online
5F-APINACA was first made in South Korea.It is expected to be a potent agonist of the CB1 receptor and CB2 receptor.Its metabolism has been described in literature.
Structurally 5F-APINACA closely resembles cannabinoid compounds from patent WO 2003/035005 but with a 5-fluoropentyl chain on the indazole 1-position, and 5F-AKB 48 falls within the claims of this patent, it is very similar to the corresponding pentanenitrile and 4-chlorobutyl compounds.
5F-AKB-48 is known to be a synthetic cannabinoid as well as an analogue of AKB48.Since 5F-AKB 48 is an analogue of AKB48 and has close resemblances we can use the research performed on this chemical to learn more about 5F-AKB 48. The major difference is that 5F-AKB 48 has a fluoro atom attached. No major studies have been released at this time for 5F-AKB-48. There is nearly none information regarding the pharmacology of this compound within the scientific literature. And it is available for sale as a grey area research chemical through us
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5F-AKB-48 has formal name: N-(adamantan-1-yl)-1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide. The chemical formula is C23H30FN3O with a molecular weight of 383.50 g/mol.
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Our client is seeking a Vice President of Product to own the product strategy and roadmap for all our product lines. This person is responsible for managing Product Management teams, Product Development teams, and Compliance teams throughout the product lifecycle. The VP of Product will be responsible for obtaining product and customer requirements, creating and delivering products based on the strategic product strategy and roadmap, and using data analytics to operate those products postproduction. Additionally, the VP of Product will work closely with sales and marketing teams to maximize revenue and obtain a high level of customer satisfaction.
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Neural networks in financial engineering: a study in methodology.
Neural networks have shown considerable successes in modeling financial data series. However, a major weakness of neural modeling is the lack of established procedures for performing tests for misspecified models, and tests of statistical significance for the various parameters that have been estimated. This is a serious disadvantage in applications where there is a strong culture for testing not only the predictive power of a model or the sensitivity of the dependent variable to changes in the inputs but also the statistical significance of the finding at a specified level of confidence. Rarely is this more important than in the case of financial engineering, where the data generating processes are dominantly stochastic and only partially deterministic. Partly a tutorial, partly a review, this paper describes a collection of typical applications in options pricing, cointegration, the term structure of interest rates and models of investor behavior which highlight these weaknesses and propose and evaluate a number of solutions. We describe a number of alternative ways to deal with the problem of variable selection, show how to use model misspecification tests, we deploy a novel way based on cointegration to deal with the problem of nonstationarity, and generally describe approaches to predictive neural modeling which are more in tune with the requirements for modeling financial data series.
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The first edition of Hubble Vision became an international bestseller and won world-wide, critical acclaim. This eagerly awaited second edition is the most comprehensive, most authoritative and best illustrated popular book available on the Hubble Space Telescope. It provides a magnificent portfolio of the latest and greatest images from the HST, woven together with a lucid text explaining the most exciting discoveries and setting them in the context of our current understanding in astronomy. This second edition has been completely revised, updated and expanded to include all the latest astronomical discoveries - from supernovae and protostars to gravitational lensing, black holes and the early Universe. It is now even better illustrated, with nearly 25% more figures, and more than 100 entirely new. The unique combination of authors - an award-winning science writer and a key scientist involved in the development of the mission - ensure that the text is both engaging and authoritative. Hubble Vision offers a view of the Universe as never seen before. It will capture the imagination of all those interested in the astronomical quest of understanding our Universe - from high-school students to general readers and amateur astronomers.
ils:.b10981330|Book|Books|2nd ed.|English|Cambridge University Press,|1998.|xv, 224 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm. | https://aspen.marmot.org/GroupedWork/1c02fa5c-1aa5-2b63-9efd-f2ae03724e0b/Home |
David Kroon, Van-Thai Pham, Jörgen Larsson, Amélie Jarnac, Henrik Enquist, Andrius Jurgilaitis
The studied sample is an indium antimonide (InSb) coated with 60 nanometres of gold. This type of structure is called photo-acoustic transducer which is a device that can convert the energy in light to a sound wave. The sample is illuminated with light for a very short time (50 fs). The light is absorbed in the gold film and that energy is converted to heat within a few picoseconds. The rapid expansion due to heat creates sound waves both at the gold-vacuum interface and at the gold-InSb interface.
By using very short bursts of x-rays you can measure how the sound wave changes the local density of the InSb sample. The time-dependant intensity of the diffracted X-rays gives information about the shape of the acoustic waves which in turn sheds light on how the wave was generated. The particular design allows for modulating the intensity of X-rays with light. We have demonstrated an on-switch which allows reflection of X-rays for only 20 ps.
Although these types of experiments are very much basic science – the scientific field itself is no more than fifteen years old – one could foresee the knowledge obtained being used for example in making materials for data storage. Our daily lives become more and more dependent on storing ever growing amounts of data. The ability to write and read such data at high speeds is an important factor in this development.
In this particular experiment, the photo-acoustic transducer generated a series of acoustic strain pulses which pairwise made the studied acoustic phonons interfere destructively. Since the experiment probe the acoustic phonon, the X-ray reflectivity shows a peak structure with a 20 picosecond FWHM.
A lot of work still remains before FemtoMAX is a fully up-and-running beamline ready for user experiments. The most important improvement is that the new in-vacuum undulators from Hitachi needs to be installed. These are anticipated to give more than a factor 100 higher flux at this photon energy (5 keV) compared to the present undulator. This work is planned for the time around the start-up of the 1.5 GeV storage ring in the fall. The performance will also be enhanced by increasing the repetition rate of the electron pulses in the Linear accelerator from 2 Hz to 10 Hz and eventually 100 Hz. In order to demonstrate that even faster dynamics can be studied, the pulse duration and jitter needs to be measured and optimized. This work is joint with the linac team. In order to accommodate higher repetition rates the data acquisition and storage speed needs to be increased. In the spring, work will be done with pulse-duration measurements and tests aimed at demonstrating flexibility in laser wavelength for the excitation. | https://maxiv-legacy.maxiv.lu.se/news/femtomax-makes-first-time-resolved-x-ray-diffraction-measurement/ |
BELMONT — A Belmont County couple have entered pleas to charges for allegedly taking money from the Belmont County Memorial Park Cemetery.
WTOV reports Keith Baratie and his wife Karen Sue Ellen Neff were in court on Aug. 9, and entered not guilty pleas, just one day after they were arrested and charged with forgery, theft and secure writings by deception in the Memorial Park Cemetery case.
Baratie and Neff were being investigated after money was reportedly removed from the cemetery’s bank account earlier this year. Investigators with the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office were reportedly able to trace the loss of about $282,000 from the cemetery’s account back to the couple.
The maximum penalty for each of the crimes in 36 months in the penitentiary, or a total of nine years possibly. The maximum fine for each count is $10,000.
An investigation began last September after complaints that the cemetery’s upkeep had become almost non-existent. | https://www.mytownneo.com/news/20180822/couple-enters-plea-in-belmont-county-memorial-park-cemetery-case |
When are mosquitos active?
With South Carolina’s warm climate, “mosquito season” generally lasts from March to October. However, the peak of mosquito activity is during the warm Summer months. Depending on rainfall and temperatures in a given year, mosquitos may become active at different times.
A summary of the mosquito life cycle
The mosquito life cycle is comprised of four stages. Varying by species and environmental conditions, the entire cycle typically takes about two weeks but can range from 4 days to a month. (source)
Stage 1: Egg
Mosquitos lay their eggs in wet environments, as they require water to hatch. Many species can lay hundreds of eggs throughout their life.
Stage 2: Larva
Larvae hatch from the eggs, which live in water and molt multiple times before becoming pupae. They commonly swim along the surface by wiggling their bodies around, hence their common nickname “wigglers” or “wrigglers.”
Stage 3: Pupa
After several stages of molting, larvae metamorphose into pupae. At this point they no longer feed. However, like the larva stage, they still swim around in the water and surface for air. Their abdomen-flipping motion has earned them the nickname of “tumblers.”
Stage 3: Adult
Depending on the species and environment, an adult mosquito may emerge from a pupa after a period of a few days or more. Only adult females feed on blood, while males survive on nectar and sugar. Females lay eggs after a blood meal, starting the cycle anew.
Controlling Mosquitoes in South Carolina
Mosquito bites are annoying and itchy, but they can also be legitimately dangerous. While it is not completely widespread, West Nile Virus is still carried by some mosquitos in South Carolina.
The best way to prevent and eliminate mosquitos from your home and yard is to remove opportunities for them to breed. Follow these tips to prevent mosquitos from overrunning your home:
- Call a pest control expert for quick, professional removal of dangerous mosquito populations.
- Remove any standing water from your property. Stagnant pools are the ideal environment for mosquitos to lay their eggs and multiply.
- Fill in holes that are prone to hold water after rainfall.
- Clear out leaves and debris from gutters.
- Ensure your doors and windows are insulated and/or screened to prevent mosquitos from entering the home.
- Cover or remove objects and outdoor furniture that can collect stagnant water.
- Clean your swimming pool regularly.
- Use bug lights and mosquito repellent for short term relief from mosquitos. | https://www.cpestman.com/when-is-mosquito-season-in-south-carolina/ |
Our new research report on the global electric blanket market presents a brief scenario and the dynamics prevailing in the global electric blanket market.
This comprehensive research report delivers value in terms of segmental analysis and forecasts on the global electric blanket market across regional levels as well as from a global perspective.
With the help of extensive research, our analysts have studied how different market dynamics are likely to impact the current and future scenario of the global electric blanket market, thus providing useful insights to market players to plan their differentiating strategies capable of evolving with the changing market landscape with a view to achieve competitive advantage in the long run.
We have analyzed the key trends, drivers, restraints and opportunities and their magnitudes across various regions of the globe while studying this sector.
Impact analysis of key growth drivers and restraints based on the weighted average model are included in the report to better equip and arm clients with crystal-clear acumen and decision-making actionable insights.
This report provides historical data of 2012-2016 along with value and volume forecast projections for the period 2017 – 2025 in terms of revenue (US dollars). It also includes detailed pricing analysis by type as well as the electric blanket market value chain analysis. | |
EU HRVP: Eastern Partnership that delivers for all - ARTICLE
In this challenging time, marked by the coronavirus outbreak, we can see how important international cooperation is. Over the last decade, the Eastern Partnership has brought concrete benefits for people in Azerbaijan and across the European Union’s eastern neighborhood, said in the articleby EU HRVP Josep Borrell and EUCommissioner Oliver Varhelyi. Report presents the OpEd to the readers.
Azerbaijan and the European Union have been valuable partners for many years. EU is Azerbaijan’s first trading partner and investor. The ambitious project of the Southern Gas Corridor will physically link us, contributing to energy diversification and security of Europe. During the last ten years of the Eastern Partnership program, the EU and Azerbaijan have implemented many projects aimed at strengthening economies, institutions, and good governance, connectivity, and people to people contacts. The EU has assisted 13,000 companies with funding, training, and export support through the EU4Business initiative, contributing to the creation of over 3,300 new jobs. The EU’s Erasmus+ program has given almost 1,600 students and academic staff from Azerbaijan the opportunity to study or teach in EU countries. Azerbaijan is one of the best users of Twinning and TAIEX instruments of our cooperation.
To ensure our partnership continues to deliver in the fast-changing world of today, we need to do even more and better. To shape our priorities, we consulted last year with people, businesses, organizations, and governments of 33 countries from across our shared region. While there was an appreciation for the results achieved, there was also a clear expectation that we enhance our cooperation when it comes to jobs and prosperity, investments, connectivity, good governance, and common challenges such as climate change and the digital transformation.
And now, we presented our response to these consultations with long-term objectives for our policy beyond 2020. Our continued engagement with the Eastern Partnership countries remains a crucial priority for the European Union. Our proposals for the future are ambitious yet achievable. They build on existing cooperation but also identify areas where we need to go further. They are built on fundamental values as the heart of the EU project, such as the rule of law, protection of human rights, and fight against corruption.
Concretely, we are proposing to our partners to work together on the following objectives:
Together for resilient, sustainable, and integrated economies: Strengthening the marketplace is key to meeting citizens’ expectations and reducing inequality and for making our partnership a success. We will focus on job creation and economic opportunities through increased trade, investments, more robust connectivity, in particular in transport and energy, and linking education, research, and innovation better with private sector needs.
Together for accountable institutions, the rule of law and security: Good governance and democratic institutions, the rule of law, successful anti-corruption policies, and safety are essential for sustainable development and the consolidation of democracy. They are the backbone of resilient states and societies, as well as strong economies.
Together for environmental and climate resilience: To protect our world for generations to come, we all need to take responsibility. The EU will work with its partners to improve the resource-efficiency of economies, develop new green jobs, and promote local and renewable sources of energy.
Together for a resilient digital transformation: The EU will further invest in the digital transformation of our partners, aiming to extend the benefits of the Digital Single Market to partner countries. Our joint work will also focus on strengthening e-Governance, scaling up digital start-ups, and supporting the cyber resilience of partner countries.
Together for resilient, fair, and inclusive societies: Free and fair elections, along with transparent, citizen-centered, and accountable public administrations, are essential for democracy. The EU will continue to focus on these key areas, engaging with civil society, which needs to be given sufficient space, and supporting free, plural and independent media and human rights, as well as ensuring mobility and people-to-people contacts, all particularly important also due to growing disinformation against EU values.
Over the past decade, trade between the EU and its eastern partners has nearly doubled. Over 125,000 small and medium-sized businesses have directly benefitted from EU funding, creating or sustaining more than 250,000 jobs. We are better-connected thanks to improved transport links and easier access to high capacity broadband. And according to recent surveys, the EU is the most trusted international institution among Eastern Partnership citizens. We will keep this results-oriented approach and look to do much more together in the face of today’s challenges, including when it comes to crises such as COVID-19 pandemic.
And through this, we will build an even more ambitious Eastern Partnership that delivers for all and continues to bring our shared continent closer together.
If you find out orphographic mistake in the text, please select mistaken part of the text and press Ctrl + Enter. | |
It’s been a tough year for farmers, as a recent story in The Wall Street Journal documented1. A worldwide surplus of commodities like corn and soybeans, and the ongoing trade dispute with China, a big importer of U.S. food products, has depressed prices and created uncertainty. And then there’s the weather.
Prices for these products have always been subject to cycles of boom and bust, but this time the bust has seemed to last longer than usual. But people have to eat, the global population continues to grow, and lots of resources are finite. It’s not unreasonable to assume that prices will ultimately recover and that the industry will get more efficient as it consolidates.
Another possible benefit: global growth, which has been slowing, appears to be leveling off, according to the World Bank2. Jobs and other data coming out of the U.S. have been less than stellar, but not bad. China continues to look for ways to boost its growth, even as trade issues there appear to be on their way to some sort of resolution. The European Central Bank recently reversed course on interest rates, indicating it would be easing instead of tightening. All these actions should be good for growth, and an expanding global economy is one that will need all kinds of resources.
There are other reasons to consider exposure to this asset class. Historically, natural resources have exhibited low correlations to traditional stocks and bonds. This suggests there may be diversification benefits from allocating to the asset in a traditional portfolio. Commodities have also shown a historic tendency to do well in the later stages of an economic cycle.
Of course, different commodities may be at different points in the cycle, something that argues for maintaining a diversified portfolio. Potential holdings include livestock; precious metals; grains, food, and fiber; energy; industrial metals; timber; water; and coal. These, in turn, can be weighted by factors that include valuation and momentum to optimize the portfolio.
Commodities have always been a challenge to invest in efficiently. Many investors use futures contracts to create exposure to commodities but the process of “rolling” the portfolio from expiring contacts to longer dated contracts can be a drag on performance. These commodity funds are often structured as limited partnerships and therefore may be tax inefficient. Also, many commodities funds are weighted by production output or market capitalization however this often leads to over-concentration in oil and precious metals. A thoughtfully constructed ETF can help address these issues. For example, our IQ Global Resources ETF (GRES) invests primarily in global companies that provide exposure to the underlying commodity markets in food, energy, and other sectors and adjusts dynamically to market conditions and to seek to avoid concentration risk. We also include modest short exposures to U.S. and international equity markets to try to help manage volatility and to seek to increase the correlation of the fund to commodity spot prices.
In keeping with our recent series of fund anniversary blogs, GRES turns ten this year, too, in October. Like many of our other ETFs, it was a “first” when introduced, providing investors with a transparent, low cost vehicle for accessing this broad asset class. If you’re looking for the potential benefits of exposure to commodities, it’s a fund worth considering for suitable investors.
The European Central Bank is the central bank for the euro and administers monetary policy within the Eurozone, which comprises of 19 member states of the European Union and is one of the largest monetary areas in the world.
IQ Global Resources ETF: As the Fund’s investments are concentrated in the global resources sector, the value of its shares will be affected by factors specific to that sector and may fluctuate more widely than that of a fund which invests in a broad range of industries. The Fund also may be susceptible to foreign securities risk. Since the Fund invests in foreign markets, it will be subject to risk of loss not typically associated with domestic markets. Loss may result because of less foreign government regulation, less public information, less economic, political and social stability, or other factors. The Fund is exposed to mid- and small-capitalization company risk. Stock prices of mid-and small-capitalization companies generally are more volatile than those of larger companies and also are more vulnerable than those of large capitalization companies to adverse business and economic developments. Since the Fund may invest directly in foreign currencies or insecurities that trade in, and receive revenues in, foreign currencies, the Fund is subject to the risk that those currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. that the U.S. dollar will decline in value relative to the currency being hedged.
The IQ Global Resourced Index uses momentum and valuation factors to identify global companies that operate in commodity-specific market segments and whose equity securities trade in developed markets, including the U.S. These segments include Precious Metals; Industrial Metals; Livestock; Energy; Grains, Food, and Fiber;, Timber, Water and Coal. Returns presented do not reflect the deduction of management fees, taxes and other expenses. The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is composed of futures contracts on physical commodities traded on U.S. exchanges, with the exception of aluminum, nickel and zinc, which trade on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
The IQ Global Resources Index is the exclusive property of IndexIQ which has contracted with Structured Solutions to maintain and calculate the Index.
Consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. The prospectus and the statement of additional information include this and other relevant information about the Fund and are available by visiting nylinvestments.com/etfs or calling 888-474-7725. Read the prospectus carefully before investing. | https://mainstayinvestmentsblog.com/2019/04/thoughts-on-global-commodities/ |
Edition for
Parkett 59
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Linocut on Arches Cover White,
40 x 20 1/2” (100,8 x 52,4 cm),
printed by Maurice Sanchez,
Derrière L’Etoile Studio, New York,
Ed. 70/XXX, signed and numbered
“Walker’s unwieldy imagination is fixated with race in the starkest and most American of terms, black and white, as they were forged in the ante-bellum South,
a time not so long ago in a galaxy called here.”
Hamza Walker
Parkett No. 59, 2000
Out of print
> See short video excerpt with Kara Walker about some aspects of her art.
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I’m busy trying to get organized enough to go to the RT conference in Pittsburgh on Wednesday the 16th. Of course I also have to organize the family as well so that dear Mr Kate can get everything done. Today I bought 2 tubs of ice cream, 2 boxes of breaded shrimp and a dozen ice cream sandwiches so he’s all freezered up on bribes.
Unfortunately the only direct flight I could get to Pittsburgh was overnight-so that will be fun! I get there at 6:30 a.m. I suspect my hotel room will not be ready for at least another 6 hours-hell…
I’ll be sure and report back how it went! | https://katepearce.com/2008/04/14/off-to-the-romantic-times-conference/ |
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A future career in Data Science will be more promising. How?
- Data accumulation usually is done by database management (SQL), retrieving semi-structured data, and then categorically storing them using Hadoop, Apache Flink, etc.
- Data cleaning to remove the inconsistencies and anomalies using tools like Python, R, SAS, Hadoop, etc.
- Data analysis to understand the data, find patterns that can be useful, details which can solve a particular problem using Python libraries and R libraries, statistical modeling, experimental designing, etc.
- Data modeling by putting in various objectives and cases and try to get an algorithm for the business need by using machine learning.
- Data interpreting by making non-tech people understand what you have discovered from the data so that one can have an insight using data visualization tools and most importantly communication and presentation skills. | http://houseofbots.com/news-detail/12701-A-future-career-in-Data-Science-will-be-more-promising.-How? |
Imminent death: clinician certainty and accuracy of prognostic predictions.
To determine the accuracy of predictions of dying at different cut-off thresholds and to acknowledge the extent of clinical uncertainty. Secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study. An online prognostic test, accessible by eligible participants across the UK. Eligible participants were members of the Association of Palliative Medicine. 99/166 completed the test (60%), resulting in 1980 estimates (99 participants × 20 summaries). The probability of death occurring within 72 hours (0% certain survival-100% certain death) for 20 patient summaries. The estimates were analysed using five different thresholds: 50/50%, 40/60%, 30/70%, 20/80% and 10/90%, with percentage values between these extremes being regarded as 'indeterminate'. The positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and the number of indeterminate cases were calculated for each cut-off. Using a <50% versus >50% threshold produced a PPV of 62%, an NPV of 74% and 5% indeterminate cases. When the threshold was changed to ≤10% vs ≥90%, the PPV and NPV increased to 75% and 88%, respectively, at the expense of an increase of indeterminate cases up to 62%. When doctors assign a very high (≥90%) or very low (≤10%) probability of imminent death, their prognostic accuracy is improved; however, this increases the number of 'indeterminate' cases. This suggests that clinical predictions may continue to have a role for routine prognostication but that other approaches (such as the use of prognostic scores) may be required for those cases where doctors' estimates are indeterminate.
| |
hao li (11) | asked Mar 25, 4:13 p.m.
Hello,
I am testing "Testplan_Testcase_Testscript_TER_Environment_Iteration_AllInOne.cfg" from the RQM importer samples folder.
What does following line means?
line 6 configuration.XLSArtifactID=E
line 15 testplan.configuration=Link(H3)
One answer
|
|
Mehul Patel (954●5) | answered Mar 26, 1:36 a.m.
FORUM MODERATOR
Hao.
XLSArtifactID specifies the external ID of the artifact and in given line it is described in column E, Link() Specifies that the content is the ID of an artifact to be linked to. You can get more reference to related syntax at Wiki.
Regards,
Mehul
Comments
hao li commented Mar 26, 9:51 a.m.
Above is what in column E, so the whole column E is treated as one artifact, why is that? XLSArtifactID used somewhere later? I am still not clear
hao li commented Mar 26, 9:51 a.m.
ID
Mehul Patel commented Mar 28, 1:19 p.m.
FORUM MODERATOR
While defining the configuration, XLSArtifactID specifies the external ID for the configuration, in this case it will be the one specified in column E. Sometime this is used to update existing resource by referring ID from data. | https://jazz.net/forum/questions/274210/xlsartifactid-and-link |
2738 and 8?
10952
Find the common denominator of 31/30 and -125/27222.
136110
What is the common denominator of 137/336 and 169/210?
1680
Find the common denominator of -83/18 and -59/144.
144
Calculate the least common multiple of 6 and 12.
12
Find the common denominator of 37/2610 and 55/144.
20880
What is the common denominator of 125/414 and -157/138?
414
What is the smallest common multiple of 720 and 5?
720
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 116 and 54.
3132
Find the common denominator of -76/75 and -89/50.
150
Find the common denominator of -85/104 and 49/663.
5304
What is the common denominator of 121/80 and -19/75?
1200
Calculate the least common multiple of 52 and 220.
2860
Find the common denominator of 49/108 and 49/24.
216
What is the common denominator of 63/4 and 39/232?
232
What is the least common multiple of 83 and 415?
415
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 32 and 188.
1504
Calculate the common denominator of 131/582 and -113/970.
2910
Find the common denominator of -127/6 and 59/600.
600
Calculate the least common multiple of 464 and 56.
3248
Calculate the common denominator of 85/32 and -111/574.
9184
What is the common denominator of 72/35 and 88/15?
105
What is the least common multiple of 2860 and 572?
2860
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 24 and 696.
696
What is the lowest common multiple of 18 and 126?
126
What is the common denominator of -59/188 and -67/8?
376
What is the lowest common multiple of 1236 and 14?
8652
Calculate the common denominator of 31/20 and -89/322.
3220
What is the smallest common multiple of 80 and 168?
1680
Calculate the common denominator of 85/7164 and 53/10.
35820
Calculate the common denominator of 41/9 and -31/450.
450
Calculate the common denominator of -9/8 and -5/23.
184
What is the common denominator of 25/16 and 133/130?
1040
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 28 and 70.
140
Find the common denominator of -73/56 and 13/140.
280
Find the common denominator of -89/702 and -76/27.
702
Calculate the common denominator of -103/20 and -61/270.
540
What is the least common multiple of 1 and 12?
12
Calculate the common denominator of 27/52 and 67/936.
936
What is the lowest common multiple of 36 and 22?
396
Find the common denominator of -47/335 and 13/7.
2345
Find the common denominator of 34/3 and 41/904.
2712
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 8 and 24.
24
What is the smallest common multiple of 623 and 1513?
10591
What is the smallest common multiple of 900 and 100?
900
Calculate the common denominator of -30/581 and 34/21.
1743
Calculate the least common multiple of 28 and 1399.
39172
What is the smallest common multiple of 693 and 1925?
17325
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 14 and 49.
98
Calculate the common denominator of -19/180 and 23/1680.
5040
Find the common denominator of 87/74 and -37/14.
518
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 126 and 1050.
3150
What is the least common multiple of 28 and 44?
308
What is the common denominator of -31/21 and 149/108?
756
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 168 and 7.
168
What is the least common multiple of 20 and 208?
1040
What is the common denominator of -8/75 and -163/1140?
5700
Calculate the common denominator of -11/2 and -75/2.
2
Calculate the common denominator of 113/40 and 3/6305.
50440
What is the smallest common multiple of 30 and 202?
3030
Calculate the least common multiple of 22 and 1418.
15598
What is the smallest common multiple of 1136 and 18?
10224
Calculate the least common multiple of 48 and 4.
48
What is the least common multiple of 289 and 136?
2312
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 1 and 464.
464
What is the least common multiple of 671 and 5?
3355
What is the least common multiple of 6 and 228?
228
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 224 and 280.
1120
Calculate the common denominator of -157/42 and -53/217.
1302
Calculate the least common multiple of 440 and 14.
3080
What is the lowest common multiple of 549 and 16?
8784
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 870 and 261.
2610
Calculate the common denominator of 149/18 and -107/10056.
30168
What is the common denominator of 95/174 and -109/18?
522
What is the lowest common multiple of 190 and 190?
190
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 15 and 10.
30
Calculate the common denominator of 107/70 and -17/18.
630
Calculate the common denominator of -47/16138 and 133/6.
48414
Calculate the least common multiple of 153 and 136.
1224
Calculate the least common multiple of 24 and 488.
1464
What is the common denominator of 31/3168 and 113/20?
15840
Calculate the least common multiple of 15 and 3.
15
Calculate the common denominator of -151/1476 and -103/6642.
13284
Calculate the common denominator of 143/6 and -55/612.
612
What is the common denominator of -37/2565 and -46/5?
2565
Find the common denominator of 44/91 and 67/39.
273
Calculate the common denominator of 81/1712 and 89/18.
15408
Find the common denominator of -35 and 21/158.
158
Calculate the common denominator of -199/6720 and 51/20.
6720
What is the lowest common multiple of 12 and 836?
2508
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 6 and 657.
1314
What is the lowest common multiple of 304 and 190?
1520
Find the common denominator of -29/678 and -59/12.
1356
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 484 and 2.
484
Calculate the common denominator of 14/39 and 59/494.
1482
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 454 and 12.
2724
What is the lowest common multiple of 10 and 5410?
5410
Find the common denominator of 27/16 and -41/194.
1552
What is the common denominator of -7/752 and 93/20?
3760
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 90 and 468.
2340
Calculate the common denominator of 51/56 and -173/1092.
2184
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 108 and 40.
1080
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 195 and 20.
780
Calculate the common denominator of 31/43 and -23/9.
387
Calculate the least common multiple of 1067 and 1067.
1067
What is the smallest common multiple of 6 and 244?
732
What is the common denominator of 111/88 and -97/144?
1584
Calculate the common denominator of -187/60 and 121/168.
840
Calculate the common denominator of -151/4122 and -151/18.
4122
What is the common denominator of -67/24 and -87/1012?
6072
What is the common denominator of -95/332 and -79/12?
996
What is the lowest common multiple of 12 and 236?
708
Find the common denominator of -123/70 and 79/112.
560
What is the lowest common multiple of 66 and 120?
1320
What is the lowest common multiple of 20 and 712?
3560
Calculate the least common multiple of 460 and 391.
7820
Find the common denominator of -79/200 and 67/8.
200
What is the common denominator of 45/88 and 103/88?
88
Calculate the common denominator of 61/84 and -97/36.
252
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 170 and 12.
1020
What is the common denominator of 23/40 and -77/20?
40
What is the smallest common multiple of 20 and 26?
260
Find the common denominator of 131/18 and -77/188.
1692
Calculate the common denominator of -31/84 and -137/72.
504
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 2678 and 182.
18746
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 50 and 28.
700
Calculate the common denominator of 77/60 and 107/60.
60
Calculate the least common multiple of 24 and 33.
264
What is the lowest common multiple of 42 and 986?
20706
Calculate the common denominator of -73/66 and 50/3.
66
Calculate the common denominator of -71/45 and -113/354.
5310
What is the least common multiple of 50 and 45?
450
Find the common denominator of -81/328 and -33/4.
328
Find the common denominator of -4/37 and -29/9.
333
Calculate the lowest common multiple of 8529 and 8.
68232
Calculate the common denominator of -7/632 and 119/36.
5688
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 208 and 6.
624
What is the least common multiple of 2346 and 552?
9384
Find the common denominator of -32/403 and 97/78.
2418
What is the common denominator of -7/347 and 54/7?
2429
What is the smallest common multiple of 118 and 9?
1062
Find the common denominator of -109/1155 and -76/8085.
8085
What is the least common multiple of 40 and 120?
120
Find the common denominator of 56/207 and -25/184.
1656
Calculate the smallest common multiple of 45
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Opportunities for Research at Conestoga
As Conestoga grows its research programs within the institution and the local community, we continue to develop new opportunities for all our stakeholders.
Students
Conestoga continues to develop and expand its hands-on research opportunities for students. These opportunities provide avenues for students to develop their knowledge and experiences.
Capstone, final-year or thesis projects (usually in partnership with an external organization or company) can provide students with an opportunity to explore personal areas of interest, to demonstrate the knowledge and skills learned throughout the program, and/or to develop a new product or service before entering the workforce. In some programs, curriculum-based projects can offer a very specialized research opportunity - the application of course-material to solve a real-world problem while taking a specific course. Independent projects, existing outside of normal course program activities, allows a student to develop a wide-range of problem solving skills, to explore cross-disciplined ideas, to apply program knowledge to real-world problems and at the same time to earn a salary while at Conestoga.
In many programs, dedicated research courses offer students the opportunity to learn specialized topics including (but not limited to) research methodologies, research statistics and project presentations by faculty, students and external guests.
Faculty & Researchers
The CARI office works with faculty, researchers, administration and many others to develop new applied research opportunities with local industry and organizations, to develop new funding applications for institutional and project funding and to develop new venues (e.g. Innovation Events) to review and promote our research capabilities and interests.
In many curriculum and independent projects, external funding needs to be sought in order to be able to conduct the applied research activities. The CARI office works with funders, faculty, researchers, companies and/or organizations to develop the funding applications, maintain certain funder documentation, assist with the hiring of students and assists with the ongoing metrics-gatherings that funders require.
The research activities at Conestoga also provide an avenue for faculty and researchers to explore Professional Currency & Scholarship opportunities.
Companies and Organizations
Many programs across Conestoga participate in applied research activities. Although Conestoga is developing several dedicated pillars of applied research (see Our Centres), there is a wide-range of research interests, expertise, and opportunities in order to engage with students, faculty, and researchers.
A capstone, final-year or thesis project allows a company to work with one or more students on a specific problem. A curriculum project allows a company to explore the solution to problems with the participation of many students (and possibly an entire class). Independent projects provide the most flexibility but are usually the highest cost approach - and this normally leads to seeking external funding from government sources.
To start, contact the CARI office and we will guide you through the process.
Some funding sources and additional information are noted below.
Post-secondary Institutions and Research Facilities
Conestoga has dedicated pillars of applied research expertise (see Our Centres). Through these Centres and other research activities, we are actively seeking new partnerships with our regional, provincial, national and international post-secondary institutions and research facilities.
Please contact the CARI office to explore the research opportunities at Conestoga.
Opportunities for Research at Conestoga
Funding Opportunities
Government grants will normally be sought for applied research projects (i.e. independent and curriculum projects). The availability of federal and provincial grants change throughout the year. In addition, both federal and provincial governments will have special focus areas for grants - and these are subject to change each year. For the latest grant information, please contact the CARI office.
Below is a list of a few resources that companies may find useful: | http://conestogac.on.ca/research/opportunities.jsp |
Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902. Freud lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practice there in 1886. In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape the Nazis. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939.
In creating psychoanalysis, Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud's redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression. On this basis Freud elaborated his theory of the unconscious and went on to develop a model of psychic structure comprising id, ego and super-ego. Freud postulated the existence of libido, an energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, hate, aggression and neurotic guilt. In his later work Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture.
Though in overall decline as a diagnostic and clinical practice, psychoanalysis remains influential within psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and across the humanities. As such, it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate with regard to its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause. Nonetheless, Freud's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture. In the words of W. H. Auden's 1940 poetic tribute, by the time of Freud's death, he had become "a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives."
Civilization and Its Discontents
Most people know Freud as the father of psychology… and that’s about it. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud divulges his thoughts about life’s purpose, what drives us as humans, what shapes the evolution of culture, and why a perfect civilization is impossible to achieve. | https://thinkr.org/authors/sigmund-freud |
EPoD’s capacity building work increases policy actors’ skills and motivation for using evidence in decision-making.
We engage policymakers in activities that make evidence relevant to them – thus increasing demand for data and research. In addition, we work with organizations to build tools for systematic evidence use.
Our initiatives include:
- Capacity building courses targeted at different levels of decision-makers, including a “Training of Trainers” approach for scale and adaptability.
- Policy dialogues, which bring together researchers, policymakers and other key stakeholders to develop innovative solutions to jointly-identified policy problems.
- Pilot projects, in which we collaborate directly with policy actors to design and implement data-driven solutions.
Contact us at [email protected] to learn more about ways to be involved!
Does group collaboration lead to better decision making for South Asian civil servants?
EPoD remains committed to promoting evidence-based policies & teaching practices around the world.
Listen to EPoD faculty describe how our capacity building work helps promote evidence-based policymaking worldwide.
A practical step towards bringing academics and policymakers together is simply starting a conversation in the same room.
The BCURE training sessions serve as laboratories to understand how groups collaborate on learning.
The Spring Issue article features interviews with Rema Hanna, Asim I. Khwaja, and Charlotte Tuminelli.
Blockchain, AI, and other new technology can enhance banking for the poor, but only if it suits customer needs.
EPoD offers the Rethinking Financial Inclusion course at the Kennedy School for the fifth time on October 14-19, 2018.
EPoD builds the capacity of decision makers to use data and research through courses that apply cutting-edge pedagogy such as blended-learning, problem-based group sessions, and case teaching. Our courses cover topics like evidence-based leadership, impact evaluation, data systems, and policy/program design.
Click here to download EPoD’s brochure, "Training policymakers in the use of data & evidence."
EPoD trains participants to lead evidence-driven innovation in their domains.
This week-long Executive Education course gives professionals a front-row view on the latest research on innovations to bank the unbanked.
EPoD faculty regularly teach semester-long courses to current and future policymakers participating in degree programs at HKS.
EPoD employs a blended learning model to teach practical skills for using data and research.
Crowd-sourcing knowledge can spur policy innovation. Our policy dialogues bring together researchers, policymakers and other key stakeholders to develop solutions to policy problems using the SPDI framework, build consensus on critical issues, and cultivate future policy-research engagements.
Past dialogues have brought together representatives from politics, government, the private sector, civil society, military, media, and academia.
Explore some of these past dialogues below.
To support a demand-driven approach to evidence-based policy, EPoD has worked with policy actors on high-potential ‘proof of concept’ pilot projects which demonstrate the value of data and evidence through hands-on capacity building. Pilot projects create innovative and effective ways for policy actors to apply data and research evidence to improve their decision making.
Pilot projects bring together policy/program teams and researchers to facilitate collaborative and active learning while demonstrating the practical value of data and evidence for policy decisions. In the past, EPoD’s pilot projects have helped answer questions across varied policy areas, including environment, health, human capital investment, tax collection, auditing delivery of government services, crime prevention and social protection programs. Our case studies, below, tell the stories of these collaborations. | https://epod.cid.harvard.edu/capacity-building |
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Natalie Worobel, with the Digital Media Treatment and Education Center, shares a slide during a Sunday presentation on “Decreasing Digital Media to Increase Wellness” at the Parent Engagement Network’s virtual Stress and Anxiety Symposium.
The list of potential sources of trauma from the past year is a long one.
The pandemic and its social isolation, racial issues, systemic biases and mass shootings both locally and around the country are all contributing, said Bill de la Cruz, an inclusion facilitator and former Boulder Valley school board member.
“Everyone has been exposed to really traumatic events,” he said. ”It all compiles and adds on to everything we’re feeling.”
De la Cruz talked about using the grief process to move through the impacts of trauma in a session he led Sunday during the Parent Engagement Network’s fifth annual Stress and Anxiety Symposium.
About 60 people signed up to attend the virtual weekend symposium, which focused on “Moving Forward in an Unpredictable World.” Because recordings of the sessions are available to those who registered for the next month, not all attended the sessions in real time.
The weekend’s 10 sessions included one on the risks of high potency marijuana and fentanyl-tainted Xanax. Another session covered supporting gifted and twice exceptional young people, while panelists in a third session shared how they have worked through trauma in the past year.
“We’ve had some great conversations,” said Shelly Mahon, the Parent Engagement Network’s executive director. “The biggest theme I’ve seen is there is a strong desire for people to connect to create a sense of community.”
In his session, de la Cruz shared personal stories of how he worked through his own trauma, including the death of his older sister from pneumonia when he was 13 and living in an abusive home.
He started in denial, with few coping skills at 13, and said it took years to get to acceptance and start looking at what he could learn from his experiences. His experiences, he said, taught him the value of relationships and gave him the desire to work with people in conflict.
“I created a lot of conflict,” he said. “Now I help (people) resolve it.”
He also talked about secondary trauma, which many experienced following the mass shooting at the south Boulder King Soopers, and how even being compassionate and empathetic can be draining. Self care — including getting enough sleep, eating healthy, exercising, nurturing positive relationships and leisure time — is important, he said.
“If you all don’t take care of yourselves, you don’t have anything to give others,” he said.
While technology allowed people to continue to work, go to school and connect during the pandemic, she said, it also led to more screen time, more multi-tasking and a decline in mental health. Technology use in moderation is helpful, but concerns arise when it’s used excessively, she added.
“It has come at a cost,” she said.
She said multi-tasking is ultimately less efficient because it takes 15 minutes to reorient to a task after a distraction, while switching between tasks is mentally fatiguing. Another concern is excessive screen time can make it more difficult to deal with social anxiety and could intensify anxiety as students try to re-engage with the world.
Those at higher risk of technology overuse include novelty seeking kids who crave risk and reward and, on the opposite end, kids with a more inhibited personality who can find in-person interactions uncomfortable, she said.
She said warning signs that a problem is developing include kids struggling with screentime limits, letting academic responsibilities slide, sneaking a device, preferring to be online over in-person activities and saying their only true friends are online. Red flags, she added, include increased anxiety or depression, lying, disrupted sleep, and no longer engaging with the outside world.
“As a parent, you no longer feel like you know what to do,” she said.
Her suggested interventions include lower technology phones, setting technology limits, nurturing offline hobbies, prioritizing exercise and outdoor time, and tech free days as a family.
“It’s so important to model healthy technology use,” she said.
In another session, Michelle Cearley, Out Boulder County’s community advocate, shared some of the impacts on LGBTQ young people that Out Boulder County is seeing during the pandemic.
Stuck at home, some kids don’t have support and don’t feel safe, they said. Some only found their community at school with friends and supportive teachers, but lost that when schools closed. Then there have been family financial issues, including food insecurity and lack of healthcare.
“There’s a lot of crisis going on,” they said, adding Out Boulder County has seen an increase in students participating in its virtual support groups and youth programs since the pandemic started. “Just having that one adult to talk to who feels safe makes a world of difference.” | |
Earth & Space Science
You will get to learn about the many celestial objects found in our solar system, including planets, moons, meteors, and asteroids.
Over 1,200 Lessons: Get a Free Trial | Enroll Today
After completing this tutorial, you will be able to complete the following:
Where is our solar system located?
~ Our solar system lies within the Orion-Cygnus Arm, which is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy.
Which planets in our solar system are considered the inner planets? What is a distinguishing characteristic of each of these planets? What other name is given to this group of planets and why?
~ Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are called the inner planets because they are the closest to the sun.
Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the sun. Venus is the planet most like Earth. Earth is the only planet in the entire universe known to contain life, and Mars is called the red planet.
The inner planets are also called the terrestrial planets, or rocky planets, because of their proximity and similarity to Earth.
Which planets in our solar system are considered the outer planets?
~ Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called the outer planets because they are farther from the sun than the inner planets. | https://www.uzinggo.com/the-position-planets/solar-system/earth-space-science-high-school |
Following on from our previous article, this is the second part in the series, examining key clauses to consider in standard contracts for the supply of food in response to Brexit and COVID-19. This part considers material adverse change (MAC) clauses.
Material adverse change (MAC) clauses
A MAC clause seeks to deal with a change in circumstances which could not have been foreseen when the contract was entered into. The form, content and impact of the MAC clause (including the particular events mentioned in the clause) will vary from contract to contract and each clause will be bespoke to the particular circumstances. For instance, it may give specific carve-outs for events that do not apply or it may specify particular events which will qualify as a MAC. MAC clauses can be useful in food supply chain contracts to relieve a party from its obligations under the contract if a significant event occurs (e.g. import/export restrictions due to Brexit and/or COVID-19) that drastically changes a party’s obligations under the contract.
Subject to the particular clause wording in the context of the contract as a whole and the circumstances surrounding the event, the MAC event must be material (i.e. substantial, significant and lasting for a significant period of time). Depending on the wording of the clause, both Brexit and COVID-19 may be considered a MAC.
For a MAC clause to be triggered by COVID-19, it will need to specifically refer to a pandemic/epidemic (or equivalent wording) being a material event. A MAC clause can also be triggered indirectly through particular consequences (e.g. the Government imposing a lockdown resulting in the business needing to be closed down and being unable to supply the food products).
For a MAC clause to be triggered by Brexit, it will need to be shown that Brexit has had a MAC on the contract. In the context of food, this may be as a result of unexpected and enhanced import/export documentation which is imposed as a result of Brexit making it much more difficult to import/export.
For both COVID-19 and Brexit, it could be construed that a MAC clause in a contract entered into as at today’s date would not be triggered as the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and Brexit are known to the party seeking to rely on the clause. It could be argued that it is triggered if the conditions worsen in such a way that it makes the contract materially different in nature.
In all cases, the burden of proof that a MAC has occurred is on the party seeking to rely on the clause.
Due to the uncertainty of Brexit and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, now is the ideal time to update your standard contracts and consider whether a MAC clause should be included. If you would like to discuss this article further and/or have your standard contracts reviewed/amended, please contact Jack Shreeve.
Jack Shreeve
The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at March 2021. | https://www.birketts.co.uk/legal-update/food-supply-chain-contractual-considerations-part-ii/ |
here $d\sigma$ denotes the Hausdorff measure on $\mathbb{S}^{d-1}$, and given $v,v_* \in \mathbb{R}^d$ and $e \in \mathbb{S}^{d-1}$ we write
+
here $d\sigma$ denotes the differential of surface on $\mathbb{S}^{d-1}$, and given $v,v_* \in \mathbb{R}^d$ and $\sigma \in \mathbb{S}^{d-1}$ we write
\begin{align*}
\begin{align*}
-
v' & = v-(v-v_*,e)e\\
+
v' & = \frac{v+v_*}2 + \frac{|v-v_*|}2 \sigma, \\
-
v'_* & = v_*+(v-v_*,e)e
+
v'_* & =\frac{v+v_*}2 - \frac{|v-v_*|}2 \sigma.
\end{align*}
\end{align*}
-
and $B$, which is known as the Boltzmann collision kernel, measures the strength of collisions in different directions.
+
and $B$, which is known as the Boltzmann collision kernel, measures the strength of collisions in different directions. The angle $\theta$ corresponds to $\cos \theta = \sigma \cdot (v-v_*) / |v-v_*|$.
Without Grad's angular cut-off assumption, and for a rather general family of cross-sections $B$, the entropy dissipation is bounded below by a fractional Sobolev norm minus a small correction <ref name="ADVW2000" />.
+
Without Grad's angular cut-off assumption, and for a rather general family of cross-sections $B$, the entropy dissipation is bounded below by a fractional Sobolev norm in terms of the velocity variable minus a small correction <ref name="ADVW2000" />.
where $c_1$ and $c_2$ depend only on mass, entropy and energy of $f$ at $x$. In the space homogeneous case, this estimate shows a regularization effect by the Boltzmann equation.
== The Landau Equation ==
== The Landau Equation ==
Line 107:
Line 104:
\begin{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
-
f_t + x\cdot \nabla_y f = Q_{L}(f,f)
+
f_t + v \cdot \nabla_y f = Q_{L}(f,f)
\end{equation*}
\end{equation*}
Latest revision as of 16:07, 30 August 2016
The Boltzmann equation is a nonlinear evolution equation first put forward by Ludwig Boltzmann to describe the configuration of particles in a gas, but only statistically. However, this equation and related equations are used in other physical situations, such as in optics. The corresponding linear inverse problem is also used in tomography [1]
In reality, the Boltzmann equation is not a single equation but a family of equations, where one obtains different equations depending on the nature of the interaction between particles (see below). Although there has been a lot of progress in the analysis of the Cauchy problem under many circumstances, the broad understanding of the equation and the dynamics of its solutions remains largely incomplete. For an overview of the mathematical issues revolving around this equation see for instance [2]. A basic reference is also [3].
Contents
The classical Boltzmann equation
As explained originally by Boltzmann in the probabilistic description of a gas, we assume that the probability that a particle in a gas lies in some region $A$ of phase space $\mathbb{R}^d\times \mathbb{R}^d$ at time $t$ is given by some function
and $B$, which is known as the Boltzmann collision kernel, measures the strength of collisions in different directions. The angle $\theta$ corresponds to $\cos \theta = \sigma \cdot (v-v_*) / |v-v_*|$.
Collision Invariants
The Cauchy problem (1) enjoys several conservation laws, which in the Boltzmann literature are known as collision invariants. Take $\phi(v)$ to be any of the following functions
\begin{equation*}
\phi(v) = 1, \;\;v,\;\; \tfrac{|v|^2}{2}
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
\text{(the first and third ones are real valued functions, the second one is vector valued)}
\end{equation*}
The operator $Q(f,f)$ may not make sense even for $f$ smooth if $\gamma$ is too negative or $\nu$ is too large. The operator does make sense if $\gamma \in (-d,0)$ and $\nu \in (0,2)$.
In the case $s = 2d-1$, we obtain that the collision kernel $B(r,\theta)$ depends only on the angular variable $\theta$. This case is called Maxwellian molecules.
Grad's angular cutoff assumption
This assumption consists in using a collision kernel that is integrable in the angular variable $\theta$. That is
\[ \int_{S^{d-1}} B(r,e) \mathrm d \sigma(e) < +\infty \text{ for all values of } r. \]
The purpose of this assumption is to simplify the mathematical analysis of the equation. Note that for particles interaction by inverse power forces this assumption never holds.
Stationary solutions
The Gaussian (or Maxweillian) distributions in terms of $v$, which are constant in $x$, are stationary solutions of the equation. That is, any function of the form
\[ f(t,x,v) = a e^{-b|v-v_0|^2}, \]
is a solution. In fact, for this function one can check that the integrand in the definition of $Q$ is identically zero since $f' \, f'_* = f \, f_*$.
Without Grad's angular cut-off assumption, and for a rather general family of cross-sections $B$, the entropy dissipation is bounded below by a fractional Sobolev norm in terms of the velocity variable minus a small correction [4].
\[ D(f) \geq c_1 \|\sqrt f\|_{H^{\nu/2}_{v}}^2 - c_2 \|f\|_{L^1_2}^2,\]
where $c_1$ and $c_2$ depend only on mass, entropy and energy of $f$ at $x$. In the space homogeneous case, this estimate shows a regularization effect by the Boltzmann equation.
The Landau Equation
A closely related evolution equation is the Landau equation. For Coulomb interactions, the corresponding collision kernel $B$ always diverges, instead in this case, one uses an equation (which is an asymptotic limit of Boltzmann equation) first derived by Landau,
Note that when $f$ is independent of $x$ the above equation becomes second-order parabolic equation where the coefficients depend non-locally on $f$, in particular, one has an apriori estimate for all higher derivatives of $f$ in terms of its $L^\infty$ and $L^1$ norms (via a bootstrapping argument).[citation needed]
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The EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into force on 25th May. Regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) the overall legal liabilities are much the same as health and safely law with the risk of prosecution by the ICO for breaches of GDPR and civil law suits from individuals who feel that they have a legitimate claim against an organisation for misuse of their personal data. The ICO has played down press scaremongering saying that they will act proportionately and to put it into context the ICO issued 57 monetary penalties and carried out 19 prosecutions in 2017. Notwithstanding this is a considerable expansion of current regulations and the sanctions have increased from a maximum of £500,000 per breach to the greater of 4% of group global turnover or €20 million so it needs to be taken seriously particularly by large organisations.
The general idea is that personal data should only be used for the purpose for which it was originally collected and that consent to use that data requires a positive informed decision. A key principle is that personal data should be collected for a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose and that the subject should be made aware of each an every reason a health and safety practitioner is holding or using his or her personal data.
Clearly health and safety management involves collecting accident information and the results of health and safety monitoring such as hearing tests which involves collecting personal data. Data also includes CCTV images and recordings from body cams which are now worn by many stewards and event security staff particularly where there is a risk of confrontation or ejections. Such activities do raise the question of how and how long these images should be held, for example as a record that an individual was safely and legally ejected from an event. It opens the possibility of legally savvy individuals requesting this information is deleted to merely to frustrate the organisation’s ability to defend itself against a future claim.
The collation of health and safety data normally falls under the concept of either legal obligation where there is a statutory requirement or ‘legitimate interest’ in the pursuance of managing health and safety properly. Specifically Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations requires employers to ‘plan organise, control, monitor and review their health and safety arrangements’ so gathering personal data for accident investigations and health and safety monitoring falls under a legal obligation. The regulations also require an individual risk assessment for new and expectant mothers which will clearly involve the recording of what could be highly sensitive personal data. In the case of the Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) there is a legal requirement not only to collect data but to pass it on to the relevant authority. In these cases provided the information is only held or used for the purposes intended in compliance with health and safety law then consent by the individuals concerned is not required. Conversely individual employees are legally obligated under the Health and Safety at Work Act to cooperate with their employers on health and safety issues.
As part of their GDPR policy, even where there is a legal obligation or legitimate interest, companies should inform people how long their data is to be held for and why. Ultimately however, where there is a legal obligation to collect and hold data it does not have to be deleted simply because the individual has asked you to do so.
The right of erasure is not an absolute right and health records are excluded from the right to be forgotten. Notwithstanding, medical records are categorised as sensitive data and should be treated with greater security than other personal data. There are circumstance, for example health monitoring, where there is a legal requirement to hold records for long periods such as the requirement under The Control of Asbestos Regulations to hold health monitoring records of asbestos workers for 40 years. In the events industry in particular, those exposed to noise hazard should be monitored and those records held and employers are advised to keep those for up to 40 years. Whilst the HSE has yet to update its guidance material in this regard these clearly fall under the category of either legal obligation or legitimate interest.
Employers may collect personal data for the purposes of recording training particularly where it involves certification as is required, for example, by the National Rigging Council for riggers in the event and entertainment industry or the requirement for lift truck drivers and other plant operators to hold the necessary licence. IOSH itself requires the names, photo ID and National Insurance number for delegates holding certain IOSH certificates. Again this a legitimate interest and compliant provided the information is only held or shared with a third party for the purpose intended. If these records are held as part of a large database then the holder would have to able to demonstrate that the records were held securely. Whilst employers should consider how long such records need to be held there should also be a consideration that it may be in employees’ interests not to have their training records systematically deleted just for the sake of it.
In the events industry it is best practice to compile and keep an event safety file which could contain personal data in the form of accident records and medical incidents related to that event. There is a statute of limitations (usually 3 years) on civil claims and it is common practice to archive the event safety file for around 5 years if there is no known reason to retain it any longer. There is no statute of limitations in criminal law and companies may rely on the event safety file in case of a criminal prosecution which could require demonstrating consistent health and safety management and monitoring over a period of years. Event companies may wish to review their archiving policy in this regard.
GDPR cannot cover every eventuality and as with any new law there will be areas that require legal interpretation. It is up to the events industry and individual event companies to work towards forming established best practices to ensure that problems can be resolved at industry level rather than being determined by case law in the criminal or civil courts. | https://www.essa.uk.com/about-essa/blog/467-gdpr-considerations-in-the-context-of-health-and-safety-management |
Are we headed for a recession? That’s the question many people asking nowadays.
The economy has been temperamental in recent months, with the positives from low unemployment and high job growth offset by rampant inflation and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty (Russia-Ukraine war).
While we are finally moving past the uncertainties induced by the COVID pandemic, the confluence of macro factors above portend flashing warning signs that a recession may be ahead.
In particular the yield curve on bonds (the difference between long- and short-term rates), considered a reliable recession indicator over the past 50 years, recently flattened, and then temporarily inverted; which many economists saw as a troubling sign of tough economic times ahead.
Similarly, prices on consumer goods (inflation) rose 8.5 percent in March, the largest rise since 1981, and shelter prices for home sales and rentals are up 5 percent.
Rising prices have darkened the publics mood about the economy, and consumer confidence (which generally drives US economic activity) has begun to decline in recent months as well.
Taken as a whole, these indicators make it clear that the U.S. may face a recession either this year or the next.
Recessions are more than measures of an economy’s performance; they can have a direct impact on millions of households, often for months or even years. Just look at the fallout from the 2008 GFC.
Economic contractions can mean job losses and erosion of hard earned savings and investments, and overall financial hardship.
Fortunately, there are things you can do right now to strengthen your finances and make them more resilient in the face of economic uncertainty. Here are several helpful steps you can take to recession-proof your finances and give yourself peace of mind in the months to come.
Join our subscriber list (free) to get the latest updates and exclusive articles
Make a Plan
One of the best ways to prepare for a recession is to get your finances in order before it occurs. If you’ve never had a budget before, take the time to sit down and make one. Then stress test it for scenarios where your income falls and/or your expenses rise significantly. What can your household finances tolerate?
Consider all your current income streams, as well as your weekly, monthly, and annual expenses. Build out your budget over a twelve-month period so you know how your income and bills you have due will affect your financial situation over time.
Use your past months as a guide but ensure you update your forecast budget with significant changes you may be expecting (e.g., new baby or house) and ensure your up your expenses to account for higher inflation. And don’t assume your company bonus or sales commission may be as healthy in the year ahead. Be conservative.
This exercise will help you to visualize your current financial state and determine the best ways to improve it. A good budget will also enable you to assess how major recession shocks such as a loss of a job or other income will affect you, so you are prepared to take steps to mitigate them.
Build an Emergency Fund
Loss of one’s job or income is one of the biggest household threats from a recession. A great way to prepare for the loss of income in an economic downturn is to shore up your savings with an emergency fund.
Having significant cash on hand during a recession will enable you to continue paying key monthly expenses, such as the rent or mortgage and utility bills; it will also ensure there is money on hand for critical repairs to your home or automobile or for unplanned costs like those from medical emergencies.
Additionally, an emergency fund will give you the financial space you need to stay afloat while you pursue a new job or other income options in the event you become unemployed.
If you don’t have an emergency fund right now, start building one right away; even as little as $1000 can help pay bills if you are affected by an economic downturn; ideally, building up to a three- or even six-month emergency fund can help you stave off the worst effects of a recession until you can get back on your feet.
Pay Down Debts
High levels of debt, coupled with high interest rates, in a recession can make riding out tough economic times even harder. The high monthly payments and accruing interest can make it difficult to stay resilient and maintain an already tough financial situation.
If you’re currently carrying too much debt, start prioritizing how to pay it off or lower it right away. If you cannot simply bootstrap it and pay down debt balances altogether, consider using a debt consolidation loan or executing a credit card balance transfer to streamline your debts and make them easier to manage. It’s easier to do this when times are good when credit is easier to get, versus when things tighten.
If your debts are paid off, or at least pared down considerably, you will be in a better position to ride out an economic downturn and allocate your money towards other areas of your finances to mitigate the recession’s effects.
Diversify Your Investments
When you assess your finances, you should also take a close look at your investment portfolio and ensure it is sufficiently diversified.
If your investment or retirement savings accounts (401K, IRA etc.) consist exclusively of one type of security or asset class, such as stocks, it could be more vulnerable to significant losses in a recession.
You can make your portfolio more resilient in the wake of a recession by diversifying it, and ensuring you have investments in multiple types of assets. There are index funds, for example, that are designed to withstand the harshest impacts of economic contractions.
Similarly, spreading stock investments across multiple types of industries can make your investment or retirement account more resilient as well.
Overall, it is wise to consult with a trusted financial adviser to determine the best ways to make your investment portfolio less vulnerable to a sustained recession.
Cut Back on Spending
If a recession seems increasingly likely, you should reconsider your budget and find ways to cut back on spending. The includes current and potential future spending.
Look closely at expenditures that you can do without and start reducing them as soon as you can.
For example, if you are spending a great deal on entertainment, such as streaming subscriptions or dining out, cutting back now will help you start preparing for the worst potential outcomes of a recession, such as a job loss.
Additionally, paring down expenses now, before a recession hits, will enable you to channel that money into your debt reduction efforts, or help you build your emergency find even faster as well.
Reconsider Big Purchases
In line with efforts to cut spending, you should also reconsider your plans to purchase a new home or car if you think a recession is looming
Since one of the biggest potential impacts of a recession is job loss, saddling yourself with a large new mortgage car loan in the wake of an economic downturn can make your financial situation even worse.
To avoid contending with higher debts or bills at risk during a recession, consider delaying major purchases until the threat facing you has passed.
Staying in your current home or keeping your current vehicle in running shape can help you stay more financially resilient and give you one less thing to worry about if a recession hits home.
Alternatively, if you must make a large new appliance or furniture purchase, consider deferring or buying it used/second-hand. There are deals to be had when times get worse, and if you have the cash, you get leverage.
Evaluate your Housing Situation
Housing costs, whether through home ownership or a rental, is often one of the top monthly expense’s consumers have. If you are preparing for a recession, you should consider your housing situation, and determine if there is any way to improve it to make yourself more recession proof.
For example, if you’re renting an apartment right now and the lease is coming due in the next few months, you should consider if it is worth downsizing to a cheaper rental unit, or even taking on a roommate to decrease your monthly expenses.
Similarly, homeowners should consider if now is a good time to refinance or restructure their monthly mortgage payment, or if there is any option to rent out part of their home (e.g. via Airbnb or Verbo) to add another stream of income.
Consider Building New Income Streams
Since one of the biggest threats you’ll face during a recession is job loss, you should definitely start looking at ways to mitigate the effects of lost income right now. One of the best ways to do this is to consider a side hustle, or part time job.
Fortunately, there are more options than ever before to find ways to monetize your spare time. For example. rideshare and delivery services can enable you to turn your idle time into an income earning opportunity.
Additionally, freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr enable users to sell their current skills to people willing to pay for them as well.
Exploring and learning about these and other opportunities now will create options for building your savings and making your income more secure in times of economic uncertainty.
Stay Calm
One of the best ways to stay financially resilient during a recession is to keep calm and avoid making rash, uninformed decisions due to panic. Do not cash out all your hard-earned investments or sell of your property because of recession fears.
Instead, you should keep in mind that recessions do occur from time to time (normal part of economic cycle) and are often followed by periods of strong economic recovery and growth.
Instead of panicking, take a long-term approach and make informed decisions that strengthen your financial situation for the long term. Over the long term, staying investing will allow you to buy at lower prices and enjoy the benefits of compounding as the economy and stock markets recover.
Parting Thoughts: Recession Proof your Finances Now
No economist or pundit ever knows exactly when a recession will occur, or if there will be one at all. However, preparing now for a recession can ensure that your finance are ready for the worst shocks of an economic downturn, and can give you peace of mind when storm clouds gather.
So, take the time to assess your financial situation and consider some of the steps discussed here, and start making yourself more recession proof today. | https://savingtoinvest.com/will-there-be-a-recession-signs-to-look-for-and-how-to-prepare/ |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
|Infobox references|
Caesium hydroxide or cesium hydroxide is a crystalline solid with the formula CsOH. It is notable for being the strongest normal, aqueous base; all bases stronger than it are superbases that react with water.
Contents
Properties
Physical
Caesium hydroxide is a crystalline, hygroscopic white solid resembling potassium hydroxide.
Chemical
Caesium hydroxide is a very reactive alkali. It reacts with glass:
- 2 CsOH + CaSiO3 → Cs2SiO3 + Ca(OH)2
- 2 CsOH + SiO2 → Cs2SiO3 + H2O
The resulting salt is caesium silicate, or caesium waterglass, which is water-soluble and similar in properties to common waterglass. Because of this, it is best to keep this compound in polyethylene bottles.
Caesium hydroxide readily reacts with carbon dioxide in the air:
- 2 CsOH + CO2 → Cs2CO3 + H2O
- CsOH + CO2 → CsHCO3
It is known to react with excess nitric acid forming unusual acidic adducts:
- CsOH + 2HNO3 → CsHN2O6 + H2O
Availability and synthesis
Caesium hydroxide can be purchased from various reagent suppliers. It can also be synthesized from elemental caesium, which is sold to element collectors. There are two methods of doing this.
Kewl method: breaking the ampoule with caesium under water, remotely, from a safe distance. The reaction results in an explosion. Make sure that the vessel in which you perform the reaction is strong enough to contain it.
Safe method: treating caesium metal with small amounts of water vapor. This requires a glovebox with an inert atmosphere. Beware of hydrogen buildup in the glovebox and make sure no oxygen is present in it!
Another safer way is to carefully let the cesium metal oxidize in open air, in a corrosion resistant container. After the metal has completely oxidized, slowly add water vapor, as the reaction is highly exothermic and dry the resulting wet hydroxide.
Handling
Safety
Caesium hydroxide is a very corrosive substance. Caesium ions however, are not toxic.
Storage
Store this compound in closed polyethylene bottles with no access to air.
Disposal
Disposing of caesium compounds is not recommended because of their rarity and price. But if you absolutely want to, you should neutralize the base with any non-toxic acid. | http://www.sciencemadness.org/smwiki/index.php/Caesium_hydroxide |
May 21, 2019
Will It Be Offensive for Non-Scots to Wear Kilts?
Kilts are related to Scottish and Irish heritage this will let you long tradition as part of Celtic culture. For Irish and Scottish gents, kilts can be quite a strategy to exhibit pride because of their nationalities, and that brings about a significant question—is it offensive for non-Scots to wear a kilt?
Unfortunately, there isn't any single answer. To find out whether it's a good option you aren't, take into account the following:
- The Kilt Style.
The plaid patterns of tartan kilts are often associated with heraldry. Scottish and Irish families frequently have a tartan pattern which is regarded as theirs. If a person in one of those families could look at you wearing their tartan, they may take offense, particularly if you are a stranger rather than a Scot or Irishman at all. It is also generally regarded as poor taste to wear a Scottish or Irish military kilt if you are not a service member or veteran in order to wear an organization's tartan if you are not an affiliate. If you need to prevent tartans entirely, it is possible to all kinds of other kinds of kilts that you could select from. Contemporary, utility and hybrid kilts are all great choices for guys that aren't Scots.
- The Occasion.
If you are at the highland games, a Celtic or Scottish festival or a wedding the location where the gentlemen is going to be wearing kilts, it is simple to sport a kilt without offending anyone; however, if you're attending a Hallow's eve or perhaps a fancy dress party, someone who is Scottish will discover a kilt worn being a costume to be offensive and disrespectful of their heritage. Wearing a kilt everyday for work in order to a club will typically not construed as offensive.
- The Context.
Even when you are unlikely to offend anyone by putting on a kilt that is not connected with heraldry, military service or perhaps an organization, your movements inside a kilt might be offensive, and not to Scots. Ensure that you make sure to maintain your legs closed when you find yourself wearing a kilt and to be modest. That rule relates to Scots, too!
- How we Use it.
Another important thing to think about when you find yourself about to wear a kilt and you're simply not only a Scot is the fit. A kilt it doesn't fit well and is way too short and tight or too baggy or sloppy might seem like you happen to be mocking Scotsmen. That's why you ought to opt for a kilt which fits well. Better yet, possess a kilt made especially to your specifications, so that you're guaranteed you will look your very best self in it.
For more info about Best Kilts for Men please visit web page: click for more info. | https://postheaven.net/skirtmiddle9/will-it-be-offensive-for-non-scots-to-wear-kilts |
Neuropeptides and nitric oxide synthase in the gill and the air-breathing organs of fishes.
Anatomical and histochemical studies have demonstrated that the bulk of autonomic neurotransmission in fish gill is attributed to cholinergic and adrenergic mechanisms (Nilsson. 1984. In: Hoar WS, Randall DJ, editors. Fish physiology, Vol. XA. Orlando: Academic Press. p 185-227; Donald. 1998. In: Evans DH, editor. The physiology of fishes, 2nd edition. Boca Raton: CRC Press. p 407-439). In many tissues, blockade of adrenergic and cholinergic transmission results in residual responses to nerve stimulation, which are termed NonAdrenergic, NonCholinergic (NANC). The discovery of nitric oxide (NO) has provided a basis for explaining many examples of NANC transmissions with accumulated physiological and pharmacological data indicating its function as a primary NANC transmitter. Little is known about the NANC neurotransmission, and studies on neuropeptides and NOS (Nitric Oxide Synthase) are very fragmentary in the gill and the air-breathing organs of fishes. Knowledge of the distribution of nerves and effects of perfusing agonists may help to understand the mechanisms of perfusion regulation in the gill (Olson. 2002. J Exp Zool 293:214-231). Air breathing as a mechanism for acquiring oxygen has evolved independently in several groups of fishes, necessitating modifications of the organs responsible for the exchange of gases. Aquatic hypoxia in freshwaters has been probably the more important selective force in the evolution of air breathing in vertebrates. Fishes respire with gills that are complex structures with many different effectors and potential control systems. Autonomic innervation of the gill has received considerable attention. An excellent review on branchial innervation includes Sundin and Nilsson's (2002. J Exp Zool 293:232-248) with an emphasis on the anatomy and basic functioning of afferent and efferent fibers of the branchial nerves. The chapters by Evans (2002. J Exp Zool 293:336-347) and Olson (2002) provide new challenges about a variety of neurocrine, endocrine, paracrine and autocrine signals that modulate gill perfusion and ionic transport. The development of the immunohistochemical techniques has led to a new phase of experimentation and to information mainly related to gills rather than air-breathing organs of fishes. During the last few years, identification of new molecules as autonomic neurotransmitters, monoamines and NO, and of their multiple roles as cotransmitters, has reshaped our knowledge of the mechanisms of autonomic regulation of various functions in the organs of teleosts (Donald, '98).NO acts as neurotransmitter and is widely distributed in the nerves and the neuroepithelial cells of the gill, the nerves of visceral muscles of the lung of polypterids, the vascular endothelial cells in the air sac of Heteropneustes fossilis and the respiratory epithelium in the swimbladder of the catfish Pangasius hypophthalmus. In addition, 5-HT, enkephalins and some neuropeptides, such as VIP and PACAP, seem to be NANC transmitter candidates in the fish gill and polypterid lung. The origin and function of NANC nerves in the lung of air-breathing fishes await investigation. Several mechanisms have developed in the Vertebrates to control the flow of blood to respiratory organs. These mechanisms include a local production of vasoactive substances, a release of endocrine hormones into the circulation and neuronal mechanisms. Air breathers may be expected to have different control mechanisms compared with fully aquatic fishes. Therefore, we need to know the distribution and function of autonomic nerves in the air-breathing organs of the fishes.
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Librarian Linda Plumley was showered with gifts from appreciative Roynon students.
LA VERNE, California, February 2, 2018 — On Groundhog Day in La Verne, hundreds of Roynon Elementary students rose in celebration, not because of the breaking news that Punxsutawny Phil had poked out of his Pennsylvania burrow to see his shadow, signifying another six weeks of winter, but because their remodeled library had officially opened, offering more than 16,000 children’s books, larger than even the children’s collection of the La Verne branch of the Los Angeles Country Library.
Several leaders helped author the remodeled library’s success, but none figured more prominently than Roynon Librarian Linda Plumley, who came to Roynon in 1996 and immediately began the library’s transformation, sweeping out more than 2,000 old and obsolete books from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and purchasing, with help from the Royon PTA, newer titles.
The ongoing physical transformation has been just as dramatic. The building had been a woodworking shop.
“It was old and ugly and was dark and industrial looking,” said Karen Huigens, who both attended and taught at Roynon and now heads the school’s Beautification Committee, which helped raise $18,000 for the remodel. “The walls were brown, the carpet was brown, even the books were brown.
“Linda totally changed the way the library looks and the way the library functions,” Huigens said.
Muralists Jennifer McCartney and Louis Sevilla are both Roynon alums.
The library got another boost from the district-wide modernization project in 2007, with the installation of air conditioning, new electrical and plumbing and new paint and carpet. Student computers were installed the following year as part of the new Accelerated Reader Program.
Last August, after reviewing many different submissions to upgrade the library’s exterior, the Beautification Committee selected the painted mural design of two Roynon alumni, Louis Sevilla and Jennifer McCartney. McCartney is also a Roynon substitute teacher and lives across the street from the school, where her two children also attend.
Their whimsical mural took about 20 hours to paint and includes a playful raccoon, Roynon’s mascot, peering out from a hole in a tree. The artwork complements the surrounding landscape, which features seat walls and arbors to shade the students when they are reading.
And by all accounts, Roynon students are reading more – a lot more. Before Mrs. Plumley, there were less than 10,000 books checked out each year at the Roynon Library. Today, that total now tops more than 60,000 books annually.
“We have tried to make the library a busy vibrant place where reading is a daily joyful pursuit,” Huigens said.
On February 2, 2018, Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow, but out west at an elementary school in La Verne, the Roynon Raccoons saw their future — with help from a dedicated community and the vision of one great librarian.
To add to your knowledge of buying, selling and investing in real estate, call longtime La Verne Sotheby’s International Realtor Colleen Bennett, DRE 1013172, Phone: 909.374.4744. | http://www.laverneonline.com/2018/02/02/groundhog-day-holds-a-far-different-meaning-for-roynons-bookish-elementary-students/ |
1. Resolving Business Ethical Challenges: Ethical Dilemma.
When difficult ethical decisions need to be made in an organization, our text suggests several approaches and models. In the chapter 5 business challenge scenario, how might employee Madison work through her decision on how to handle her ethical dilemma? If Madison cannot report her problems to her immediate supervisor, what are some other ways she can handle the situation?
2. Personal Case Study Topic
Identify your Personal Case Study topic for this course. Why did you choose it, what about this case interests you and what concepts covered in class so far may apply to your Personal Case Study?
Each discussion in 300 words, APA format. | https://scholarpil.com/resolving-business-ethical-challenges-ethical-dilemma/ |
Fire Risk Assessment
A evaluation of identified fire hazards and fire protection measures. It also includes planning for the safety of people at risk. Ideally, employers, site managers, and safety officers work together to create effective fire safety plans based on fire risk assessments.
Fall Protection Site Assessment
Prior to the installation of your fall protection equipment, a full survey of your facility may need to be performed to identify current or potential fall hazards. Firebreak SA has experienced fall protection experts who conduct certified site assessments and help develop solutions to eliminate dangerous conditions. During the assessment we will take photographs, measurements, interview members of your team, and analyze any available records and reports to determine what types of hazards are present or could possibly develop. With this information we then create a comprehensive report proposing methods on how to prepare your facility to mitigate work hazards and remain in compliance with OSHA regulations.
PPE Hazard Assessment
Our PPE Hazard Assessment can be used to determine the required PPE by identifying the hazards of performing the task and selecting appropriate PPE. Grouped according to the body part protected by specific types of PPE. | https://www.firebreaksa.co.za/site-assessments/ |
What does the number 9 symbolize?
Number 9 is perceived as a symbol of love and faith, but it can also symbolize karma and the spiritual laws of the universe.
Receiving this number means that your life purpose may be helping other people and doing something good for others..
Is 9 a mystical number?
The number nine is often associated with a divine connotation in the mystical thought and religions across the globe from ancient times. There is both, negativity and positivity in this mysterious nine! Not to talk of the numeral 9, which is often cited as a ‘lucky number’ for many these days!
Why is the number 9 special?
Nine is a Motzkin number. It is the first composite lucky number, along with the first composite odd number and only single-digit composite odd number. 9 is the only positive perfect power that is one more than another positive perfect power, by Mihăilescu’s Theorem.
Why is the number 9 so powerful?
Number 9 is a symbol of completeness of God and also a symbol of finality. … It means that God completed his creation and all his promises. There are also 9 spiritual gifts of God, such as faith, wisdom, miracles, prophecy and some others. | https://itzprogramming.com/qa/quick-answer-why-is-9-a-sacred-number.html |
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian army has destroyed almost 1,000 Russian tanks, over 200 Russian planes, and approximately 2,500 armoured battle vehicles.
Despite these casualties, Russian soldiers have enough weaponry to mount future operations, according to Zelensky.
Of course, the occupants have equipment on hand. Yes, they still have missiles capable of attacking our area,” he continued. “However, the conflict has already weakened Russia to the point that they must prepare (to have) even fewer military equipment for the parade in Moscow.”
On May 9, Russia will perform its regular Victory Day parade in Red Square to commemorate Germany’s surrender to the Soviet Union during World War II.
According to the Ukrainian President, Russia has already lost almost 23,000 soldiers since the assault began. International Daily News is unable to independently verify this allegation.
Russia has irregularly given casualty estimates that are low and, according to analysts, a gross underestimation. Two top NATO military officials assessed the number of Russian servicemen killed in combat in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000 two days before Russia’s update. Other US officials estimated Russian casualties in a similar range around the same period — between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed — but they expressed “poor confidence” in those numbers.
In an interview with Sky News earlier this month, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov briefly confirmed Russia has suffered “substantial” army casualties in Ukraine, calling the losses “a terrible sorrow” for the country. | https://intdailynews.com/according-to-zelensky-the-ukrainian-army-has-destroyed-around-1000-russian-tanks/ |
The John Jay Institute embraces and affirms the historic ecumenical creeds of the Christian faith. It fosters an educational climate and dialogue that warmly welcomes Evangelical Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox believers to explore questions of public affairs in the context of first things.
Our Principles
God governs in the affairs of man.
- Human flourishing depends upon the Creator's benevolence and living within his order for pursuing the good life.
- For national and civic well-being all law and public policy should be in agreement with principles of Natural Law --universal ethical norms of right and wrong.
- The American constitutional order (including its ideal of the "rule of law") is premised upon the existence of Natural Law.
God endows every person with inherent dignity.
- This God-given dignity is the foundation for natural rights or "inalienable rights" of life, liberty, and the pursuit of a well-ordered soul (what the American founders called "happiness").
- The inherent dignity of the human person as created in God's image demands that all persons (and especially the unborn, physically infirm, mentally disabled, and elderly) regardless of their social and economic status ought to be welcomed in life and their rights protected by law.
- All persons have responsibilities (duties, obligations) corresponding to and incumbent upon their rights.
Humankind is inherently social and created for community.
- The natural family is the irreducible unit of society and is thus prior to the state.
- The marriage bond between the male and female sexes is a natural and normal order for the regulation of relations between the sexes and the rearing of children.
- Notions of human autonomy, individualism, and selfishness are antithetical to the common good and to the American founders' vision of a virtuous republic.
- Mankind is his "brothers' keeper."
Civil government is limited by its nature and purpose.
- The state is instituted principally to secure and protect the God-given dignity of the human person and to foster the common good. It does not grant human rights, nor is it to be equated with or to comprehend society.
- The state's legitimate function to these specific ends is the guiding principle of its own limited sphere of authority.
- The state is further limited by the existence of the social institutions of family, church, and society, which have their own delineated spheres of authority and independent jurisdictions.
Religion and morality are essential foundations of good government.
- In the words of George Washington, religion and morality are the "indispensable supports" and "great pillars" of political prosperity.
- Without faith in God and belief in a transcendent moral order there is ultimately no security for property, reputation, or life.
- Morality can only be effectively maintained and sustained by religion.
- In the words of John Adams, "Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people…." It is therefore essential to the success of the American system that the national government promote positive neutrality toward all religions that cultivate public virtue in their adherents.
- Of all the religions that cultivate public virtue, Christianity might rightly be considered as the most-favored because of its positive and historical role in shaping American culture, ideals, and institutions.
Christianity fosters and cultivates American democracy.
- Christianity's teaching on the sacred dignity of all human persons as well as their capacity for evil is conducive to democratic political theories of freedom, government, and human rights.
- Christianity shaped and defined Anglo-American legal principles that are essential to democracy including ideals of justice, equity, equality before the law, proportionality in punishment, and restitution for victims.
- Christianity was the historical religious and cultural context for the emergence of American political ideals and founding of the republic.
- Christianity has proven itself to be a seedbed of the public virtues necessary for sustaining American constitutional order.
- The future well-being of the American republic depends upon a vibrant Christian faith to inform its customs, mores, ideals and institutions.
Freedom of religion is America's first freedom.
- In the words of the Magna Carta the "church shall be free, and have her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate." It is the right of the church to remain free and independent of state interference and control.
- The dignity of the human person, as created in God's image, assures the right of conscience to freely worship God.
- The free exercise of religion is a right enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution for people of all faiths and none.
- Without freedom of religion authentic political expression, dissent, and other democratic values are jeopardized. In other words, freedom of religion is the first freedom because it typifies and safeguards democratic values.
- The state should apply equal and exact justice to all persons regardless of race, creed, or religion.
The right to ownership and private property is essential to the inalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
- The creation of wealth is a moral imperative for every society.
- The freedom of trade, exchange, and commerce, bridled by universal ethical norms such as the Golden Rule, are essential to the prosperity of families, communities, and the nation.
- Economic self-interest and avarice are not morally equivalent.
- Economic self-interest and the common good are reconcilable within a free-market economic system that is constrained by moral order.
Government has a fiduciary stewardship of the public trust.
- Public spending should be exercised with economy.
- Public credit should be used sparingly.
- Excessive accumulation of public debt should be avoided for its deleterious effects on the state and its citizens' economic way of life.
- A government's revenue should be raised with a minimal tax burden upon its citizens and their farms, businesses, and industries.
- The expansion of economic activity and the material prosperity of the state and its citizens is enhanced by a minimal tax burden.
- The power of the state to tax and spend can be most effectively restrained by representative government.
Principled public leadership is leverage for good government.
- Just as governments are made by leaders, so by them they are ruined as well; therefore, good government demands good leaders of high principle.
- Leaders are made, not born. Although there is natural talent in abilities and skills, leadership arises from character that is forged by family, education, training, and crucible experiences which try the soul.
- The spiritual, moral, and intellectual formation of a country's leaders is the best hope of its future political prosperity.
- The first principle of public leadership is selfless service.
- Principled public leaders are naturally inspired and instructed by the great heritage of leadership in our civilization's storied past. | https://www.johnjayfellows.com/our-beliefs |
Development of modular, autonomously reconfigurable structural systems.
Structural Robotics: the idea
Development of modular, autonomously reconfigurable robotic system has long been a roboticist's dream. There are many examples in science fiction, including the MicroBot from Big Hero 6, but live demonstrations have been lackluster. Current modular systems tend to have low stiffness to weight ratios, and thus struggle to scale to the size of construction. Though there are many limiting factors between the animated representations and current realizations, we aim to push the boundary by designing a stiff, light weight system optimized to transform into reconfigurable structural architecture.
Development of modular, autonomously reconfigurable structures and systems has many applications in infrastructure and aerospace, but research has yet to merge the notions of programmable material and robotic assembly at scales larger that 1m. Modular robotics typically have high density modules, while robotic assembly systems tend to tradeoff structural performance for constructability. Here, we seek to occupy an area in parameter space enabled by discrete materials, which enable modular systems with power and actuation and ultra-high performance structural properties at scale. In this project, I aim to develop a modular, structural-robotic system capable of performing quasi-static, and possibly dynamic, self-reconfiguration. Utilizing digital material systems and distributed actuation I will enable a mobile, self-assembling, yet load bearing, structural system.
“Individual systems will also be capable of 4D transformation – 4D being the ability to change the system’s shape, modality, and function. For example, a swarm of unmanned systems will be capable of moving to an obstacle, such as a river, and then forming a structure to span the gap.”
We propose to do the same for materiel, by introducing a new kind of modular, re-configurable robotic system that blurs the boundary between mobile robots and active structures. This is a structural robotic system which is comprised of many agents that, like ants, can interlink to form self-assemblages. Each is constructed from a high-performance structural system that can be reconfigured to realize a range of dynamic forms. Along with spanning gaps, potential applications include novel forms of locomotion, rapidly erecting temporary structures, autonomously adapting to changing requirements, and performing active tasks such as shaping antennas.
ZIPPED
Zipped Robot demo
Zipped mechanisms video
Strands may move independently or upon pre-existing structures.
The pieces can also assemble to make actuated motion, opening the door to assembled versus pre-fabricated soft robotics. | https://gitlab.cba.mit.edu/falcone/structural_robotics |
A list of the bills the Diocese followed during the legislative session.
Find Your Legislator
Who represents you? Enter your address here and find your state representative and senator.
- To find your Congressional representative, click here.
- For Senate, click here.
Faithful Citizenship
Read the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's comprehensive document for discerning our individual votes as people of Faith, Forming Conscience for Faithful Citizenship (en Espanol).
- pdf How to Advocate Your Position with a Legislator (72 KB)
- pdf Faith and Politics: Catholics are Called to Political Action (159 KB)
- pdf Get Your Letter to the Editor Published (90 KB)
- Join the Prayer and Action Network
Peace and Justice Commission
Commission members lead advocacy teams on international, national and state and local issues involving Catholic social teaching. Advocacy teams receive periodic action alerts regarding federal or state legislation and agree to contact state legislators or members of the Utah congressional delegation regarding the issue. If you would like to be an advocacy team member, please contact Jean Hill.
The Commission also maintains the Prayer and Action Network—a weekly email on current issues and suggested actions for readers. For sample emails, see the link at the left.
Issues of Concern
While there are many current events, policies, and issues of concern to the Catholic Church, a few of our ongoing advocacy efforts center on immigration reform, economic justice, religious liberty, and global poverty. | https://dioslc.org/outreach/government-liaison-peace-and-justice-ministry/91-legislative-priorities |
Mauritius marked the World Mental Health Day 2021 under the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World” on 09 October 2021 at Mahebourg Hospital in the presence of the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Hon. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, the Private Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs T. Jutton, the Member of Parliament, Mr R. Doolub, the World Health Organization Representative in Mauritius, Dr L. Musango, and other personalities, including the health personnel of the Mahebourg Hospital.
Dr Hon. Jagutpal, in his address, said that mental health has always been associated to stigma. He added, “93 000 patients and more than 3200 people have been admitted at the Brown Sequard Mental Hospital in 2020 in Mauritius.” The Minister of Health and Wellness emphasized the fact that children too suffer from mental health problems and 224 patients suffering from mental health problems under the age of 18 have been admitted for treatment last year.
Globally 450 million people suffer from mental health issues while more than 700 000 people suffer from a mental health ailment including suicide.
“12 psychologists and 24 psychiatrists have been recruited in view of strengthening the national mental health services and necessary resources have been mobilized for recruitment of additional psychologists to be posted in the different Ministries”, said Dr Hon Jagutpal.
Mauritius has decentralized the psychiatric services across all the regional hospitals to reach a greater number of people island wise. The same services are gradually being implemented at the level of the Mediclinics. The Ministry of Health and Wellness is also focusing on the training of health personnel in view of improving the quality of mental health care.
“The COVID-19 pandemic did not only have a medical impact but has also had an impact on people’s mental health”, said Dr Hon. Jagutpal.
Dr Laurent Musango, the WHO Representative in Mauritius, advocated for the development of a national mental health strategy in line with the WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030, recently endorsed by the World Health Assembly. He added that concerted actions are needed to promote mental health and well-being for all and prevent mental health conditions for those at risk and achieve universal coverage for mental health services.
“The World Mental Health Day should not be limited to sensitization programme. It should instead be an opportunity to empower people to care for their own mental health and better support those suffering from mental health problems,” said Dr Musango.
“Depression is one of the main mental health problems globally while one out of seven people aged 10 to 19 years old is suffering from mental health problems around the world. It is thus importance to detect cases of mental health problems for appropriate treatment”, added Dr Musango. Many of the mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia can be treated successfully.
“We need to address the increasing demand for mental health services, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic and work towards reducing stigmatization associated to mental health, discrimination and human rights issues”, said the WHO Representative, who congratulated the Dr Hon Jagutpal for prioritizing mental health on the national health agenda and for mobilizing the necessary resources in view of strengthening the national mental health programme. Investing in mental health not only impact positive not only on health but also on economy and society in general.
Other speakers stressed on the need to eradicate stigmatization and stereotypes associated with mental health issues. The population should be sensitized on the mental health services available and how to detect mental health problems in the family for timely treatment.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness and WHO collaborated jointly to produce five pamphlets on different mental health issues, namely depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, suicide prevention and bipolar disorder. The pamphlets launched on this occasion will be distributed widely to sensitize the population on mental health problems and where to look for support. | |
Sometimes, practice sessions fall flat. Picture a violin player slouching through rehearsal, struggling to remember the notes and summoning the minimum amount of energy necessary to get through it. At the end, the violinist walks out of the room no more skilled at playing than when they entered.
What separates the productive practice sessions from the busts? How can you, regardless of what skill you’re trying to improve, make sure practice doesn’t wind up a waste of time?
To get the most out of your practice sessions, you need to plan them ahead of time. Every great practice plan includes four components: a clear purpose, emphasis on only a few things at a time, checklists, and a balance between session length and breaks.
Here’s how to build the ideal practice session around these elements to maximize your time and effort.
Planning a Productive Session
In planning your practice sessions, the four components will ensure that you have a good balance between challenge, focus, and direction. Let’s break down each one so you can see how to work it into your agenda.
#1: Purpose
Without purpose and a clear goal, your practice session will be aimless. Practice is not about showing up, going through the moves, or putting in the time; it’s about making progress.
As legendary boxer Muhammad Ali said, “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” And to make progress, you need clear objectives. It doesn’t have to be a detailed plan, but you have to go into each practice session knowing what specific part of your skill you want to work on.
For example, if you’re learning to play the violin, you may want to focus on improving bow skills today. Having an objective in mind will make it easier to choose drills and exercises that move you toward your goals.
#2: Few Things at a Time
Related to having clear objectives for your practice sessions is working on only a few things at a time. It’s tempting to practice many parts of your craft in one day, but learning requires focus, effort, and time; if you try to do too much at once, none of it will get the attention it needs.
You should choose between one to three things to practice in any given session. There will be a time for everything, just not everything at the same time. If you’re learning a new song on the violin, perhaps you would choose to focus only on timing for a practice session instead of trying to get everything right.
#3: Checklists
Checklists are a way to remind yourself of important points to pay attention to during practice. For our violin player, this might include: body posture, arm angle, left thumb position, etc.
When you have checklists, you get to refer back to them during practice and make sure you are not leaving important things out.
#4: Length and Breaks
Practice is exhausting; if you don’t give yourself breaks, you’ll burn out and have diminishing returns. Ideally, you should take between five- and twenty-minute breaks for every forty to fifty-five minutes of intense practice, and do no more than a four- to five-hour session in a day, practice and breaks included.
Getting better at anything involves stretching beyond your capabilities, but also letting your mind recover and adapt to the newly gained territory. Practice stimulates your abilities to grow, but the adaptation, consolidation, and actual growth happens while you rest and recover. That means breaks, recovery, and sleep should be considered active components of getting better at anything, and must be an integral part of your practice plan.
Build Your Practice Habit
Now that you know the elements of the ideal practice session, you can build a solid habit that will keep you improving through the months and years of training ahead. Turning practice into a habit means making it a consistent part of your schedule, which is why implementation should be the element that ties your plan together.
You are more likely to do something if you plan for when, where, and for how long you’ll do it. For example, you might make a rule to practice the violin for an hour every night after dinner. It’s better to start with a few rules and add more as you get used to them.
Many of us try to practice too much too often in the beginning, making it more likely that we burn out and quit. The right approach to building your practice habit is to focus on consistency first and adding intensity second—to start small and build upon it.
Learning and mastering a skill takes many hours of practice, and a plan helps you keep those hours from going to waste. By planning your sessions with purpose, focus, checklists, and balance, you’ll get the most out of your practice and turn continuous improvement into a lifelong habit.
For more advice on maximizing your practice sessions, you can find Learn, Improve, Master on Amazon. | https://unlimitedmastery.com/4-components-of-the-ideal-practice-session/ |
Intersection’s Nonprofit Spotlight series profiles South L.A. organizations that are propelling positive change in South L.A. Here we look at Esperanza Community Housing Corporation — a 25-year-old group helping people to create communities for themselves where they can thrive.
What is Esperanza Community Housing’s purpose?
Esperanza seeks to create opportunities for community residents’ growth, security, participation, recognition, and ownership through developing and preserving affordable housing, promoting accessible health care, stimulating involvement in arts and culture, ensuring quality education, pursuing economic development, and advocating for progressive public policy. | http://intersectionssouthla.org/story/author/abrigida/page/2/ |
Semiotics of Aspectuality.
Semiotica dell’aspettualità.
Sémiotique de l’aspectualité.
Semiótica de la aspectualidad.
Download full Call for Papers in four languages: call-for-papers-lexia-n-25-aspectuality
Lexia, the international, peer–reviewed journal of CIRCe, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Communication of the University of Torino, Italy, invites contributions to be published in issue n. 25 of the new series.
The topic of the forthcoming issue is “Semiotics of Aspectuality”.
L’argomento del prossimo numero è “Semiotica dell’aspettualità”.
Le sujet du prochain numéro est « Sémiotique de l’aspectualité ».
El tópico del próximo número es el siguiente: “Semiótica de la aspectualidad”.
The traditional object of semiotics, the sign, stems from a selection. The signifying side of the sign never simply reproduces the signified one but singles out an aspect of it. “Aspect” (from the Latin “aspicere”, “to look at”) etymologically designates what appears, what presents itself to the eyes, as well as the way in which this presentation takes place. In English, “aspect” enters the language in the late 14th century as an astrological term, indicating the relative position of the planets as they appear from earth (i.e., how they ‘look at’ one another).
Generally speaking, the aspect in semiotics is everything that pushes reality to turn into signification “in some respect”. The word “respect”, famously chosen by Peirce in his canonical definition of the sign, may be regarded as a cognitive variant of the word “aspect”. If “aspect” is a particular way of looking at things, “respect” is a particular way of thinking of things. The respect is the inward counterpart of the aspect. The aspect is the outward counterpart of the respect. However, both refer to the same process: meaning derives from selection, and looking is the model and utmost metaphor of it. Peirce’s distinction between “dynamic object” and “immediate object” could not make sense without involving some form of aspect or respect. Indeed, most interpreters of Peirce describe the immediate object not as some additional object distinct from the dynamic one but merely as some “informationally incomplete facsimile of the dynamic object generated at some interim stage in a chain of signs” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). The fact that this “facsimile” is incomplete is the consequence of the fact that some cognitive and cultural forces shape the sign into the result of a series of aspects and respects, highlighting certain qualities of the dynamic object while playing down or simply ignoring some other qualities.
If “aspect” (and, more precisely in Peirce, “respect”) is a general feature of any semiotic dynamic, “aspectuality” is both an object and an area of investigation that has traditionally focused on one particular domain of it (“an aspect of the aspect”, one might say): time. Of all the categories of dynamic objects that undergo their transformation into immediate objects through selection of an aspect, time is the one that most attracted the attention of scholars. Early reflection on verbal language encouraged linguists to maintain that words do not limit themselves to represent the time of reality, distinguishing between what occurs before and what occurs after, but also to represent this time from a particular point of view, as though projecting a ‘verbal eye’ into the linguistic depiction of reality. Already the Indian linguist Yaska (ca. 7th century BCE) dealt with this feature of verbal language, distinguishing actions that are processes (bhāva), from those where the action is considered as a completed whole (mūrta). The observation that many verbal languages contain mechanisms that enable speakers to represent the time of an action according to different aspects of it has led to the development of a specific area of linguistic study, that of “grammatical aspect”, which considers the aspect as a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event, or state, denoted by a verb, extends over time. Traditionally, scholars distinguish among different aspects depending on how they represent the lasting of a process (durative or punctual), its completion (perfective or imperfective), the stage of it (inchoative, intermediate, terminative), its potential iteration (singular, iterative, cyclical), etc. Although most reflection on the grammatical aspect concerns verbs, scholars have long realized that the qualities of the time of reality can be verbally
rendered also through other semantic means, including adverbs or specific lexical choices.
Since the beginning, the study of aspectuality was carried on for both theoretical and practical means. On the one hand, it is abstractedly interesting to find out how each language (underlain by a specific linguistic ideology) provides speakers with a series of options as regards the representation of the temporal qualities of reality. On the other hand, it was soon evident to scholars that choice among these options often results in a rhetorical effect: verbally casting light on a process so as to highlight its initial, terminal, complete, incomplete, etc. character is often a means to lead the receiver and interpreter to specific pragmatic conclusions. To give an example, contemporary online journalism often adopts an aspectuality of emotions that is diametrically different from that of classical ‘paper journalism’; social networks are full of expressions such as “you’ll be outraged when you’ll realize what the politician X said”, inviting the reader to click on the often enticing image attached to the message. Such and similar expressions vehicle and simultaneously provoke a receptive dynamics in which prejudiced emotional reaction to the facts precedes the cognitive awareness of them (readers are led to be outraged before knowing what they are outraged about, somehow relying on the “outrage deposit” that sits in society and that is automatically activated through fiduciary adhesion to the journalist’s proposed interpretive framework).
The centrality of aspects and respects in the definition itself of the sign, both in Peirce’s and Saussure’s tradition, the accumulation of insights on verbal aspects in the history of grammar, and the study of aspectuality in structural linguistics have given rise, in contemporary semiotics, to a specific interest for aspectual dynamics. This interest has manifested itself on two different but intertwined levels. On a more specific level, semiotics, and especially the Greimassian school, has focused on the narrative implications of aspectuality. In the Greimassian model, substantially in keeping with the previous and parallel linguistic literature, aspectuality is an over-determination of “temporalization”, that is, the construction, through enunciation, of the temporal framework in which the action of narration is situated and imaginarily takes place. Indeed, while in most Indo- European languages temporalization consists in the narrative projection of a present, a past, or a future, aspectualization specifies such projection by focusing on a specific aspect of it. To give an example, in Italian as well as in other Romance languages, sport journalists characteristically relate soccer actions (which have already occurred in the past, and are therefore complete) by using not perfective verbal forms (“al trentesimo minuto del primo tempo, il giocatore ha passato il pallone”, “at the thirtieth minute of the first half, the player passed the ball”), but bizarrely adopting imperfective verbal forms (“al trentesimo minuto del primo tempo, il giocatore passava il pallone”; ““at the thirtieth minute of the first half, the player was passing the ball”). The pragmatic effect of this aspectual distortion consists in transmitting to receivers the feeling that the soccer action, albeit by definition complete, is still going on under their eyes as if in slow motion, empowering, hence, the evocative ability of the journalist’s discourse.
It is precisely in order to account for these rhetorical effects that Greimassian semiotics developed a systematic study of narrative aspectualization. At the same time, in keeping with Saussure’s ambition to conceive semiology as a generalization of linguistics, Greimassian semioticians have also explored the second level of investigation on aspectuality, by considering whether the analytical framework elaborated so as to explain temporal aspectuality could be generalized in order explicate also non-temporal forms of aspectuality, such as ‘spatial aspectuality’, for instance. In the Greimassian school, such generalization of the study of temporal aspectuality took place mainly through the introduction of the so called “observer actant”. As is well known, the Greimassian school conceives meaning as essentially stemming from cultural oppositions that find their expression in narrative forms. Relying on previous intuitions by Propp, Lévi-Strauss, and others, Greimas analyzed narratives as structures characteristically composed by a certain number of narrative roles or “actants” (subject, object, sender, receiver, adjuvant, and opponent). Thus, meaning in society circulates through stories in which the correspondent value, embodied in an object, is pursued by a subject encouraged by a sender and sanctioned by a receiver, helped by an adjuvant and contrasted by an opponent (often at the service of the parallel but inverse narrative program of an anti-subject). Subsequent followers of the Greimassian school, however, and in particular Jacques Fontanille, realized that, so as to fully account for this narrative structure, a further actant should be introduced in it, a sort of ‘abstract eye’ that observes the action of the story by focusing on a particular aspect of it. Changing the perspective of this “observer actant”, the rhetorical meaning of a narrative can be substantially altered.
In an epoch in which both global and local representations of time and space seem to undergo a
dramatic shifting, Lexia, the international journal for semiotics published by CIRCE, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Communication at the University of Turin, Italy, calls for papers
inquiring on the semiotics of aspectuality. Papers dealing with either (or both) of the two levels
mentioned above are welcome: on the one hand, articles may inquire into the specific semiotics of temporal aspectuality, focusing on the way in which the various kinds of present or past discourse represent and rhetorically shape the receiver’s interpretation of action in time. On the other hand, articles may seek to extend the semiotic framework for the study of temporal aspectuality into different and broader domains, concerning the aspectuality of space or that of non-verbal languages.
A non-exhaustive list of potential themes include:
1) The history of reflection on aspectuality in linguistics and/or semiotics;
2) Relations, similarities, and differences between the linguistic and the semiotic
analysis of aspectuality;
3) The notions of “respect” and “dynamic/immediate object” in C.S. Peirce;
4) The analytical framework of temporal and non-temporal aspectuality in the
Greimassian school of semiotics;
5) The notion of “observer actant”;
6) The rhetoric of aspectuality in old and/or new media;
7) Aspectuality in non-verbal discourses (music, visual communication, gestural
languages, etc.)
8) Aspectual ideologies in cultural semiotics: articles on the prevalence of such or such
‘aspectual regime’ in specific societies and cultures;
9) Specific aspectual ‘figures’: beginnings; conclusions; reiterations; completions;
incompleteness; durations; instantaneity; etc.
10) Specific moral or religious connotations of aspectual representations (genesis,
apocalypse, rebirth, eternal return, catastrophe, etc.).
Here is the expected publication schedule of the volume:
December 15, 2016: deadline for contributions
January 15, 2017: deadline for referees
March 15, 2017: deadline for revised versions of contributions
June 15, 2017: publication of Lexia n. 25.
Contributions, 30,000 characters max, MLA stylesheet, with a 500 words max English abstract and 5 English key-words, should be sent to [email protected]
Languages/lingue/langues/lenguas: English, Italiano, Français, Español [other languages if reviewers are available]. | https://iass-ais.org/cfp-lexia-journal-of-semiotics-aspettualita-aspectuality/?shared=email&msg=fail |
Study Skills and Wellness
“My study skills and organization have improved immensely since starting this course. Beforehand I really didn’t have a structured study routine and since starting I’ve found that my timetable organization and certain study skills have improved a lot. I feel more prepared and relaxed about my study now.
I found the mindfulness and breathing helpful because it was a new way of relaxation that I hadn’t explored before. I ended up really enjoying it and I learnt how to take time from everything and just relax. I found after practising my breathing that I felt more relaxed and less stressed and I feel like it’s a new method of de-stressing that has helped me calm down a lot. I hope to carry it with me through life.
I really recommend doing this course as I enjoyed myself and learnt and improved a lot in relation to my study skills and mindfulness.”
Ciara Flynn, 17, Leaving Certificate Student
Loreto High School Beaufort, Rathfarnham, 3 November 2017
Mindful Meditation Course
I attended Barbara Strahan’s previous short meditation classes and would recommend them highly to anyone looking to be introduced or reintroduced to mindfulness of oneself. She creates, in her class, a relaxed, comfortable and supportive environment for self discovery. She has an obvious talent in guiding individuals within a group!
Paul Higgins, Clontarf
Mindful Meditation Course
Before the mindfulness course with Ostinato, my stress and anxiety levels were affecting my everyday life. However, after a few sessions with Barbara my anxiety and stress levels gradually began to decrease.
The discussions during the sessions provided me with the tools and skills to relax, and live in the moment. It also helped me to be non judgemental of people.
It is not always possible but I try to do mindfulness every day. It has made a huge difference to my life. I am much more relaxed. I now take every day as it comes to live in the now.
Barbara is an excellent teacher, and I highly recommend this course. | https://ostinato.ie/testimonials/ |
I am currently pursuing my BFA at City Tech as a first year student. I do not have a personal favorite artist just yet, although I enjoy abstract and realistic works of art. This would be my first time going to school specifically for art and it is a completely different space, academically. I am enjoying it so far and am looking forward to my future in the creative world.
My Courses
COMD Communication Design Internship Coordination Site
This site is designed to help you find fieldwork/study situations of approximately eight hours per week at an internship site approved by the Department Internship instructor such as an advertising agency, graphic design firm, corporate design office, publications art department, photography or illustration studio, TV or multimedia production company. Students will be required to keep a learning journal of their internship in the form of a blog using Openlab. A portion of the class will be devoted to presenting and sharing experiences with classmates. Students will learn how to assess their talents, update their resume, and promote themselves and their work through social networks. Students will be required to setup and maintain at least two social media networks such as: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. The instructors for this class are there as mentors if you have not yet found an internship before registering for the course. However, the instructors do not find an internship placement for you. It is your responsibility to find a position that fits your personal career path and help you transition to full time employment upon leaving the halls of CityTech. Ideally, you will use this site to find an internship the semester before taking the COMD 4900 class.
COMD 1340 OL 90 Photography 1 Spring 2022
This is a beginning course that explores the technical and aesthetic concerns of photography. Through the fundamental concepts of light, exposure, and composition, students will develop the ability to control photographic style to create visually engaging images
This course is an introduction to the basic components and practices of pre-production, production and post production methodologies for content creation in commercial video and film. Students will learn the basics of all stages of production for content creation. The course will explore modes of communication such as commercials, public service announcements, fictive works, documentary and journalism. Students will analyze the fundamental principles of film and television communications with emphasis on examining the interaction of design and technology. Post-Production exercises with software such as Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects will be an integral part of the course. These assignments demonstrate proficiency in pre-production and production of content for film and video.
This course introduces students to core concepts in the graphic communications field including typography, color theory, design and production terminology, reproduction processes, file formats and substrates. During the semester, students will complete three pages of their own ePortfolio web site. Lectures will provide students with a historical perspective of the graphic communications field as well as discussing current practices and future trends.
COMD1127 Type & Media Fall 2021
Foundation course in typography with emphasis on using type for a multiple of industry related applications ranging from print to interactive. Students are introduced to principles of type design and terminology including: variations of type structure, anatomy, font usage, grid, leading, kerning, tracking and alignment.
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Cassidy's Friends
Cassidy hasn't created any friend connections yet. | https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/members/cssidy/ |
Introduction {#s1}
============
The rhesus macaque (*Macaca mulatta*) is an animal model often used to model human brain development. As an increasing number of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders show hippocampus pathology as an early presenting feature [@pone.0089456-Flahault1], [@pone.0089456-Koolschijn1], [@pone.0089456-Teipel1], it has become increasingly important to reliably quantify the volumes and shape of the in vivo hippocampus both in humans and in nonhuman primates across ages (*cf.,* [@pone.0089456-Xie1]). At present, there are only sparse data concerning the typical maturation of the nonhuman primate brain [@pone.0089456-Malkova1], [@pone.0089456-Payne1]. Such data are crucial towards understanding the maturation of the human brain, particularly during early postnatal brain development.
There currently exists many ways to obtain hippocampal volumes. Manual segmentation, where a trained experimenter traces the hippocampus slice by slice, is the accepted gold standard for hippocampal measurement [@pone.0089456-Chupin1], [@pone.0089456-Chupin2], [@pone.0089456-Schumann1], [@pone.0089456-Shamy1]. The principle drawback to manual segmentation is the extensive time required of the operator, both in terms of the months of dedicated neuroanatomical training as well as the actually time spent performing the segmentations. Our experience is that it takes at least 45 minutes (and often well over an hour) to trace a single monkey or human hippocampus, resulting in around 2 hours of tracing per brain. The quality of manual segmentation is also highly dependent on consistent training among raters, and is subject to fluctuations due to inter- and intra-rater bias [@pone.0089456-Chupin1]. Mitigating any systematic bias or flow in tracing protocols across time typically involves tracing brains from earlier experiments as a part of every experiment along with 10% of the experimental sample to generate reliability estimates. Only upon obtaining consistent reliability across these test brains are hand tracings considered unbiased. Each tracer continues to practice tracing hippocampi until their reliability is consistently maintained across a number of brains. This requirement of establishing reliability increases the amount of time and effort required to obtain reliable data. For studies that have a small number of subjects, this may be an acceptable situation. But, in studies involving hundreds of participants, the time demands of manual tracing greatly diminish productivity.
Manual tracing may also lead to inaccuracy due to biased perceptual processes of even gold standard human tracers. For example, it has recently been demonstrated that there is a strong tendency for even experienced researchers to trace the same hippocampus as larger if it is on the right side of the computer screen (*i.e.,* volumes will be different for the same hippocampus when traced in neurological compared to radiological space; *cf*., [@pone.0089456-Maltbie1]). These types of systematic human errors raise the prospect that human instructed semi-automated algorithms, which do not suffer from perceptual biases, may actually be better than the gold standard for carrying out morphometric analyses of regions of interest in MRI studies.
Several automated methods have been developed to perform segmentations more quickly. Commonly, normalization is performed between each subject and a predefined template, and then a hippocampus that is defined in template space is warped back into the native space of the subject using B-spline or other nonlinear warping methods (*cf.,* [@pone.0089456-Mungas1]). Other methods use shape matching and boundary definitions to perform the whole segmentation in native space [@pone.0089456-Fischl1], [@pone.0089456-Morey1]. While these methods have been shown to create relatively accurate segmentations, they are particularly poorly suited to the segmentation of anatomy that has been affected by disease, injury, or aging (*e.g.*, optimal template effect [@pone.0089456-Avants1], [@pone.0089456-Avants2], [@pone.0089456-Avants3]). Moreover, none of these methods have been validated in nonhuman primate models.
Previous semi-automated algorithms attempt to make segmentation of abnormal structures possible by requiring initial involvement from the user to guide the automated segmentation. Typically this involves the experimenter placing landmarks to guide the nonlinear warping of a hippocampal mask. However, many of the existing methods that have achieved a reasonable degree of agreement with manual segmentations require an impractical number of landmarks, upwards of 200 per hippocampus [@pone.0089456-Shen1]. This results in challenges similar to those encountered with standard manual tracing including significant training requirements in hippocampal neuroanatomy and large expenditures of time. There have been reports about methods that employ fewer landmarks [@pone.0089456-Hogan1], [@pone.0089456-Hogan2], [@pone.0089456-Hogan3], but these typically return less reliable and somewhat less accurate results.
The goal of the current study was to develop an easy to use methodological pipeline that would be accessible to any research laboratory to partially automate the segmentation of anatomical regions of interest. The first goal was to use freely available tools that had similar dependencies and did not rely upon any commercial software packages to implement. The second goal was to develop a pipeline that would facilitate consistent data across laboratories by removing experimenter bias as much as possible without sacrificing neuroanatomic rigor.
We have adapted for use in the rhesus macaque model an incomplete label matching strategy for diffeomorphic template based hippocampus segmentation reported by Pluta et al. [@pone.0089456-Pluta1] originally used in human populations. This method requires fewer than a dozen landmarks per hippocampus and shows a high reliability and spatial overlap between semi-automated and manual segmentations, while providing dramatic time saving. To improve upon the semi-automated methods, the resulting hippocampus segmentations were subsequently corrected with a machine learning-based (SegAdapter) wrapper developed by Wang et al. [@pone.0089456-Wang1]. The resulting corrected segmentations showed an increase in spatial overlap and appear to reach an asymptotic level of reliability that approaches the level of accuracy and reliability of high quality manual segmentation experiments. The advantage of this process is that it, requires much less experimenter time and thus facilitates larger sample sizes and more comprehensive analyses.
Materials and Methods {#s2}
=====================
Ethics Statement {#s2a}
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All work was conducted in accordance with the recommendations of the Weatherall Report "The use of nonhuman primates in research". This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The University of California, Davis Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approved all animal experimental protocols (Protocol Number 13483). All testing procedures were developed through consultation with the veterinary staff at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC). Every possible effort was undertaken to minimize animals' stress and promote their well being.
Subjects {#s2b}
--------
Rhesus macaque monkeys (*Macaca mulatta*) were studied from birth through five years of age for behavioral and structural brain development. Naturalistic behavioral observations were conducted in their home environments regularly. At periodic intervals (1, 4, 8, 13, 26, 39, 52, 156, and 260 weeks of age), subjects were brought in from their naturalistic outdoor enclosures for behavioral tests, measurements of physical development, and MRI scans of the brain.
Twenty-eight rhesus macaque monkeys (14 males, 14 females) were selected from the CNPRC in the spring of 2007. Infants were raised in social troops by their biological mothers in outdoor, half-acre enclosures that house 70 to 155 animals. Subject selection was based on characteristics of the mother. Mothers were selected based on the following factors: (1) rank of matriline (high, n = 8; middle, n = 9; low, n = 10); (2) previous reproductive experience (multiparous, n = 25; primaparous, n = 3); (3) absence of previous medical problems such as diabetes, arthritis, etc. Three of the subjects were hospitalized during the course of the analysis for symptoms of dehydration caused by bacterial or parasitic gastrointestinal infection. These subjects were successfully treated and remained in the study. Treatment included administration of fluids and antibiotics. Two subjects were removed after 1 year of age due to recurrent illness. One subject was removed from the study at 4 months of age due to non-pathogenic diarrhea that was not responsive to treatment. Therefore, 24 subjects (n = 12 male and n = 12 female) received MRI scans at all ages and only data from these subjects will be reported in this manuscript.
Cohort characteristics occasionally changed after the selection of subjects. For example, rank shifted for multiple matrilines. So, the social rank was assessed monthly based on two, 30-minute observations by CNPRC behavioral specialists. All dyadic aggressive and displacement interactions, with and without food as a precipitating stimulus, were recorded and used to determine the hierarchy of the females in each troop. Rank status was determined to have changed when displacements (submission to a lower ranking rhesus macaque in the selection of food) were observed twice for the mother of the infant. Rank was consequently raised for the primate that displayed dominance in the food challenge. Social rank was raised for one primate (low to mid) and shifted downward for two others (mid to low) and (high to mid). For the latter two animals, this shift took place when their mothers were removed from their home enclosures after weaning and the infants remained with their respective matrilines.
Infants were born and reared by mothers that resided in large, 2000 m^2^ outdoor corrals. All seven of the corrals that housed study animals were chain-link and consisted of grass and gravel ground substrate and included a variety of hanging, climbing, and resting structures. The number of animals that lived in these corrals ranged from 70--155 individuals and all the kin relationships of the monkeys were known. Primates were fed twice per day, in the morning and afternoon, with chow (Lab Diet 5047, PMI Nutrition International Inc., Brentwood, MO) and supplemented with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Animal Husbandry {#s2c}
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For MRI scans collected at 1, 4, 8, 13, and 26 weeks of age, infants were relocated with their mothers and were housed together in a standard macaque indoor housing cage (61 cm in width by 66 cm in depth by 81 cm in height) one day prior to behavioral testing. On days when testing was to occur, mothers were lightly sedated with ketamine hydrochloride (7 to 8 mg/kg i.m.) and infants were removed from the cage for testing. Beginning at 39 weeks of age, each rhesus macaque subject was removed from its respective home enclosure without the mother the day prior to behavioral testing and was temporarily housed indoors as described above.
Structural MRI Acquisition {#s2d}
--------------------------
After behavioral testing at the CNPRC, animals were transported to the Imaging Research Center (IRC) for the MRI scan. Each subject was fasted a minimum of two hours prior to sedation for scanning. Subjects were transported from the CNPRC to the IRC by van either in incubators (30.5 cm in width by 30.5 cm in depth and 30.5 cm in height; at 1, 4, 8, and 13 weeks of age) or in a transport box (31.0 cm in width by 51.0 cm in depth by 40.0 cm in height; at 26, 39, 52, 156, 260 weeks of age). Animals were anesthetized and monitored by a veterinarian at 1 and 4 weeks of age, then by an animal health technician from 8--260 weeks of age. Each macaque was sedated with ketamine hydrochloride (1 mg/kg i.m.) during catheter placement and intubation. During the scanning procedures, each rhesus macaque was anesthetized with propofol (2 ml/kg/hr i.v.). The anesthesia rates were managed remotely from the control room of the scanner suite using a Harvard Apparatus 4500 infusion pump (Harvard Apparatus; Holliston, MA). Intravenous saline was administered throughout the scanning procedure to reduce the possibility of dehydration. Heart rate and oxygen saturation were monitored in the control room remotely using a Nonin 8600 pulse oximeter (Nonin; Plymouth, MN). A video camera was also placed at the opening of the scanner bore for visual monitoring of the rhesus macaque on a screen in the control room. Each rhesus macaque was positioned supine on the scanner bed and the head was centered in the RF coil. A heated saline pack and blankets were used to help maintain the body temperature and animal position during the scan. Oxygen was delivered in proximity to the nose at a rate of 0.5--1.0 L/hr to maintain oxygen saturation \>90%. A vitamin E capsule was used as a fiducial mark on the left side of the head during scanning.
MRI data were acquired using a 3T Siemens Trio scanner with a circularly - polarized, 8 - channel dedicated RF head coil with an internal diameter of 18.4 cm (Litzcage, Doty Scientific; Columbia, SC). At each age, a high resolution T1 - weighted magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo (MP - RAGE) 3D MRI sequence was collected in the sagittal plane (slices = 192; slice thickness = 0.70 mm; number of excitations (NEX) = 1; repetition time (TR) = 2200 ms; echo time (TE) = 4.73 ms; inversion time (TI) = 1100 ms; flip angle = 7°; field of view (FOV) = 180 mm; matrix = 256×256). The total scan time for this sequence was approximately 19 minutes. Additional sequences were also employed but are not reported in this manuscript.
Upon completion of the scans, propofol was discontinued. The total time of sedation ranged from 60 to 90 minutes. During recovery from sedation, the infants were given subcutaneous fluids with 5% dextrose in order to rehydrate and elevate blood glucose levels following fasting. The infants also had access to glucose-enriched water in their incubators. Each macaque was transported back to the CNPRC following the scan and returned to their mothers, and then with their mothers they were returned to their home enclosures at 1, 4, 8, 13, and 26 weeks of age. Each rhesus macaque was returned directly to their home enclosures at 39, 52, 156, and 260 weeks of age.
Neuroimaging Pipeline {#s2e}
---------------------
All MRI processing was carried out using an Apple iMac computer running Mac OSX 10.8.2 with 4GB RAM (Apple, Inc.; Cupertino, CA). Annotated pipeline codes used during the course of this experiment and described in this report are freely available and publicly hosted at <http://mrhunsaker.github.io/NeuroImaging_Codes/>. T1 images were selected for this segmentation pipeline over other collected sequences because the quality of the T1 images was maintained across ages better than other sequences. Additionally, the manual segmentation protocols being used within our laboratory were developed using T1-weighted scans. The protocols below do work for T2-weighted scans, so long as care is taken at each processing step to verify the quality of the result.
MRI Preprocessing {#s2f}
-----------------
As a first step, the DICOM images were converted into gzipped NIfTI-1.1 \[.nii.gz\] format using the dcm2nii tool in MRIcron (<http://www.mccauslandcenter.sc.edu/mricro/>) using the following terminal bash command:
`dcm2nii -a n -g y -f y -n y -e n -i y <DICOM directory>`
Of the three outputs from the dcm2nii pipeline, the cropped output (resulting file containing a *-co* prefix) was selected for further processing as dcm2nii automatically cropped out the primate's neck and shoulders.
Next, the scans were aligned along the anterior and posterior commissures (AC-PC alignment) by using a rigid transformation \[brain could only be rotated and translated, but never warped, stretched, or compressed\] to a previously manually aligned, age-appropriate template brain using the Advanced Normalization Tools package (ANTS; <http://stnava.github.io/ANTs/>; [@pone.0089456-Avants2]). This was accomplished using the following commands with \<experimental\> referring to the experimental image being aligned to the \<template\> using a mutual information similarity metric to guide the registration:
` ./ANTS 3 -m MI[<template>.nii.gz,<experimental>.nii.gz,1,32] -o <output> -i 0–do-rigid true`
`./WarpImageMultiTransform 3<experimental>.nii.gz <output>.nii.gz <output>Align.txt -R <template>.nii.gz`
The next preprocessing step was to minimize the influence of the bias field signal obscuring grey/white matter boundaries on the registration algorithms. We implemented the N4ITK bias field correction methodology using ANTS [@pone.0089456-Tustison1] with the following three commands; the \<input\> for each call being the \<output\> from the previous process as recommended by the developers:
`./N4BiasFieldCorrection -d 3 -i <input>.nii.gz -o <output>.nii.gz -s 8 -b [200] -c [50×50×50×50,0.000001]`
`./N4BiasFieldCorrection -d 3 -i <input>.nii.gz -o <output>.nii.gz -s 4 -b [200] -c [50×50×50×50,0.000001]`
` ./N4BiasFieldCorrection -d 3 -i <input>.nii.gz -o <output>.nii.gz -s 2 -b [200] -c [50×50×50×50,0.000001]`
The final preprocessing step was to re-slice the AC-PC aligned images using cubic interpolation and to define a standardized field of view using the convert3d tool bundled with ITK-SNAP (<http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Convert3D.Convert3D>) using the following command:
` ./c3d <input> -interpolation Cubic -resample-mm.35×.35×.35 mm -trim-to-size 256×256×256vox -verbose -o <output>`
Semi-Automated Hippocampus Segmentation {#s2g}
---------------------------------------
To segment the primate hippocampus at all ages, a semi-automated pipeline from ANTS that involves diffeomorphically warping a template brain with fully labeled hippocampus to an individual experimental brain using partial labeling [@pone.0089456-Pluta1] was adopted. The primary strength of this semi-automated pipeline is that it does not require extensive neuroanatomical on the part of the end user. This is important since one of the difficulties in hippocampus segmentation protocols is the time required to adequately train multiple individuals to trace with a consistent level of expertise. However, the placement of limiting markers and the interpretation of any resulting segmentations does require a modest level of training in hippocampal neuroanatomy.
The partial labeling protocol was modified from the original protocol as follows: Instead of using the six 3D landmark points as in the original study, we modified the protocol to err on the side of systematically, yet sparsely, adding a greater number of landmarks ([Figure 1](#pone-0089456-g001){ref-type="fig"}). The first landmark was placed using Multi-image Analysis GUI (Mango; University of Texas Health Science Center; San Antonio, TX) in the sagittal plane at the most lateral section in which the hippocampus was clearly differentiated from the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle. Subsequently, two landmarks were placed on every fourth section of the hippocampus (sagittal separation between subsequent landmarks was 1.4 mm) at the most rostral (anterior) and the most caudal (posterior) extent of the hippocampus. Special care was taken to place a landmark on the medial-most section of the uncus (the most rostral and medial portion of the hippocampus) regardless of spacing from the other landmarks. Between 10--14 landmarks were placed in each hippocampus, depending upon the age of the primate at the time of the scan. Once completed, the landmark points were propagated 1 slice in each direction (*i.e.*, instead of being placed on 1 slice, the landmarks were now 3 slices thick). Dilating the 2D landmarks in this manner was done to make the 2D landmarks placed in Mango more similar to the 3D landmarks placed using the 3D ROI tool in ITK-SNAP by Pluta et al. [@pone.0089456-Pluta1].
{#pone-0089456-g001}
Mango was used for the present study rather than ITK-SNAP because our lab had previously compared ANALYZE and Mango for manual tracing regions of interest and found each to return similar segmentation volumes. Additionally, Mango seemed to be the more stable program when handling the MRI scans resulting from the preprocessing pipeline. Preliminary work directly comparing the performance of Mango and ITK-SNAP did not identify any differences between the two programs for placing landmarks, so long as the landmarks were dilated in Mango so as to be similar to those placed in ITK-SNAP.
Once the landmarks were placed in the hippocampus, an age-appropriate atlas brain with a manually segmented hippocampus was diffeomorphically warped with each of the experimental brains. A fully labeled hippocampus was then mapped onto each experimental brain using the landmarks to specifically guide the registration of the hippocampus. The shell script containing the landmark matching protocol and documentation is freely available and publicly hosted at <http://github.com/stnava/ANTs/blob/master/Scripts/guidedregistration.sh>. Briefly, this script calls a bidirectional, nonlinear diffeomorphic warping of the template (\<template\>) to the experimental (\<experimental\>) brain. This warping algorithm specifically uses the landmarks (\<experimental_landmarks\>) as a guide for warping the template hippocampus (\<template_roi\>) into the space of the \<experimental\> image. The template hippocampus is then warped into the space of the experimental image.
`sh ./guidedregistration.sh <template>.nii.gz <template_roi>.nii.gz <experimental>.nii.gz <experimental_landmarks>.nii.gz <output>_hippocampus 100×100×10 3`
For later processing, the hippocampus segmentations need to be in 8 bit rather than 32 bit floating point format. So, we used the following command in convert3D to make the conversion and binarize the segmentation (hippocampus mask = 1, background = 0) with the input into this script being the segmented hippocampus that was the output from the above process (*i.e.*, \<output\>\_hippocampus from above = \<input\> in the call below):
` ./c3d <input>.nii.gz -binarize -o <output>.nii.gz`
Machine Learning Algorithm Based Segmentation Correction {#s2h}
--------------------------------------------------------
We were able to improve the semiautomatic hippocampal segmentations by using a machine-learning algorithm that corrects systematic errors in semiautomatic segmentations (Automatic Segmentation Tool Adapter; SegAdapter; freely available and publicly hosted at <http://www.nitrc.org/projects/segadapter/>; [@pone.0089456-Wang1]). This tool takes advantage of the nature of computers to commit primarily systematic errors, rather than random errors. What this means is that if a series of subjects are scanned using the same sequences on the same MRI scanner, then the errors of any automated segmentation protocol will be similar across brains (*e.g.,* consistent partial volume effects or inclusion of choroid plexus or CSF as hippocampus tissue, etc).
This SegAdapter is trained by providing a number of manually traced, fully labeled hippocampi with a set of semi-automated hippocampal segmentations using the following codes \[with the.txt files containing lists of images and corresponding ROIs\]:
` ./bl ./inputIMAGEFILE.txt ./manualSegmentationFile.txt./autoSegmentationFile.txt 1 2 4×4×4 .1 500 ./TRAINING/SegAdapter`
This SegAdapter learning algorithm corrects the semi-automated output from the partial labeling protocol to correspond to the fully labeled manual tracings. In the present experiment, 2 MRI scans (1 male and 1 female) from each age (1,4,8,13,26,39,52,156,260 weeks of age) were used to train the learning wrapper (*i.e.,* a total 18 scans were used for the training of the 216 studies that were available). We specifically *included* cases where there was *poor* signal to noise ratio at all time points or inconsistent signal inversions present in the scans from 1 week-old primates. These imperfect scans were selected so that the machine learning algorithm would have a complex dataset encompassing many different types of segmentation errors from which to develop a template used to correct automatic segmentations. We selected only 2 scans at each age to demonstrate how robust the SegAdapter actually was since a greater number of training images results in better algorithm performance. Preliminary experimentation showed that this algorithm did a more reliable job in adjusting the segmented hippocampi when given a diverse data set than if provided only cases devoid of scanning artifacts. Once the SegAdapter had been trained, each partially labeled hippocampus was corrected by using the following command:
` ./sa <input>.nii.gz <segmented_ROI>.nii.gz./TRAINING/SegAdapter <output>.nii.gz`
Once all of the segmentations were obtained, they were compared with manually segmented hippocampi. To evaluate the goodness of fit of the hippocampus segmentation that was acquired through the partial labeling protocol as well as the segmentation corrected by the SegAdapter learning algorithm, spatial overlap (DICE) was computed using convert3d with the following commands, with "*1*" referring to the label of the segmented hippocampus:
`./c3d -verbose -overlap 1<input>.nii.gz <segmented_ROI>.nii.gz <Manual_ROI>.nii.gz >> <output>.txt`
Specifically, the DICE overlap is calculated as 2× the overlapping voxels divided by the total number of voxels from the semiautomated segmentaion (A) and the result of the SegAdapter correction (B) (*i.e.*, 2(A∩B)/(A+B)).
Manual Hippocampus Tracing {#s2i}
--------------------------
All of the hippocampi evaluated in the present study were manually segmented by a single trained experimenter as part of a separate study (MRH; Hunsaker et al., *in revision;* the hippocampus manual tracing protocol is publicly hosted at <http://mrhunsaker.github.io/Hippocampus_Protocol>). For each scan, the hippocampus was manually traced using Mango. To control for any effects of hemispheric bias (*i.e*., right volumes being larger than left volumes), the second time the images were traced they were converted from neurologic to radiologic space. The intra-rater reliability across these tracings was maintained at \>.86. The hippocampal volumes for the right and left hippocampi traced in Mango were exported into a.csv file for later analysis and the ROIs saved in gzipped NIfTI-1.1 format. Each of the volumes of the individual regions of interest were quantified in the FMRIB Software Library (FSL v5.0; <http://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/>; [@pone.0089456-Jenkinson1]) with the following command:
` ./fslstats <input>.nii.gz -V >> <output>.txt`
For three-dimensional visualization of the reconstructed hippocampus, the regions of interest were imported into MRIcroGL (<http://www.mccauslandcenter.sc.edu/mricrogl/>) and Mango for 3D rendering.
Results {#s3}
=======
Partial Labeling Protocol {#s3a}
-------------------------
The partial labeling protocol was able to segment the hippocampus within a very reasonable tolerance ([Table 1](#pone-0089456-t001){ref-type="table"} and [Figure 2](#pone-0089456-g002){ref-type="fig"}). However, there was a systematic inclusion of white matter ventral to the body of the hippocampus as well as a small amount of inclusion of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle ([Figure 2](#pone-0089456-g002){ref-type="fig"}). In one 26 week-old scan, a small area of temporal cortex located lateral to the body of the hippocampus was misclassified as hippocampus.
{#pone-0089456-g002}
10.1371/journal.pone.0089456.t001
###### Comparison of Hippocampus Segmentation Methods.
{#pone-0089456-t001-1}
Age Manual v Semi-Automated Label Manual v SegAdapter Manual Reliability
---------- ------------------------------- --------------------- --------------------
1 week .68+/−.13 .86+/−.08 .88+/−.10
4 week .73+/−.09 .89+/−.09 .92+/−.12
8 week .74+/−.14 .91+/−.06 .92+/−.07
13 week .69+/−.10 .93+/−.09 .94+/−.08
26 week .77+/−.08 .90+/−.07 .93+/−.11
39 week .74+/−.06 .92+/−.05 .96+/−.14
52 week .78+/−.09 .94+/−.09 .95+/−.09
156 week .70+/−.14 .91+/−.10 .94+/−.10
260 week .79+/−.13 .95+/−.09 .97+/−.11
Average DICE coefficients for semi-automated segmentation and SegAdapter methods compared to manually segmented hippocampi. Data are from 24 rhesus macaques, 12 male and 12 female. Error given +/− standard deviations from the mean (sd).
For the present experiment, placing the landmarks in the hippocampus of each of the rhesus macaque scans took between 5 and 10 minutes. Overall, the MRI preprocessing steps took 3.25 hours for each brain. The guided registration script in ANTS took approximately 38 minutes of computational time for each brain.
SegAdapter Algorithm {#s3b}
--------------------
The SegAdapter was able to correct the vast majority of the systematic errors that resulted from the partial labeling protocol and semi-automated segmentation pipeline ([Figure 2](#pone-0089456-g002){ref-type="fig"}). The subhippocampal white matter, temporal horn, and extra-hippocampal voxels were now excluded from the tracing and the overall region traced was smoother and appeared more visually similar to a manually traced hippocampus ([Figure 2](#pone-0089456-g002){ref-type="fig"}, [3](#pone-0089456-g003){ref-type="fig"}). The similarity between SegAdapter corrected and manual segmentations is confirmed by the high DICE (spatial overlap) coefficient that approached, but remained lower than the intra-rater reliability results ([Table 1](#pone-0089456-t001){ref-type="table"}). Example of manually segmented hippocampi compared to the results of the Partial Label guided segmentation as well as the SegAdapter corrections are shown in [Figure 4](#pone-0089456-g004){ref-type="fig"}.
{#pone-0089456-g003}
{#pone-0089456-g004}
For the present experiment, final training of the SegAdapter took approximately 22.5 hours of computational time. Once the SegAdapter had been trained, it took under 3.5 seconds to correct each partially labeled hippocampus. The training set used for training the algorithm was available from an earlier experiment, but took approximately 25.5 hours to hand trace the pairs of hippocampi from the 18 rhesus macaques used in the training set.
There was a dramatic overall temporal benefit of this method over a complete hand tracing study. Tracing all the hippocampi included in this report took approximately 540 hours for the first pass, and they were traced a second time for reliability analyses, resulting in approximately 1080 person hours to reliably acquire the hippocampal ROIs. This did not include the initial reliability training, which required another 20--25 hours. The preprocessing steps reported above were identical for the two experiments. The present method required substantially less time, and the computational time was not limited to the workday, as scripts could be run overnight or whenever the computer was not in use.
Discussion {#s4}
==========
The goal of the current study was to develop an easy to use processing pipeline that would be accessible to any research laboratory to partially automate the segmentation of anatomical regions of interest. The first goal was to use freely available tools that had similar dependencies and did not rely upon any commercial software packages to implement. The second goal was to develop a pipeline that would facilitate consistent data across laboratories by removing experimenter bias as much as possible without sacrificing anatomic rigor. Although not explicitly stated at the outset, a related goal was to minimize experimental time as much as possible.
This effort was implemented by applying tools that depended primarily on the platform independent ITK image-processing library and more particularly on ANTS, a neuroimaging toolkit developed as a simplified program that lets the end user take advantage of ITK without having to acquire specialized knowledge or learn extensive computer coding skills. All of the software packages used in this protocol are freely available, open source packages that remain under active development, and primarily depend upon the Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK), a freely available cross-platform image analysis library. By using these tools, we were able to segment the rhesus macaque hippocampus from MRI scans collected as early as 1 week of age and out to 260 weeks of age.
The strategy for hippocampal tracing was applied to a large database of longitudinal MRI scans of 24 rhesus macaque monkeys (12 male and 12 female). Nine scans were available from each monkey from 1 to 260 weeks of age, for a total of 216 MRI scans to segment. Each of the MRI scans had previously been manually traced using a rigorous protocol by a single reliable tracer as part of a separate study (Hunsaker et al., *in revision*; <http://mrhunsaker.github.io/Hippocampus_Protocol/>).
We have presented a validation of a robust method for highly accurate semi-automated segmentation of rhesus macaque hippocampus from 1 week to 260 weeks of age. By applying a machine correction algorithm to eliminate systematic errors in the semi-automated segmentation, it is clear that these methods are capable of producing hippocampal masks that approach the same levels of anatomic rigor and level of quality as segmentations generated by gold-standard manual tracers. Even MRI scans from rhesus macaques as young as 1 week of age were reliably segmented using these protocols. This is not a trivial outcome since there was often either very little gray/white matter contrast or a complete gray/white matter signal inversion that made hand tracing difficult. Despite this signal inversion, the fact that the semi-automated segmentation protocol and landmark guidance relied on manual placement, these methods appeared to be sufficient to reliably place the hippocampus on each individual scan and the SegAdapter algorithm was able to correct most of the systematic errors introduced by the small differences in the MRI scans, as demonstrated in [Figure 2](#pone-0089456-g002){ref-type="fig"}.
During the development of this pipeline, we found that a more complex training set (*i.e.*, a training set with suboptimal signal to noise, signal inversion, artifacts, etc.) results in better corrections than a less complex set. This is presumed to occur because the SegAdapter algorithm is capable of learning the full complement of systematic errors that result from the diffeomorphic hippocampus-warping algorithm. By training the algorithm on as diverse a training set as possible, more of the systematic errors were identified and corrected. If a pristine, error free dataset were used for training, then the learning algorithm would not have sufficient errors to identify, and thus would fail to correct errors resulting from the semi-automated segmentations. We observed this phenomenon in our preliminary experimentations, similar to what Wang et al. [@pone.0089456-Wang1] have reported. Although a larger training set provides more reliable segmentations, we chose 1 male and 1 female from each age as a training set to maximize the quality of the segmentations while minimizing the computational time spent to train the machine learning algorithm.
It is further notable that the methods employed within this manuscript were originally developed and validated in preclinical human neuroimaging research (*cf.,* [@pone.0089456-Avants1], [@pone.0089456-Avants2], [@pone.0089456-Avants3], [@pone.0089456-Pluta1], [@pone.0089456-Wang1]). This study has validated these protocols for the nonhuman primate -- even for scans that were carried out in very young rhesus macaques. The relative ease by which these tools were able to work for the primate scans suggests that they could facilitate cross-species comparisons not only using the same suite of tools, but also exactly the same functions within those tools (*cf.,* [@pone.0089456-Ellegood1]). This will undoubtedly improve cross-species comparisons of developmental or degenerative trajectories.
A further benefit of the present pipeline, as opposed to using other freely available tools such as Freesurfer, is the inherent flexibility in the methodology. Freesurfer does not always reliably perform segmentations, particularly in the presence of abnormal or pathological anatomy (*cf.,* [@pone.0089456-Avants1], [@pone.0089456-Avants2], [@pone.0089456-Avants3], [@pone.0089456-Wang1]). Moreover, to date there is no reliable way to modify Freesurfer for the segmentation of rhesus macaque or rodent MRI data, which are relatively straightforward using the present pipeline.
An additional benefit of this approach is the possibility for extension into different regions of interest within the brain. If a researcher has a template for any region of interest (or multiple regions), the only requirement for these methods to work is the careful determination of where to place landmarks. The present protocol is currently being applied to provide concurrent hippocampus and amygdala segmentation, with relatively high reliability with manual tracings of both neuroanatomical loci, at least in primates older than 39 weeks of age. By extension, if researchers have maps for cortical regions of interest (*e.g.*, the UNC Primate Brain Atlas available at <http://www.nitrc.org/projects/primate_atlas/>; [@pone.0089456-Knickmeyer1]), so long as systematic landmarks can be placed across brains, it is possible to increase the reliability of diffeomorphic warping of the cortical tracings onto experimental MRI scans.
While neuroanatomical expertise is essential for interpreting changes in neuroal structures, the present method requires rather modest neuroanatomical training. In the present report, only a single trained hippocampal tracer was required. Manually segmented hippocampi were required to provide a training set for the SegAdapter pipeline. Once this training set is established, all that is required is for another experimenter to place landmarks on the hippocampus in a very clear, repeatable manner that does not require extensive neuroanatomical expertise. Specifically, as long as landmarks are placed consistently in the hippocampus, the partial labeling protocol is able to segment the hippocampus. The consistent difference is that not placing a landmark on the most lateral aspect of the hippocampus results in a small amount of hippocampus tissue segmented as temporal horn rather then as hippocampus. Importantly, so long as the actual MRI scanner hardware and the scan sequence are maintained, additional contributions from the neuroanatomist other than basic quality control during pilot experiments are unnecessary.
One limitation of the tools used in the present study is the amount of computational time required to perform the necessary transforms. Using a computer system with 4 GB of RAM, it took on average 2.25 hours/brain to perform the N4ITK bias field correction, approximately 4.75 hours per brain to perform the semi-automated hippocampus segmentation, and approximately 22.5 hours to train the SegAdapter using 18 scans (longer if the pilot experiments are taken into account). All other steps took under 2 minutes per brain. This limitation can easily be overcome with access to a computer with a greater amount of RAM, cloud computing, or distributed cluster computing systems since the pipeline made heavy use of ANTS and ITK, which are optimized for distributed computing (*cf.* [@pone.0089456-Avants2], [@pone.0089456-Wang1]). Despite this limitation, the method reliably performed as well as manual segmentations. These methods also required far fewer trained personnel, and took substantially less time to acquire hippocampus ROIs than manual tracing methods.
In summary, we describe a simple protocol and provide sample code for semi-automatic hippocampus segmentation in rhesus macaque monkeys from the early postnatal period into adulthood (1 week-260 weeks). This method requires very little neuroanatomical expertise and can be performed using commercially available, off the shelf, computational resources and public domain software. This protocol results in hippocampus segmentations that show reliably high DICE overlap with manually segmented hippocampi. Virtually any laboratory can easily apply this method with access to MR Images; the only limiting factor is the computer processing time. Further developments in the tools used in this pipeline may serve to mitigate this limitation and increase the utility of this semi-automated pipeline, opening a door to increased throughput of MRI based anatomical research.
The authors would like to thank Joshua K. Lee and Naomi J. Goodrich-Hunsaker, Ph.D. for helpful conversations concerning the methods used in the present experiment.
[^1]: **Competing Interests:**The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
[^2]: Conceived and designed the experiments: MRH DGA. Performed the experiments: MRH. Analyzed the data: MRH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MRH DGA. Wrote the paper: MRH DGA.
[^3]: Current address: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| |
The terminology for PET-CT software and hardware can be confusing. The three primary modalities of PET-CT scanners are hybrid, fusion, and visually correlated. The hybrid, or integrated, PET-CT scanner creates two images, with one relying on CT and the other on PET. A computer then merges the two scans into a single image. This is the most accurate and specific system to date for the staging of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is more expensive than PET, CT, or fusion software alone.
Fusion PET-CT scanners use software to create a 3D model of the CT study and a 3D model of the PET study; the scanners then use an algorithm to compare and provide an overlay of the images. This modality is less costly than hybrid PET-CT, but it may not be as accurate as integrated PET-CT for NSCLC.
With fusion software, the CT and PET scans may be obtained on different dates; however, this increases the artifact, because there is different positioning, respiration, and other movement between scans. The fusion software can also be used with MRI. | https://www.medscape.com/answers/426820-190149/what-types-of-pet-ct-scanners-are-used-in-the-workup-of-secondary-lung-cancer |
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