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The Soil Association is considering setting up an Irish operation as part of its plans to mitigate the effects of a potential no-deal Brexit.
The organic certification body was still “investigating options” about launching a scheme in Ireland, it said this week. The move was one of a number of proposals designed to counteract the potentially “devastating” effects crashing out of the EU would have on organic food certification.
It follows concerns, first aired by the government last August, that UK organic food suppliers could be effectively banned from exporting to the EU for at least nine months in the event of a no-deal outcome.
Setting up an Irish operation could in theory give the Soil Association and its licensees access to the EU market. However, it stressed UK certified companies would not be given an automatic registration, and Soil Association’s certification subsidiary would still need European Commission approval to export, “something that is hampered by the current uncertainty around the manner of our exit from the EU”, it warned.
“Our exploration of becoming a registered certification body in Ireland was part of our wider work to look for options that would support Soil Association Certification licensees to continue to trade as easily as possible with the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit,” the body said.
“Due to an expected recognition of our UK accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service to operate as a certification body, Ireland appeared the best option if we were to set up within the EU,” it added.
“This required both Irish government recognition of our operating accreditation and EU approval. Continuing uncertainty around the final form of Brexit has prevented progress, but we will continue to look at all the options available for our licensees after Brexit.”
While Ireland was one option, the body’s current main focuses were on an application to the EC for approved third country status and for a 1235 scope extension, which certifies that farmers and processors are upholding the EU organic regulation within a specified country.
But given the current Brexit impasse, the future for organic food suppliers remained uncertain regardless of which option the body pursued, warned Soil Association Certification CEO Martin Sawyer. Failure to reach an agreement with the EC meant the Soil Association would not be able to certify in the EU, he said.
“Our hope is that the EC starts accepting applications before 29 March. The question is, how long will it take and can it be done before 29 March? If there are delays from the end of March there will be a significant disruption to trade.”
It comes as the organic sector shrugged off last year’s challenging weather conditions and more than a 20% rise in organic feed costs, to deliver its seventh consecutive year of sales growth in 2018.
Total value sales for organic food and drink rose by 5.3% to £2.33 billion, according to the Soil Association’s annual Organic Market Report, published this week. Organic food now accounted for 1.5% of the overall food and drink market in the UK and was on track to be worth £2.5 billion by next year.
Home delivery of organic food and drink, through online and box schemes, was the fastest growing route to market in 2018, with sales growth of 14.2%. Supermarket sales rose by 3.3%, with sales in independents up 6.2%, while sales into foodservice also rose, by 8%.
Sales of organic fresh produce rose by 3.6%, with canned and packaged goods up 3.6%. Dairy rose 1.9%, while beers, wine and spirits were up 21% and chilled foods and deli foods rose 26.8%.
“Organic is in the right place to capitalise on many of the consumer trends we’re currently seeing across retail,” said Soil Association Certification business development director Clare McDermott.
“We know that more shoppers are looking to purchase sustainable products to reduce their impact on the planet, and this has combined with an increasing value being placed on transparency and traceability in the food system, more local and online shopping, and increasing interest in healthy options – where organic is often seen as a signpost to healthy choice.”


The Florida Panthers reduced their training camp roster by 18 on Sunday and a few veteran players were caught in the flurry. Forward Joey Crabb, defenseman Greg Zanon, and goaltender Dan Ellis have all been placed on waivers, per the Sun Sentinel.
Among the cuts, Ellis is arguably the least surprising. The Panthers received Ellis in the Tim Thomas trade, but he posted a 4.81 GAA and .836 save percentage in Florida. That prompted the Panthers to sign Al Montoya to a two-year, $2.1 million contract over the summer and push Ellis out of the picture. Ellis has 204 NHL games under his belt, but teams are likely to pass on the 34-year-old rather than take on his $1 million salary and $900,000 cap hit for the 2014-15 campaign.
Zanon has played in 493 games, but the 34-year-old’s time in the NHL might over. He spent the 2013-14 campaign in the minors and appears to be in for a similar fate this season.
Crabb is the youngest of the trio at 31 and has the least NHL experience with 179 contests under his belt. He played primarily with the AHL San Antonio Rampage in 2013-14, but also logged nine games with the Florida Panthers. Like Ellis, Crabb is signed to a one-way contract and is consequently owed $600,000 for 2014-15 regardless of where he plays.


DALLAS (CBS11) – 80-year-old Pearlie Mae Brown will soon have to move out of the house she’s lived in for 14 years. “I am worried cause I don’t know where I’m going to go right now.”
But she’s hoping to find another place to live in the West Dallas neighborhood she and her family have called home for generations. “I was born here and all of my people were born here. My children, my grandmother, she was living down the street.”
Brown has rented a house from HMK since 2003, but unlike the landlord’s other tenants, she does not want to buy the house because of her age.
Her daughter Pearline Harper says the process of looking for a new home has taken its toll on her mother.
And so on Monday, when Harper went to address Mayor Mike Rawlings and council members, she was moved to tears. “I believe the city has a duty to find affordable homes that we can live in and with dignity.”
Speaking later at her mother’s house near Singleton Blvd. and Sylvan Ave., an area that has attracted new restaurants, town homes, and apartment complexes, Harper reflected on her emotions. “It just brings back all of the pain.”
Harper says she and her mother have looked several days in the past week for houses Brown could afford, about $450 to $500 per month, without much luck. “All of the places that were suitable, they were too expensive and the ones she could have gotten in, they weren’t better than this.”
Council member Scott Griggs, who chairs the council’s housing committee agrees the city could and should do more to attract affordable housing in West Dallas.
He says the city has a nine-point plan, but is still in the process of figuring out the specific inventory of houses in that area.
Sandy Rollins, the Executive Director of the Texas Tenants’ Union has worked on housing issues in Dallas since 1979, and told council members this is a crisis. “Dallas has a desperate need for affordable housing, rents are out of control.”
As for Pearlie Mae Brown, she says she is trying to stay upbeat. “I’m hoping I have a place to go by the time it comes for me to leave.”


Eva Longoria hasn’t been getting a lot of attention lately. Have you missed her? Yeah, I thought so. I have to give her some credit - she was getting totally overexposed, to the point where people were getting utterly bored with her, and she thoughtfully took a step back. She didn’t show up to every event, she didn’t put on another ball gown just for the opening of an envelope. I can’t even remember the last event I saw her and her overdressing habit. Maybe I just blocked her out of my mind.
Anyway, it seems Eva had an public relations itch she needed to scratch, and now we’re being informed about some details of Eva’s sex life that I wish I could now erase from my mind. Eva participated in a “Best Ever Sex” survey specifically for “A-list celebs” according to The Sun. In the survey, Eva claims she likes to be tied up during sex. Now, it’s not that a little light bondage is gross to me (it isn’t), but I’m just a little creeped out because it’s Eva “Too Much Information” Longoria. And who really thinks Tony Parker is tying her up? Tony always looks like “What smells? What’s going on?” is his permanent internal monologue. I totally don’t buy it:
Raunchy Eva Longoria has revealed she likes being tied up with silk scarves during lovemaking.
The Desperate Housewives star, who plays love-cheat Gabrielle Solis in the hit US show, made the confession in a “Best Ever Sex” survey of A-list celebs.
Eva, 34, said: “I’m not averse to being tied up with silk scarves, I like a man to take charge. There’s something very sexy about being submissive.”
Spider-Man star Kirsten Dunst, 25, told the Cosmopolitan survey she romped in a store changing room with actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
Hollywood Gossip,Hollywood News,Hollywood Celebrity,Hot Celebrity Gossip, Hollywood Business, Hollywood Actress, Celebrities Stars


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Rajneesh Gupta presents some interesting numbers from Day 1 of the 5th Test between India and England in Chennai Chennai Test: Ali, Root guide England to 284/4 on Day 1 PHOTOS: Moeen Ali's unbeaten ton keeps England afloat IMAGE: England's Alastair Cook plays a shot. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters 0 Number of times Virat Kohli has played same eleven in two consecutive. He had a different team in all the 22 matches he has captained India in! 5 Number of times Alastair Cook got dismissed by ... Rediff.com, 2 months ago
1 images for "eknath solkar"
on your WebpageAdd Widget >Get your members hooked!

domain: sports


text:
Eyes on the prize--America's civil rights movement. Volume 4: The time has come 1964-1966. Two societies 1965-1968. / a production of Blackside, Inc.Published by : Blackside, Inc. (United States :) Physical details: 1 V. (120 min. each)(DVD) : sd., col.
|Item type||Current location||Call number||Status||Date due||Barcode|
AIT 美國資料中心 AIT American Center
|DVD 323.1196 Eye v.4 (Browse shelf)||Not for loan||014471|
The Time Has Come (1964-66). After a decade-long cry for justice, a new sound is heard in the civil rights movement: the insistent call for power. Malcolm X takes an eloquent nationalism to urban streets as a younger generation of black leaders listens. In the South, Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) move from "Freedom Now!" to "Black Power!" as the fabric of the traditional movement changes.
Two Societies (1965-68). Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) come north to help Chicago's civil rights leaders in their nonviolent struggle against segregated housing. Their efforts pit them against Chicago's powerful mayor, Richard Daley. When a series of marches through all-white neighborhoods draws violence, King and Daley negotiate with mixed results. In Detroit, a police raid in a black neighborhood sparks an urban uprising that lasts five days, leaving 43 people dead. The Kerner Commission finds that America is becoming "two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." President Lyndon Johnson, who appointed the commission, ignores the report.

domain: library


text:
This week I was in Louisville for a reunion at my alma mater , and while I was there I sat down with the pastor who I interned with.
Jud and his then co-pastor Liz gathered people together to form Covenant Community Church as an intentional expression of what an “open source” church could look like. A lot of my thinking is influenced by what I and my family learned and experienced in that community, so I decide to interview Jud for the book (natch). I really hope to set up an interview with Liz soon because talking through the “idea” of CCC with Jud really reminded me that an open source model of leadership is a viable one.
Then, at a dinner at the reunion, I sat with a classmate of mine as she shared about her work in the Emglish language Korean-Taiwaneese church she’s serving and – again – I was struck by the pervasiveness of this model.
Do you know of people or ministries that you think exemplify an “open source” approach to being church? Please tell me about them. I would like to populate this text with a lot of examples of the ways in which we (the Church) are already living this idea.
Leave ideas here in comments or send me an email at landon (at) landonville (dot) com.
Not sure what you mean by “Open Source”, but I’ll tell you about our group. My friend and I started up this group about 7 years ago trying to share how God can be relevant in people’s lives. This group is for young families and we typically go through marriage and or parenting materials with an emphasis on biblical principles. Half of the group doesn’t attend church of any kind, and most of the ones that do go to church are young in their faith.
As people have seen how God’s Word is relevant in their marriages and in their parenting, I have seen God working in the group – lives transformed, marriages saved, parents become more loving. We have about 7 couples and 17 kids at one point. We were talking about church and one of the husbands who doesn’t attend church was sharing what the group meant to him. And this normally stoic guy was choking up and sharing how he didn’t have friends like the ones that he has in this group and he said, “This is my church where I come to meet God.”
That’s a great story, Darryl. Thank you.
landon – I have a story that may be helpful. I have used it in several places as an example of leaders finding clues of God’s call upon the congregational life. (That premise is part of my DMin thesis). Anyway –
In any church on Sunday mornings, outside the sanctuary, there are informal conversations that are more than idle – they seem infact to be essential. Leaders in the Osawatomie church began to notice that teachers from their schoold district would talk with some distress about their weeks. When they did that they often referenced how many ‘white sack lunches’ their children had. As the deacons inquired about this they learned that ‘white sack lunches’ are what children receive when their parents stop paying on their account. The white sack carries and element of shame in the lunch room (this we believe unintended by the school district) that throws kids into distress and thus teachers who scramble to find cool snacks or money for a hot lunch. With this information the board of deacons approached the school district with an offer to pay for hot lunches so that learning could be facilitated rather than interrupted. Open source mission?

domain: sociology


Union Pearson (UP) Express, formerly known as the Air Rail Link, will provide express, high-quality rail service to connect Union Station in downtown Toronto with Terminal 1 (T1) at Pearson International Airport.
Union Pearson Express Named Project of the Year
One of the most ambitious and important transportation projects in the history of the province of Ontario is progressing towards completion, and has already received critical acclaim. Union Pearson (UP) Express, formerly known as the Air Rail Link, will provide express, high-quality rail service to connect Union Station in downtown Toronto with Terminal 1 (T1) at Pearson International Airport. Significant work has been undertaken since Metrolinx was assigned the project in 2010, and all aspects are now under construction. It is on-schedule to go into service in time for the start of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am / Parapan Am Games.
Although it is still in process, the UP Express was named Project of the Year at the 2013 Global AirRail Awards. Organized by the British publication AirRail News, the Global AirRail Awards are dedicated to promoting best practices and excellence in the international air-rail industry. In naming UP Express 2013’s Project of the Year, the judging panel recognized the importance of its holistic approach to creating the long-anticipated air-rail link for the Greater Toronto Area.
Since late 2010, MMM has been providing technical advisory services for the project’s new, approximately 3-km long elevated guideway structure, and for the new UP Express Pearson T1 Station. The guideway connects the GO Georgetown South Corridor – which the UP Express will use for most of its route – to the new station at Pearson. At Pearson, the airport’s Automated People Mover (APM) system will extend under, and beside, the UP Express infrastructure. The $120M project is being delivered through Infrastructure Ontario (IO) using the design-build-finance alternative delivery method. MMM’s services as IO’s technical advisor included the development of the project-specific output specifications; and compliance monitoring during design and construction, including the development of a hazard and risk analysis document to identify construction risks on the guideway to the APM service. The project was awarded to Airlinx Transit Partners, a joint venture of AECON and Dufferin Construction, in late 2011. Construction is well underway, with the project on schedule to be completed in July 2014.
MMM is also providing detailed design and engineering services for the UP Express Union Station platform and waiting lounge. This is a new station facility being constructed as an addition to an existing building – the Skywalk – located immediately to the west of Union Station. It will include a main 1,100 m2 platform level that comprises a customer service desk, retail service area, public washrooms, and a waiting platform; along with a second 600 m2 mezzanine level with a waiting lounge, crew room, public and staff washrooms; and mechanical, electrical, and communication rooms. The station’s platform will be completely enclosed, and will feature a platform screen door system for passenger comfort and safety. The platform doors will open in synchronization with the doors for the light rail vehicles used by the UP Express Service. The Union Station Platform and Waiting Lounge was the last element of the UP Express project to go into construction; EllisDon Corporation was awarded the $23.8M contract in June 2013.
More information on the Union Pearson Express project is available at http://upexpress.com.


text:
By Christian Mancas
This new ebook goals to supply either newbies and specialists with a totally algorithmic method of facts research and conceptual modeling, database layout, implementation, and tuning, ranging from obscure and incomplete purchaser requests and finishing with IBM DB/2, Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL Server, or entry established software program functions. A wealthy panoply of ideas to real valuable info sub-universes (e.g. enterprise, college, public and residential library, geography, background, etc.) is equipped, constituting a strong library of examples.
Four info versions are awarded and used: the graphical Entity-Relationship, the mathematical EMDM, the actual Relational, and the logical deterministic deductive Datalog ones. for every considered one of them, top perform ideas, algorithms, and the speculation underneath are sincerely separated. 4 case reviews, from an easy public library instance, to a posh geographical examine are absolutely awarded, on all wanted levels.
Several dozens of real-life routines are proposed, out of which at the least one in line with bankruptcy is totally solved. either significant ancient and updated references are supplied for every of the 4 info versions considered.
The booklet presents a library of worthy strategies to real-life difficulties and offers invaluable wisdom on facts research and modeling, database layout, implementation, and effective tuning.
Read Online or Download Conceptual Data Modeling and Database Design: A Fully Algorithmic Approach, Volume 1: The Shortest Advisable Path PDF
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It truly is often believed that chaos is associated with non-linearity, even though many (even fairly usual) linear dynamical structures express chaotic habit. The research of those structures is a tender and remarkably lively box of analysis, which has visible many landmark effects during the last twenty years. Linear dynamics lies on the crossroads of a number of components of arithmetic together with operator thought, advanced research, ergodic conception and partial differential equations.
This quantity is devoted to the reminiscence of the phenomenal mathematician S. Ya. Khavinson. It starts off with an expository paper by means of V. P. Havin featuring a complete survey of Khavinson's works in addition to convinced biographical fabric. the whole bibliography following this paper has no longer formerly been released wherever.
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text: I have been looking forward to this game for some time now but haven't followed it nearly as much as Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It seems like Smash Bros. is overshadowing this game so with the release date drawing closer I thought now would be a good time to start a thread about Super Mario Galaxy. One of the things that influenced me to post this is an article at 1UP.com titled "10 reasons Mario Galaxy could be a perfect 10." After reading that article I must say I was even more excited for this game. I have posted a link to the article below. This is really looking like it could be the best Mario game ever. It screams classic Mario with all the power-ups, new and old, but has a style that sets it apart. One thing is for sure this is a must own game for Wii this year. What are your opinions of the game? Do you plan to get it? Please share your thoughts on Mario's latest adventure as we get ready for one of the greatest games to be released this year. 10 reasons Mario Galaxy could be a perfect 10.

domain: game


text:
GEMNIA emerged from Coralized, our previous business name and jewelry line, where every piece was meticulously hand-sewn using tiny glass beads and gemstones. Until now, we've only sold these unique designs at art fairs or by request, but we're thrilled to announce that they'll soon be available on our website!
To be among the first to hear about the release, simply join our mailing list below!
Meraki means "essence of ourselves" in Greek. This necklace, which can be made in a variety of stones and colors, is a reflection of our designer's passion for jewelry. It was among her first designs that launched her career and will forever hold a sentimental value in her heart.
Crafted with a passion for color, these earrings are a well-loved original design from the Coralized Collection. They boast a long, soft, and bold look, entirely hand-sewn with delicate glass beads. Perfect for adding a touch of playfulness to your everyday outfits or spicing up fancier occasions. It's no wonder these are always a customer favorite!
The Square Collection
Spiraling gemstones meets sterling silver in these statement earrings. Each stone is meticulously woven together then adorned with tiny glass beads sewn to mimic coral branches.
Elegant, yet playful, this bezeled jewel pendant features a hand-sewn "tassel" of tiny beads. Choose from a variety of gemstones and colors to reflect your personal style.

domain: design


Automation helps to eliminate inconsistencies and streamline processes. It standardizes the execution of tasks in your organization. Automation can also help you draw correlations between different sets of data for insight into how you can improve your processes.
Automation helps lenders reduce processing costs, the likelihood of human error and improve the overall lending experience. Drawing correlations between credit scoring and recent credit inquiries for instance provides a holistic portrait of your customer’s financial health.
Automation can also help improve almost every step of the lending process. Here we take a look at the first step in the lending process, loan origination, and how automation can improve it.
Automation in lending
Automation is any system that minimizes human input on the accomplishment of tasks.
Automation in the lending process can:
- Capture and index data from documents efficiently using a set of rules
- Route documents accurately
- Improve the speed of lending processes through email reminders and notifications generated at key points of the journey.
- Synchronize data
- Develop analytics for future win/loss insights
Automation provides an open data flow at any stage of the loan process. It speeds up the process while at the same time providing you with more reliable indicators of risk and opportunity.
How does automation improve the loan origination process?
Improving the loan origination process looks like this:
- Process efficiency
- Informative communication
- Accurate risk assessment
- Faster, more efficient underwriting
- Faster, unbiased decision making
When you improve your loan origination process you improve customer satisfaction while increasing your pool of loans.
Make decisions faster
Manual copying, emailing, scanning, printing, and data entry bog down the approval process. These tasks are time-consuming and have a high potential for error. In fact, the typical loan origination package averages 400-500 pages and can take over a month to process. Delays in approvals can be costly.
Automation of these processes decreases the amount of time it takes to turn prospects into customers. In doing so you gain the potential to generate more loans in less time as well as save money.
Accuracy in effective communication
Certainly, you want to have a human agent available to assist each of your customers. But, automating parts of your customer communication during this crucial period in the lending lifecycle can reduce the margin for human error during the loan origination process.
The list of documents necessary to begin the loan origination process can be long. Automating email and SMS messaging helps to ensure there are no gaps in information conveyance. Templates ensure the gathering of these documents is as easy as possible. Including things like checklists help speed up this process.
Loan origination processes can also leverage predictive analytics and automation to evaluate the risk of lending. You can make informed decisions about whether or not to add new members or issue funds.
Predictive analytics have made their importance known across financial industries looking to assess credit worthiness. It leverages machine learning, big data, and statistical techniques to estimate the likelihood of behaviors and events.
Automation also streamlines the risk evaluation process. Analysis of input takes a significantly shorter amount of time than the same job done by loan officers.
Speed up the underwriting process
Underwriting loans involves a lot of data processing. Automated document digitization lets you process this data much more quickly and efficiently.
Automation can look at a lot of data at one time. More information can help underwriters understand whether or not someone is likely to default on loan repayment. This helps them make an informed decision about their application.
Unbiased loan approval decisions
The ultimate decision whether or not to proceed with disbursing the funds should be an unbiased decision.
Many lending agencies now face the backlash of racist and biased lending practices in the past. It is in your best interest, both socially and fundamentally, to do everything you can to ensure you are not engaging in biased lending practices.
Automation can assist. It works by making rule-based decisions, taking only the data entered into the account.
What’s more, automation takes all relevant information into consideration and gives it the appropriate weight in making your decision. Algorithms allow your automated system to process this data to make an informed lending decision.
A robust portrait of the customer
Automation can help identify and track more variables to build a more holistic and robust picture of your loan applicants. It helps you make informed decisions with more accuracy and speed.
Borrowers are looking for fast, seamless, and hassle-free loans that are accessible on demand and can be initiated over many digital channels. Lenders need to make accurate assessments to mitigate loss. Automation can help by making the loan origination process easier than ever. You can make decisions with confidence and give your customers great service.


M. Night Shyamalan is a clever, clever man. I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment, though, as he's clever in a way that's completely vexing to film critics, or at least, to critics who remain underwhelmed by his output.
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Saki Corporation Opens Solution Center in Europe
Expanding services for customers and partners in the EMEA region
The offices of Saki EU (Saki Europe GmbH, European sales and service subsidiary of Saki Corporation) relocated to larger premises in Prague, Czech Republic in 2019, offering approximately three times the area of the previous office. 650sqm of the facility has been dedicated to a brand-new Solution Center. This is the first large-scale Solution Center of its kind for the EMEA region where customers can experience the capabilities of Saki’s latest lineup of diverse equipment and inspection solutions, and advanced M2M capabilities, including:
- 3Si-LS2: Saki’s high-precision and high-speed 3D solder paste inspection machine (3D SPI). The single-lane system is equipped with a 12µm camera head for board sizes from 50mm×60mm to 500mm×510mm.
- 3Di-LS2: a single lane 3D automated optical inspection (AOI) solution with camera resolution levels of 12µm and 18µm. The machine is equipped with a quad side camera system that ensures inspection of the entire board, including dead angles and areas missed by overhead cameras.
- 2Di‑LU1: an inline bottom-side automated optical inspection (AOI) system. Saki’s 2D line-scan technology is ultra-fast, capturing the image of an entire 460x500mm printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and carriers of 610x610mm in one pass, in real time. This versatile system automates the bottom-side inspection process, eliminates board flipping and handling, and ensures quality after the potting, dip, wave, and selective soldering processes.
- 3Xi-M110: Saki’s compact, lightweight, inline 3D-CT automated X-ray inspection (AXI) machine for printed circuit board assemblies that ensures the quality of hidden solder joints for bottom-electrode packages such as BGAs, LGAs, QFNs, flip-chip, and package-on-package and provides precise volumetric measurements and shape reconstruction to find voids, head-in-pillow, and other defects that are difficult to identify.
- 2D AOI, BF-Sirius and all 3D AOI generations, 3Di series, 3Di-L1 series are also installed for full customer support, software development and testing.
- Full optional lineup at the center: Offline Teaching station (BF2-Editor), Verification station (BF2-Monitor), Multi Process View and QD Analyzer beta version for advanced SPC.
Mr Jarolslav Neuhauser, General Manager of Saki EU commented: “The new Saki Solution Center in Prague provides a great inspection technology showcase with increased training capacity for our customers and partners. Our investment demonstrates our continued long-term commitment to the EMEA region and addresses the diverse training demands of our customers & distributors. I look forward to welcoming them to Prague.”


October 21, 2017
Review by Ronald Alcorn
My girlfriend Mary Catherine and I went to see Mavis and Bob at the First
Bank Center in Broomfield (Denver) without very high expectations. We'd
seen them last year at Red Rocks, and they were good but not great. I've
seen Dylan probably 50 times or so, and the last few years were pretty
iffy. Also, the First Bank Center seats about 7500, and I didn't think
they could possibly fill that...maybe 3-4000 at most. Well, so much for
expectations. First of all, by the time Mavis took the stage the venue
was close to full. Maybe that inspired her performance, but she was way
into it last night. "I feel good tonight! We're gonna have some fun
tonight!" And we did. When she left the stage to a rousing chorus of
"I'll take you there" and a standing ovation, I wondered if Bob heard that
crowd response and how his current performance could ever prompt that type
of response. Two hours later I found out. No song by song from me...the
set list was pretty static...but the classic Dylan songs, the Dylan
originals, the "rockers" were unbelievable. His voice was strong and
clear, the piano up in the mix, and the band perfect. The drums were
featured more tonight than I've seen in the past. The "standards" were
all short and well done and were more like interludes than energy
drainers. They were great. It was performance art. As I remarked to
Mary Catherine, it was more like a classical "concert", where you're not
standing up and rocking all the time but enjoying the performance. After
Ballad of a Thin Man I, in my all encompassing knowledge, turned to Mary
Catherine and said, "let's go, that's it." But wait...they're not
leaving! Then Bob and the band tore into Learning to Fly, and just killed
it. The place went wild. Standing ovation, people in tears. Bob and the
crew stood back in the rear or the stage and took it in. It was a
Review by James Strohecker
• Tight set. Focused.
• Fast and furious show. No gaps. Rocking and upbeat all night.
• Encore was a surprise. Hope he continues it.
Bob Dylan blew in with the fall winds to the Denver area to present a
fresh approach to his songs and fresh look to his stage/performance and an
out-of-the-blue encore song that knocked this show out of the park.
Out of the chute, Bob’s voice was fresh. And the tightness of the band
reflected the smaller size of the stage setup: they’re closer together.
The stage setup is smaller and more compact, with the subdued floodlights
at the back facing the audience. Dylan now has more of a direct presence:
his piano is smaller and has been moved more to center stage, the drums
are back left. As a result, Bob sings directly to the audience from a
standing / sitting piano position and when he takes center stage with the
mic stand, he’s tightly coupled with the band.
However, you can’t talk about this tour/Bob’s shows for the last
couple years without mentioning Mavis Staples’ performance. Mavis, who
opened for Dylan, gets the audience rocking and rolling – like the
Staples Singers used to. She belts the tunes, moves on the stage and
engages the audience. Last year, at Red Rocks, Mavis filled the night air
with a wicked show. Tonight at Broomfield was no different. She was
cutting, and wicked with her melodies and vocals. And she mesmerized the
Late in the performance, she spoke to the audience: “This next song is,
‘March on the Freedom Highway.’ It will be on our new album, coming
out Nov. 17. This song is one we sang on the March. THE March -- from
Selma to Montgomery,” she said. The audience roared before, during and
after the song. It was super-powerful.
Mavis finished her set with a rousing, “I’ll Take You There.” . . .
A most excellent performance.
The Dylan performance opened as usual with a Stu Kimball riff from the
wings of the darkened stage as the rest of the Band walked onstage, and
jumped into a bouncy, “Things Have Changed.”
As they did all night, the group moved quickly through songs with very
little time between them. They cranked out It Ain’t Me, Babe and rolled
into an upbeat, high note, Highway 61 Revisited. Bob then moved to center
stage for Why Try To Change Me Now – where he crooned with both hands on
the mic stand. Unlike years past when his crooned songs seemed to be
surprise performances that broke up the set, all night in Broomfield the
songs seamlessly flowed together. The sound melded well, as did his stage
movement from his piano-to center stage- and back.
Bob was energetic with lots of stand-up piano playing, gigging legs and
hand on hip statuesque end-of-song focus at the end of tunes. He was
resplendent in a metallic-colored jacket, black pants with a white stripe
down the side of each leg and all-white cowboy boots.
As he’s done in the past, Bob re-mixed approaches to songs – they all
seemed upbeat – and there’s a whole new energy to the performance.
Songs have been moved around the setlist. Summer Days is now early in the
set and had a hard drum backbeat with Donnie on the fiddle. Well played
The show just flows better now. And the band is back to baseline rock and
roll with tight melodies and playing around Bob’s lyrics.
Melancholy Mood was short and to the point. More upbeat than ballad,
followed by Honest With Me that featured Tony Garnier’s hard bass beat
and Charlie Sexton’s solid guitar riffs.
The band moved into Tryin’ to Get to Heaven, that now has evolved from a
sad ballad to a melodic fast-paced, “loungey” rendition, with Bob
sitting and singing from the piano. They followed with, Once Upon a Time,
with Bob center stage reminding the audience that once upon a time
doesn’t exist anymore. Smooth and focused.
September Of My Years was sultry and echoing, with strong bass bow playing
and guitar calls to follow Bob’s crooning.
Like the Autumn Leaves song later in the set, September Of My Years
provided some breathless wows from the audience and thoughts of the chill
of life’s journey in the lyrics as we experienced Bob’s fall concert.
The band moved into a demure version of Tangled up in Blue. Tangled, a
song that used to be an acoustic runaway, is now performed as a ballad
with care and piano-seated reflection, backed by interspersed Charlie
guitar riffs. Interesting version. Oddly cool.
Early Roman Kings picked up the pace again with a buster beat. They
followed with an upbeat, semi-twangy Desolation Row.
Thunder on the Mountain had a new intro, and bounced into a rock and roll
version, where Bob let loose the “horses” and allowed the band to rock
this out a bit.
Autumn Leaves provided another thought provoking, loungey bass
bow-driven sound that filled the auditorium. That led the performance into
an inspired Long and Wasted Years.
An upbeat Blowing in the Wind showed off some fine fiddle work by Donnie
as Bob cranked on the piano, and the band headed into what we expected to
be a two-song encore. Ballad of a Thin Man was a stand up at the piano
approach with Bob rapping the lyrics to a fine finish.
Tight two songs. We expected them to do the "stand in front of the stage"
as we were grabbing our coats. But wait . . . they set up for a
final/third song and roared into the introduction to, “Learning to
Fly.” It was a wild, loud, big tribute to Tom Petty. And a fitting
finish to an excellent performance.
Bob’s Tom Petty tribute – playing “Learning to Fly” perhaps in
memory of his long-time tour buddy and fellow Traveling Wilbury’s band
member – was cranked out and solid. An excellent close to a fine
evening. Check this song out if you can find it. Well done.
Frankly, this was one of the better shows I’ve seen this year. And one
of the better Bob Dylan performances I’ve witnessed in a long time.
• Tight performance means go, go, go to a show, show, show.
• Mavis Staples is worth every penny of the ticket price on her
own. • Time keeps passing; given the departure of Dylan-era
performers, you don’t want to regret you didn’t catch his show on this
tour. And it’s worth it. I’d pay again – a few times – to see this
current Bob Dylan show. Maybe I’ll see you later in the tour.
Review by Laurette Maillet
From Salt Lake City to Denver.
The bus is right on time. That was a night bus and I slept all the way. I
am supposed to meet Jeff at 7 am but he can't make it so I take a train to
Westminster where my CS host lives. Jacob will pick me up at the train
stop in Westminster. I have a private room. We have a nice chat and Jacob
and his girlfriend will take me to Boulder then to a Tea factory. Time to
relax and getting ready for the show in Broomfield. Jacob gives me a ride.
4 young follows offer me a ticket. I follow them and find myself 10th row
center on the aisle. Cool! Mavis is fantastic and changed a bit her
setlist. She sure will take you there...wherever is there! Stu is on and
the Band takes position. Bob is dressed in black : shining black jacket,
black shirt, black pants with the white straps. His hair is dishevelled.
The venue is not a fancy one, neither the public. First song and the
public in front is all up. Many folks will never seat down. Randy in front
of me will be up all the show blocking my view of Bob at the piano. He is
a Bobcat of long time so .... I tolerate with all my good spirit. Barron
passes by and smiles with good humour. Some smoke can be seen here and
there and the smell is familiar. Though securiry is strict for the
cellphone (there was a metal detector at the entrance ) tolerance is 100
% for weed!Welcome Colorado! Bobby must be intoxicated for he is rocking
and rolling like never before. Song after song the public is getting
wild, so do I. Lucky I had 2 slices of pizza for lunch, I've got some
"It ain't me Babe". I hear voices behind me "no, no, no it ain't me
Baaaabe' "Once upon a time".Yes! He heard me and kept that song on the
setlist. Thank you my Dear. "Tangled up in blue" is recognised by an
attentive public. "Desolation row' and the boys next to me are singing
along. On and on, rows after rows the Fans are standing up, dancing and
singing along. Great! I am not the only crazy freak tonight. The crowd is
all up for 'Ballad of a thin man' and I make a move to reach the rail in
the dark when.... Bob starts again on the piano. Whoa! A third encore and
this is a Tom Petty song "Learning to fly". Why , here, in Colorado, after
4 shows?? A mystery! But this is a vibrant and heart full homage to his
friend and companion. EXCELLENT SHOW. Excellent public. Thank you
| Click Here
to return to the
page by Bill Pagel
| Bob Links
| Set Lists
| Set Lists


text:
Valenciasystems.com - List Of Hospitals In Spain. Linked to List Of Hospitals In Spain, Valencia is just not so huge when compared to other significant European and Spanish metropolitan areas and due to the great community transportation service it's pretty effortless to move around. Metro, buses and trams can assist you to definitely arrive at the town centre. Each one of these providers are really inexpensive and their formal websites are very straightforward to comprehend and navigate. Here's some info about the unique public transportation provides.
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There are lots of glorious attractions and places to go to in Valencia Province and Valencia City. Valencia’s architecture, arts sculptures, museums and beaches are fascinating and enable curiosity and discussion among all who arrived at visit.

domain: geography


A total of 11,000 sorties were conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) during its biggest war-like exercise ‘Gagan-Shakti’. The two-week long exercise concluded on 22nd April. These number sorties are generally done in a month’s time. Out of these 11,000 sorties, 9,000 done by the fighter aircraft alone were conducted in the pan-India exercise.
The exercise was conducted in two phases. In the first Phase the IAF tested its capability along the western border with Pakistan, and in the second phase, the IAF exhibited its strength along the northern border with China from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. The main Aim of the exercise was to test the real-time coordination, deployment and employment of Air Power in a short and intense battle scenario. The IAF exercised the entire machinery to validate its concept of operations and war-waging capability. Around 1,400
Some of the other highlights of ‘Gagan-Shakti 2018’ are:
- During the exercise, Network Centric Operations were conducted with the focus to enhance situational awareness and to enable real-time data transfer between the weapon systems, satellite and ground-based systems.
- Indigenous-built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas was put to the test. It carried out defence and Combat operations. 3)
- Forward Surgical Centres (FSC) were set up at remote forward locations. FSC enhances medical capabilities and enables immediate life and limb-saving surgeries and stabilisation of patients away from service hospital.
- Paratroopers of all the three wings of Defence forces were airdropped to targeted areas.
- Special HeliBorne Operations (SHBO) mission was conducted by 2xMI-17 V5 helicopters of the IAF. Tri-Services Commandos were inserted in the objective area, to capture a Heli runway.
- IAF fighter jets including Sukho-30 MKIs, Mirage 2000s, Hawks, Migs, and Jaguars conducted dusk-night-dawn operations. The IAF also tested its firepower by delivering ammunition with high precision.
- Joint Maritime operations were performed in cooperation with the Indian Navy. Mass casualty drill was also undertaken to transfer injured troops to military hospitals.
- The highlight of the exercise was the mid-air fueling, in which IL-78 demonstrated the importance of refuelling aircraft during any long-range missions, as it would ensure long-range strike capabilities for the Su-30 MKI.
- The IAF also undertook a Battalion level airborne assault in the desert sector. It included a paradrop of 560 paratroopers of the IAF and the Indian Army, combat vehicles and GPS guided cargo platforms.
- The IAF effectively exercised its Maritime warfighting concepts on both Western & Eastern seaboards. The primary focus in Phase–II was to address targets over Eastern Sea Board right up to Malacca Straits. Sukhoi -30MKI fighter jets equipped with BrahMoa missiles hit targets with precision in the Malacca Strait, the entry point where Chinese naval ships into the Indian Ocean Region.
- A large number of Advanced Landing Grounds Operationalised for conducting Special Airborne Operations close to the simulated objective areas was undertaken.
- The operation commandos of the IAF also executed Inter-Valley Troop Transfer (IVTT) along with the Indian Army. The IVTT was conducted in the high hills of North and North East along the Indo-Sino border. The aim was to validate the capability of the IAF and the Army to quickly transfer and redeploy acclimatised troops.
- The Indian Air Force also tests readiness to deal with a biological, chemical and nuclear war and we were satisfied with our capability to deal with such situations during the exercise.
According to the Indian Air Force officials, the exercise met the parameters beyond expectations. The entire fleet strength of the force was showcased. China closely monitored the ‘Gagan-Shakti’.
One thought on “Highlights of ‘Gagan-Shakti 2018’; Indian Air Force conducted 11,000 sorties”


Global Automotive Shielding Market Segmented by Type (Heat, EMI), Heat Application (Engine, Exhaust, and Turbocharger), EMI Application (ACC, IPA, ECM, FCW, LDW, and Electric Motor), Material Type, and Vehicle Type and by Region – Forecast To 2023. Global Automotive Shielding Market is predicted to witness ~ 6% CAGR by 2023
Get Free Sample Copy of Report @
The prominent players in the automotive shielding market include Laird PLC (UK), ElringKlinger AG (Germany), Federal-Mogul Corporation (US), Morgan Advanced Materials (UK), Dana Limited (US), Henkel AG & Company, KGaA (Germany), Kitagawa Europe (Japan), and Schaffner Holding (Switzerland), Autoneum (Switzerland), Progress-WerkOberkirch AG (Germany) are among others.
Automotive Shielding Market Overview:
An engine compartment, turbocharger and exhaust system are attached closely which generates excessive heat. Thus, automotive shielding is used to lower the temperature of underbody engine and reduces the heat in engine compartment. The importance of heat management system in automobiles is increasing due to use of temperature sensing components in automobiles which requires heat shielding.
The massive growing sales of premium vehicles will boost the demand for heat shielding system with increased number of applications such as adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning in running the vehicle. Increase in GDP and growing purchasing power of the customers will enhance the growth of the market. Increasing use of customized heat shield products depending upon the size and shape of the parts increases the demand for the market. Moreover, the growth of the market is challenged by the high price of the raw materials. The increase trend for customized heat shields with other components increases the growth of the market.
Market Growth Analysis:
Increasing vehicles production across the globe and the increase in demand for safety concerns will further drive the market. Rapid increase in the premium car sales worldwide is expected to create opportunities for the manufacturers, to bring shielding which is more effective and work efficiently by controlling the temperature. Increasing adoption of electrical and electronics components such as engine control module, intelligent park assist in vehicles which increases demand for automotive shielding market.
Increase in demand for fuel efficient vehicles along with stringent environment regulation fuels the demand for passenger car sales which further increases the demand for automotive shielding market. Further, increase in demand for advanced electronics technologies used in electromagnetic interface shielding will create opportunities for the new entrants in the market. High price of the metallic shielding system will hinder the growth of the global automotive Shielding market.
Automotive Shielding Market Segmentation:
The global automotive shielding market is segmented based on shielding type, heat application, EMI application, material type and vehicle type.
On the basis of shielding type, the market has been segmented by heat shielding, EMI shielding.
On the basis of heat application, the market has been segmented by engine compartment, exhaust system, turbocharger.
On the basis of EMI application, the market has been segmented by adaptive cruise control, intelligent park assists, engine control module, forward collision warning, electric motor, lane departure warning.
On the basis of material type the market has been segmented by metallic shield and Non-metallic shield.
On the basis of vehicle type the market has been segmented by passenger car, light commercial vehicle and heavy commercial vehicle and by Region.
Regional Analysis of Automotive Shielding Market:
Geographically, the global automotive shielding market has been divided into four major regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Amongst all regions, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the growth of the market during the forecast period followed by the North America. Increase in vehicle production, increasing safety concerns and increasing demand for premium vehicles in China and India will drive the growth of the market. Asia-pacific government have applied various safety features in the vehicles which further increases the growth of the automotive shielding in the region.
Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary
2 Scope of The Report
2.1 Market Definition
2.2 Scope of The Study
2.2.2 Research Objective
2.3 Research Process
2.3.1 Primary Research
2.3.2 Secondary Research
2.4 Market Size Estimation
2.5 Forecast Model
3 Market Landscape
3.1 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
3.1.1 Threat of New Entrants
3.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers
3.1.3 Threat of Substitutes
3.1.4 Segment Rivalry
3.1.5 Bargaining Power of Buyers
3.2 Value Chain/Supply Chain Analysis
Access Full Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/automotive-shielding-market-6926
About Market Research Future:
At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
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text:
Neurological Nursing is a very challenging nursing specialty dealing with assessment, nursing diagnosis, and management of many neurological disorders for which nurses provide patient care. This includes trauma, brain injuries, stroke, seizures, tumors, headaches, infections, and aneurysms, as well as a host of other neurological complexities.
We look forward to seeing new threads here and discussion that will enable Nurses to advocate and care for these patients.
Sep 14, '15
I know that this post is years old (6 years to be exact) which is why I'm attempting to "revive" it if you will. I am a senior in nursing school and I have no idea what my "niche" is. I don't know what specialty I want to do. So far in nursing school, I've done clinical on the med surg floor, trauma nursing, labor and delivery, and in the OR. I loved the OR but I want to eventually become a nurse practitioner and working in the OR won't give me any real assessment skills with patients. My question is, is neuro a good floor for a new grad to work on? Is it extremely stressful? What type of patients are on the floor? For the neuro nurses, what's your typical day? I know every nursing job is extremely stressful so that's probably not a good question so I guess I should ask is it more stressful than others? Also, for the people who will say, "a lot of your answers are already posted just search for them," I want a "fresh" outlook for this year lol. A lot of the posts on this neuro forum are years old so if someone could give fresh and new update for 2015 that would be great! Thank you guys!
Sep 24, '15
Yea I was looking for some info as well due to getting ready to start a new position and nothing as of yet. Hopefully you will get some answers or what you could try is calling some Neuro unit managers about shadowing, which would yield some really good first hand experience.

domain: medical


text:
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domain: entertainment


text:
Written on December 20, 2022 by Gillian (Gigi) Singer, MPH, Sexuality Educator & Certified Sexologist. To give you technically accurate, evidence-based information, content published on the Everlywell blog is reviewed by credentialed professionals with expertise in medical and bioscience fields.
Table of contents
The flu, or influenza, is a common and often seasonal respiratory infection of the nose, throat, and lungs . The Mayo Clinic clarifies, “Influenza is commonly called the flu, but it’s not the same as stomach ‘flu’ viruses that cause diarrhea and vomiting ."
The flu season in the US is usually during the fall and winter — when the weather starts to cool down, there is often an increase of flu infections.
The flu is transmitted in two ways. The first is via tiny droplets that are released into the air when someone with an active infection coughs, sneezes, or talks. When these droplets settle onto surfaces, that is the second way in which the flu can spread — touching these germs and then touching your food, face, eyes, or mouth can introduce the virus into the body .
For most people, the flu is miserable but doesn’t have any major complications.
There are some groups of people who are at higher risk of these complications including :
The CDC explains that flu complications can include “pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections and worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, asthma, … diabetes” and for some people, can be fatal .
While illnesses like the common cold may gradually develop, the flu tends to hit you like a brick wall — you might suddenly feel ill .
The Mayo Clinic lists the following as common flu symptoms :
If you find yourself sick with the flu and are otherwise healthy, under the age of 65, and not pregnant, you can typically care for yourself at home without seeing a healthcare provider .
The Mayo Clinic suggests the following at-home remedies :
According to an informal poll of pharmacists done by US News, the five OTC products that are best for flu symptoms are Dayquil Cold & Flu, Coricidin HBP Cold & Flu, NyQuil Cold & Flu, Tylenol Cold + Flu Severe, and Theraflu . With any OTC medication, you should check to make sure to read the warnings and dosage as they may not be a fit for the sick person based on their age, symptoms, or their other medications.
If you exhibit any of the following symptoms, you should consider seeking care from a healthcare provider :
Luckily, you don’t technically have to go to the doctor — especially now that Everlywell offers same-day video appointments with clinicians that can provide you with an immediate treatment plan and even prescribe you antivirals so that you can kick the flu to the curb.
With Everlywell's online flu treatment option, a provider can prescribe the following antivirals to treat influenza A and B:

domain: biology


text:
Objective This study comprehensively estimated the excess cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality attributable to influenza in an older (age ≥65 years) population.
Design Ecological study.
Setting Aggregated data from administrative systems on CVD mortality, influenza surveillance and meteorological data in Beijing, China.
Main outcome measure Excess overall CVD, and separately for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke mortality attributable to influenza, adjusting for influenza activity, time trend, seasonality and ambient temperature.
Results CVD (risk ratio (RR) 1.02, 95% CI 1.01, 1.02), IHD (RR 1.01, 95% CI 1.01, 1.02), ischaemic stroke (RR=1.03, 95% CI 1.02, 1.04), but not haemorrhagic stroke (RR=1.00, 95% CI 0.99, 1.01) mortality, were significantly associated with every 10% increase in influenza activity. An increase in circulating A(H1N1)09pdm, A(H3N2) and B type virus were all significantly associated with CVD and ischaemic stroke mortality, but only A(H3N2) and B type virus with IHD mortality. The strongest increase in disease mortality was in the same week as the increase in influenza activity. Annual excess CVD mortality rate attributable to influenza ranged from 54 to 96 per 100 000 population. The 3%–6% CVD mortality attributable to influenza activity was related to an annual excess of 916–1640 CVD deaths in Beijing, China.
Conclusions Influenza activity has moderate to strong associations with CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality in older adults in China. Promoting influenza vaccination could have major health benefit in this population.
Background Influenza may trigger serious CVD events. An estimation of excess CVD mortality attributable to influenza has particular relevance in China where vaccination is low and CVD burden is high.
Methods This study analysed data at the population level (age ≥65 years) using linked aggregated data from administrative systems on CVD mortality, influenza surveillance and meteorological data during 2011 to 2018. Quasi-Poisson regression models were used to estimate the excess overall CVD, and separately for IHD, ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke mortality attributable to influenza, adjusting for influenza activity, time trend, seasonality and ambient temperature. Analyses were also undertaken for influenza subtypes (A(H1N1)09pdm, A(H3N2) and B viruses), and mortality risk with time lags of 1–5 weeks following influenza activity in the current week.
- infectious diseases
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Strengths and limitations of this study
This population-based data linkage study estimated influenza-associated cardiovascular mortality in a setting where vaccination rates are low and cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden is high.
Seasonality, time trends and ambient temperature were adjusted as potential cofounders.
Time lags were applied to assess any delayed time interval between influenza activity and CVD deaths.
Individual-level analysis can be considered if data are available.
Season-varying factors such as lifestyle and physiological changes could still have contributed to residual confounding.
Evidence is accumulating that influenza can trigger major cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, exacerbate underlying CVD and cause myocarditis and pericarditis. However, there remains uncertainty over the strength of associations, overall and for specific CVD conditions,1–3 which is important for informing public health decisions over resource allocation for prevention and treatment. The CVD consequences of influenza4–6 have received limited attention, and opportunities for vaccination and other prevention strategies have been poorly implemented. In particular, influenza vaccination covers only 2% of the Chinese population, compared with approximately 60% of those in many high-income countries.7 8 Despite the WHO recommending influenza vaccination in all high-risk people, such as the elderly and those with chronic conditions, rates appear to be declining worldwide.9
In China, the burden of CVD has a unique profile, with more people dying from stroke than ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and considerable higher rates of haemorrhagic stroke than in many other countries.10 Yet, there are no data on the excess CVD mortality related to influenza.11 In the past decade, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (BJCDC) has established robust mortality and influenza surveillance systems for its residents, but rates of influenza vaccination remain low (see online supplemental file 1).12 13 Herein, we present analysis of the relation of influenza and primary causes of CVD deaths using city-wide vital statistics and weekly influenza surveillance during 2011–2018.
Study design and data sources
We undertook a population-level observational study, using aggregated mortality, population, influenza surveillance and meteorological data extracted from routinely-collected administrative data systems (figure 1). Cause-specific deaths were filtered by International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes: all CVD (I00-I99), IHD (I20-I25), ischaemic stroke (I63), haemorrhagic stroke (I61, I62) between 3 January 2011 and 1 July 2018 through the Beijing Mortality Register and Surveillance System, a real-time internet-based system maintained by Beijing CDC that captures all deaths, both in and out of hospital. Underlying cause of death data were manually coded and verified by trained staff at every hospital or community health centre in Beijing.13 Annual registered resident data by age group and sex between 2011 and 2018 were extracted from Beijing Statistics Yearbook (http://tjj.beijing.gov.cn/tjsj_31433/). Age-stratified and sex-stratified population from the sixth census in China in 2010 were used as the standard reference population. Weekly mortality data were retrieved from the mortality surveillance system for each week (from Monday to Sunday), and standardised by age and sex using data from Beijing Statistical Yearbook.
The Beijing influenza surveillance system was established in 2007 to allow influenza-like illness (ILI) and laboratory-confirmed influenza (ILI+) to be prospectively tracked across 153 general hospitals in Beijing.12 Throat-swab specimens were tested using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques at 23 sentinel hospitals in Beijing.14–16 The results of testing are entered into the platform of Beijing CDC, ILI+/ILI, the proportion of positive specimens in throat-swab specimen tested ILI patients, were calculated for each week as an indicator for influenza activity.
Weekly highest mean temperature and lowest mean temperature data between Monday, 3 January 2011 and Sunday, 1 July 2018 were obtained from an online repository (http://www.tianqihoubao.com/lishi/). All the retrieved data were linked by the calendar time.
Age-standardised and sex-standardised death rates were calculated from the 2010 census data of registered population (aged ≥65 years) in Beijing according to six age-groups (65–69, 70–74, 75–79, 80–84, 85–89 and 90+) using the following formula:
where n is the number of age-groups. represents the actual number of deaths for women in the age-group k. represents the actual number of deaths for men in the age-group k. represents the woman population in the age-group k. represents the male population in the age-group k. represents the standard population of women in the age-group k. represents the standard population of men in the age-group k.
Mann-Kendall trend analysis was used to test the annual age-standardised and sex-standardised disease mortality rates during 2011–2018. Weekly age-standardised and sex-standardised CVD mortality rates were compared with weekly ILI+/ILI using Spearman correlation coefficient to determine the magnitude of any association. Quasi-Poisson regression modelling, which accounts for over-dispersed variables when the variance in weekly deaths is greater than the mean,17 was applied to associate weekly influenza activity with CVD mortality. The models included terms for influenza activity (ILI+/ILI), seasonality, time trends, and confounding variable ambient temperature. The models were fitted separately for weekly numbers of deaths from different causes between 2011 and 2018, as outlined below:
Where represents the age-standardised and sex-standardised weekly CVD death number; α is the offset term equal to the standard population size (≥65 years); accounts for any linear time trend, and account for nonlinear time trends; and account for seasonal changes in CVD mortality; is the coefficient associated with the weekly proportion of specimens tested positive for a sum of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2) and B subtypes and is the coefficient of a confounder that is identified from potential factors (eg, highest or lowest mean temperature in a week) and represents the error term.
We also applied 1- to 5-week lags on weekly influenza virus-positive rates in the regression model to account for any delayed time interval between influenza activity and CVD deaths. Negative binomial regression models were used as sensitivity analysis, separately for each disease outcome.
Excess mortality rates were estimated according to the difference between observed mortality and predicted mortality rates with the coefficient of influenza infection variable set as 0 in the fitted model.18 19 The annual influenza season in northern hemisphere is defined as from the 27th week of the previous year to the 26th week of the current.20 The quasi-Poisson regression model was also used to estimate the excess CVD mortality. Estimation of the annual number of excess CVD death was obtained as the sum of all positive weekly differences for each influenza season (ie, negative weekly differences were recoded to 0). Influenza-associated excess deaths were estimated separately for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2) and B viruses.
Bootstrap resampling with 1000 resamples was to calculate 95% CIs for each estimated excess death number. All statistical analyses were performed using R, V.3.6.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, https://www.R-project.org/).
Role of the funding source
This study was supported by a grant from Sanofi Pasteur. Sanofi Pasteur had no role in design of the study, analysis of data or preparation of this manuscript.
Patient and public involvement
Patients or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of our research.
Table 1 shows that age-standardised and sex-standardised annual CVD (from 1545 to 1783 per 100 000 population, p=0.002) and IHD (from 742 to 938 per 100 000 population, p=0.002) mortality rates increased significantly during 2011–2018, while there were non-significant declines in ischaemic stroke (from 209 to 166 per 100 000 population, p=0.27) and haemorrhagic stroke (from 148 to 108 per 100 000 population, p=0.27) mortality rates. The median of influenza virus-positive rates ranged from 1.5% to 12.3%, with subtype A(H3N2) being the most frequent, followed by subtype B and subtype A(H1N1), respectively. ILI+ and ILI numbers by year are presented in the online supplemental file 1. The two lowest influenza years of 2011–2012 and 2013–2014, correlated with the two lowest age-standardised and sex-standardised CVD mortality rates over the study period. Age-standardised and sex-standardised mortality rates were generally higher than the crude rates, likely reflecting population ageing.
Overall crude CVD (r=0.69, p<0.001), IHD (r=0.67, p<0.001), ischaemic stroke (r=0.43, p<0.001) and haemorrhagic stroke (r=0.27, p<0.001) mortality rates were all significantly correlated with influenza activity (see online supplemental file 1). Influenza virus activity showed marked seasonality matching CVD mortality patterns. Figure 2 shows the overall trend for influenza activity to have regular annual peaks at the end and beginning of each year; disease mortality and influenza activity peaks overlapped and without any time-lag. After adjusting for weekly temperature and study time, CVD, IHD and ischaemic mortality rates were all significantly associated with influenza virus activity (risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI: 1.02 (1.01, 1.02), 1.01 (1.00, 1.02) and 1.03 (1.02, 1.04), respectively, with every 10% increase in influenza virus-positive rate). This translated into an estimated RR of CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality of 1.08 (1.05, 1.11), 1.07 (1.03, 1.11), 1.17 (1.10, 1.24), respectively, when influenza virus-positive rate increased to 50%. However, haemorrhagic stroke mortality was not associated with influenza virus activity (RR 1.0 (0.99, 1.01) with every 10% increase in influenza virus-positive rate) (figure 3). Sensitivity analysis using negative binomial models showed robust results (see online supplemental file 1).
Figure 4 shows that all subtypes of influenza virus were associated with increased CVD mortality: influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, RR 1.01 (95% CI 1.00, 1.02); influenza A(H3N2), RR 1.01 (95% CI 1.01, 1.02) and influenza B, RR 1.02 (95% CI 1.01, 1.03). Similar associations were evident for ischaemic stroke mortality: 1.03 (1.01, 1.05), 1.03 (1.01, 1.05) and 1.03 (1.01, 1.05) for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, influenza A(H3N2) and influenza B, respectively. Only influenza A(H3N2) and influenza B were associated with increased IHD mortality (RR 1.02 (1.01, 1.03) and 1.02 (1.01, 1.03)). No subtype of influenza virus was associated with haemorrhagic stroke.
There was no apparent time lag for influenza virus activity and increased CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality; the strongest association during or within a week of activity. The association declined but remained statistically significant up to 4, 3 and 5 weeks after influenza activity with CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality (figure 5).
Annual excess CVD mortality attributable to influenza ranged from 54 to 96 per 100 000 population, which accounted for 3%–6% of the background CVD mortality without any influenza activity. This excess mortality was estimated to contribute between 916 and 1640 excess CVD deaths annually in those aged ≥65 years in Beijing. For CVD subcategories, IHD was associated with the highest excess mortality (27–49 per 100 000 per year), but ischaemic stroke showed the larger proportion of excess mortality over background mortality (8%–11%) (table 2).
Our population-based data linkage study has shown consistent association of increased respiratory specimens testing positive for influenza virus (ILI+) in ILI cases with increased CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality in Beijing in the last decade. When influenza virus activity increased such that ILI+/ILI equalled to 50%, we estimated the excess CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality increased by 8%, 7% and 17%, respectively, in those aged ≥65 years. The association had minimal temporal lag and there was no significant excess haemorrhagic stroke mortality with influenza virus activity. These findings were consistent across different subtypes (A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2) and B) of influenza infection, except A(H1N1)pdm09 was not associated with IHD mortality.
Our study provides important findings that differ from previous reports. First, the association of increased CVD mortality risks and influenza lagged for several weeks. Second, the fatal consequence of influenza happens within a short time window, which is contrary to some but not all studies.21 22 This could reflect our focus on older adults, those at highest risk of CVD, rather than broader population. As the strength of association for ischaemic stroke mortality and influenza was the strongest of all the CVD categories, it is possible that predisposing factors in the vascular tree or susceptibility to respiratory infection were higher in our study population compared with others.
Few studies have assessed the association of infection and haemorrhagic stroke. One large prospective study showed no such association of influenza and haemorrhagic stroke,23 and trials assessing the efficacy of influenza vaccination have failed to show significant benefits for haemorrhagic stroke.24 25 The large sample size of our study allowed us to optimise statistical power to examine associations of influenza activity and individual CVD subtypes including haemorrhagic stroke, with adjustment for various factors, such as daily temperature, seasonality and time. The stronger association of influenza with ischaemic CVD rather than haemorrhagic stroke deaths supports studies indicating that inflammation destabilises vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques and enhances circulating clotting factors.26 27
Our finding of no significant association of A(H1N1)pdm09 and IHD mortality is consistent with other data suggesting this strain is less likely to infect the elderly with existing immunity.28 Thus, the adverse consequence of A(H1N1)pdm09 infection could be mitigated, with few deaths reported from this virus in China.29 Conversely, A(H1N1)pdm09 was significantly associated with CVD and ischaemic stroke mortality, although the explanations are less clear. Host responses may differ across various circulating strains of the virus subtypes, with influenza-associated death rates highest when influenza B virus being dominant in China, while the highest death rates are associated with A(H3N2) activity in the USA.20 30 Both A(H3N2) and influenza B had comparable strengths of association for CVD, IHD and ischaemic stroke mortality, raising complexities over the allocation of resources based on circulating strains of influenza activity.
There are many studies suggesting that influenza vaccines protect against CVD, both primary and secondary prevention. However, most of them have employed different observational designs, which are prone to many biases.31–34 The question of whether influenza vaccination can prevent CVD mortality can only be answered in randomised trials, although as challenging as they are in accumulating adequate outcome events related to plausibly modest treatment effects.35 36 Yet, such studies are warranted given the need for evidence-based clinical and health policy recommendations over the coverage of influenza vaccination.
We recognise our study has several limitations. Most importantly, we lacked vaccination and other data at the individual level, and thus were unable to estimate the contribution of vaccination to the excess mortality. Furthermore, although temperature, seasonality and study time were accounted for in our analyses, other season-varying factors such as lifestyle and physiological changes, as well as other possible time-varying variables, could still have contributed to residual confounding. Although the large population of Beijing lies in the north of China, our results may not be generalisable to other areas, particularly those in the south of the country where the climate tends to be subtropical. Finally, despite BJCDC having established a robust mortality and influenza surveillance system, there is still the potential for misclassification and under-reporting of deaths leading to an underestimation of influenza-associated excess mortality.
In summary, our data linkage study extends earlier findings in showing a clinically important association of influenza and CVD mortality, overall and across specific subtypes and provides support for the broad population-wide benefits of vaccination as a simple and safe approach to improving outcomes for those at high risk of CVD events in the community.
XD and JD are joint senior authors.
RL, XL and PY contributed equally.
Contributors XD, CA and JD conceptualised the study and acquired funding. PY, SW, JS, ZW and QW acquired the data and provided technical support for accessing and linking databases. XD, RL, XL, LH, SX and CJ formed the study protocol and statistical analysis plan. XLiu, TC, XL and GX conducted the statistical analysis and created figures. XL, TC, RL, XD, LH, CA, MDH and CRM interpreted the study results. RL, XL and XD drafted the manuscript, compiled and addressed comments from coauthors. CA revised the manuscript and provided intellectual input in advocating for policy change and developing a potential intervention strategy. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding This work was supported by Sanofi Pasteur (grant number FLU00105).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval The ethics committee of Beijing Anzhen Hospital approved the study.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.
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domain: literature


text:
Initially, Pineapple Street seems to be a comic novel of First World problems: a married woman grouses about her life after giving up her job at Goldman Sachs to stay home with the kids, and another woman resents that the four-bedroom Brooklyn limestone she and her husband took over from his WASP parents is overflowing with in-law detritus. But before too long, Jenny Jackson's first novel reveals itself to be a canny inquiry into what happens when old money collides with new ideas about inclusiveness and fairness. Pineapple Street's perspective roves among three linked women. There's Darley, the ex-Goldman Sachs at-home mom whose Korean American airline banker husband is unjustifiably fired, his lack of old-boys'-club connections his undoing. There's Darley's younger sister, Georgiana, who attempts to demonstrate her independence from her real estate-rich family by working at a not-for-profit. (Meanwhile, the interest from her trust pays her mortgage.) And there's limestone-dweller Sasha, a graphic designer from relatively humble origins who is viewed with suspicion by Darley and Georgiana, her sisters-in-law, because she refused to sign a prenup--or did she?--when she married their brother.
Pineapple Street succeeds as both a languidly paced comedy of manners (the increasingly philanthropic Georgiana's father says she's behaving "like some kind of millennial communist saint") and a filigreed look at the responsibilities that go with inherited wealth. While she's at it, Jackson teases a question: When it comes to welcoming others into the fold, what's reasonable to expect of the old-moneyed? Moreover: What's realistic? --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer


text:
Imperial Treasure opened in December 2018, the first London outpost of a restaurant group from Singapore. The branch of Imperial Treasure in Shanghai was given two Michelin stars by the entertainingly generous Michelin Shanghai guide in 2018. Its branches in Singapore and Hong Kong also have a Michelin star, and there are further branches in Guangzhou and South Korea. Another branch is planned to open in Paris in the spring of 2019, with the original branch in Singapore being "Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck" in the Paragon mall.
The London outpost is in what was once a Lloyds bank and is exceedingly smart, designed by the same architect firm (the French Studio Liaigre) that did the original Hakkasan. The very high ceilings create a dramatic space, and the room has been split into distinct sections so that its considerable size, at 110 covers, does not become overwhelming. The menu is quite classical Cantonese and is fairly extensive, with plenty of luxury ingredients on offer. Prices are distinctly ambitious, with tasting menus at £88 and £128. The a la carte options were similarly priced, with for example exotica such as sea cucumber at £38 but also more mundane dishes like poached cabbage in chicken broth at £18 and Singapore noodles with lobster £48. This is a restaurant that is aiming high. The executive head chef is Wee Boon Goh, who previously worked for Hakkasan as chef de cuisine at Hanway Place.
The wine list was skewed heavily towards the luxury end of the market, with just over two hundred bottles ranging in price from £38 to £2,779, but with a very high median price of £160, and just eight wines under £50, yet also eight bottles over £1,000. Sample references were Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2016 at £55 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £19, Shaw and Smith Adelaide Hills M3 Chardonnay 2016 at £86 compared to its retail price of £29, and Nicolas Joly Les Vieux Clos Vignobles de la Coulee de Serrant Savennieres 2016 at £118 for a wine that will set you back £39 in the high street. For those with the means there was Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou 1982 at £998 compared to its retail price of £403, and Cheval Blanc 1990 at £2,778 for a wine whose current market value is £1,140. Despite the preponderance of expensive wines, the markup levels were not excessive by London standards, with a median markup to retail price of around 2.9 times their shop price. For those who didn’t fancy splashing out on wine, beer was Sapporo at £6 a bottle, and jasmine tea was £4.50 per person, which seemed to include indefinite top-ups.
Blue swimmer crab and sweet corn soup was a step up in quality from the Chinatown staple. Although one piece of shell slipped through, the crab flavour was excellent (14/20). Even better was a humble hot and sour soup, which had a deep, rich flavour and a nice balance of vinegar and chilli kick. This was really impressive, all the more so when you consider that there are no luxury ingredients involved here (easily 15/20).
Prawns with dried chilli and cashew nuts had tender and carefully cooked stir-fried prawns and nice spiciness from the dried chillies (14/20). Tenderloin cut of beef, or fillet as it would normally be described here, was sourced from the USA, sautéed in chunks and served with garlic crisps. The beef was impressive, very tender and with plenty of flavour, nicely complemented by the little garlic crisps (15/20). Baby tenderstem broccoli (from South Africa) was stir-fried with garlic and was precisely cooked, the vegetables small and tender (15/20). Singapore noodles with lobster had quite a price tag but turned out to be impressive. The noodles had lovely, delicate texture, far superior to the quality of this dish in most Chinese restaurants. The lobster was tender and lightly cooked, and overall this was one of the better noodle dishes I can recall (easily 16/20). At the dessert stage we were brought a custard bun in a charcoal egg to try, though this was not really my kind of thing and by then I was distinctly full.
Service was extremely attentive and courteous, and the meal began and ended with a hot towel, which I thought was a nice touch. The bill, with beer and tea to drink, came to £117 each. We could have ordered one dish less as the portions were generous, but if you had wine then a typical cost per head is still going to end up at around £95 or more. Despite the size of the bill, I was impressed with Imperial Treasure. It was interesting that it seems to be aiming higher than its sister in Shanghai, which has much more basic decor and lower prices. It is rare for upmarket Chinese restaurants to open in London, at least since the late lamented HKK and the extravagantly appointed Park Chinois. Certainly the food here is much better than Park Chinois, and is clearly aiming at the same upmarket clientele. It will be interesting to see how it fares in what promise to be choppy economic times this year.
Further reviews: 02nd Aug 2022

domain: food


text:
KRALENDIJK – Over a third of the 30,000 residents of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint-Eustatius live below the poverty line, even though they are employed. This is according to a report from the Commission for the social minimum of the Caribbean Netherlands, which urges for a just Social Minimum for these islands. Minister Carola Schouten and State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen received the report today.
The commission argues that minimum incomes must be significantly increased to achieve parity with the European part of the Netherlands, and calls for a just social minimum that is reassessed every four years.
The Dutch Nibud, which has investigated the costs for households on the islands, finds that income lags significantly behind expenditures, partly because necessities like housing and transportation are expensive on the islands.
The chairman of the commission, Glenn Thodé, emphasizes that the existence of a large group below the poverty line has led to social problems and a rising poverty line.
Compared to the current situation, the study shows that a single person in Bonaire needs over 1,500 dollars a month, while welfare is only a thousand dollars. The legal Minimum Wage is slightly over 1,200 dollars. Additionally, there is a shortage of social rental homes, which means many are reliant on the more expensive private market.
The cabinet has committed to allocate thirty million euros next year to improve the financial situation for the residents of these islands. This money will be used to increase the benefits in 2024. In addition to the benefits, there should also be a focus on raising the legal minimum wage and income-dependent allowances to address the poverty situation on the islands.
Thodé believes there is ample room for a just Social Minimum. He stresses that various ministries, including Social Affairs, Kingdom Relations, Finance, and Housing, need to collaborate to improve the situation, and urgent action is required.

domain: finance


text:
Of the five Federal Reserve districts which have released their May manufacturing surveys, all are forecasting growth. A complete summary follows. The market expected this survey index at 9.0 to 16.0 (consensus 9.6) versus the 11.0 actual [note that values above zero represent expansion].
Texas factory activity increased again in May, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell from 24.7 to 11, indicating output grew but not strongly as in April.
Other measures of current manufacturing activity also reflected slower growth. The new orders index fell sharply to 3.8, hitting its lowest level this year. The capacity utilization index fell 9 points to 9.4 but remained slightly above its average level over the history of the survey. The shipments index edged down to 11, a reading also slightly above its overall average.
Perceptions of broader business conditions were less optimistic in May. The general business activity index remained elevated but moved down from 11.7 to 8. The company outlook index plummeted to 4.1 after rising sharply in April. Although both these indexes fell from last month, both were up strongly from their negative readings a year ago.
Labor market indicators reflected a tapering of growth in employment levels and workweek length. The May employment index dropped to 2.9, its lowest reading in nearly a year. Thirteen percent of firms reported net hiring compared with more than 10 percent reporting net layoffs. The hours worked index fell from 13.9 to 2.8, indicating only a slight increase in workweek length from April.
Strong upward pressure was seen for input prices and wages in May, while price pressures eased for selling prices. The raw materials price index jumped 16 points to 26.3 after falling sharply to an 8-month low last month. Meanwhile, the finished goods price index declined from 8 to 5.6, reaching its lowest level in six months. Looking ahead, 41 percent of respondents anticipate further increases in raw materials prices over the next six months, while 30 percent expect higher finished goods prices. The wages and benefits index held fairly steady at 20.1. This index has been consistently elevated since December, suggesting six months of strong upward pressure on compensation costs.
Expectations regarding future business conditions were a little less optimistic in May. The index of future general business activity fell nearly 13 points to 11.8, while the index of future company outlook fell from 26.9 to 20. Indexes for future manufacturing moved down but remained in solid positive territory.
Source: Dallas Fed
Summary of all Federal Reserve Districts Manufacturing:
Richmond Fed (hyperlink to reports):
Kansas Fed (hyperlink to reports):
Dallas Fed (hyperlink to reports):
Philly Fed (hyperlink to reports):
/images/z philly fed1.PNG
New York Fed (hyperlink to reports):
Federal Reserve Industrial Production – Actual Data (hyperlink to report)
Holding this and other survey’s Econintersect follows accountable for their predictions, the following graph compares the hard data from Industrial Products manufacturing subindex (dark blue bar) and US Census manufacturing shipments (lighter blue bar) to the Dallas Fed survey (light blue bar).
Comparing Surveys to Hard Data
In the above graphic, hard data is the long bars, and surveys are the short bars. The arrows on the left side are the key to growth or contraction.

domain: news