Capping off a week in which coach Jake McNish won his 300th game, the Weehawken boys basketball team has officially jumped into the Jersey Journal Top 10.
The Indians (11-8) almost reached their breaking point in the middle of the season after suffering through a four-game losing streak, but ever since Marist transfer McKay LeDuke became eligible, there has been no stopping Weehawken.
With the junior in the lineup, the Indians have won their last seven games, including a victory over North Arlington (14-5).
Meanwhile, LeDuke’s old running mates at Marist (13-7) move up to No. 5 this week despite a loss to Hudson Catholic (18-2), ranked No. 7 in the Star-Ledger Top 20, on Tuesday.
The Royal Knights have fallen off as of late due to the absence of key players, but they put up a gutsy fight against the Hawks, who are on a 15-game winning streak.
On the other side of Bayonne, the Bees (14-7) fall to No. 6 this week after a 73-61 loss to Lincoln (11-9), which moves past Union City (10-9) to take over the No. 8 spot this week.
One other victory of note came courtesy of St. Peter’s Prep (20-2), which defeated St. Benedict’s (17-6), the state’s top ranked Prep team. With the triumph, the Marauders, ranked No. 8 in the Star-Ledger Top 20, improve their current winning streak to 15 games.
THE JERSEY JOURNAL BOYS BASKETBALL TOP 10
1. St. Anthony (14-4)
2. Hudson Catholic (18-2)
3. St. Peter’s Prep (20-2)
4. Snyder (13-5)
5. Marist (13-7)
6. Bayonne (14-7)
7. Memorial (14-8)
8. Lincoln (11-9)
9. Union City (10-9)
10. Weehawken (11-8)


text:
Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 contributes to endoplasmic reticulum stress induced podocyte apoptosis via promoting MEKK1 phosphorylation at Ser280 in diabetic nephropathy
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been reported to be associated with podocyte apoptosis in diabetic nephropathy, but the mechanism of ER signaling in podocyte apoptosis hasn't been fully understood. Our previous studies have demonstrated that Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) was associated with podocyte apoptosis in diabetic nephropathy. The present study was designed to examine whether and how Cdk5 activity plays a role in ER stress induced podocyte apoptosis in diabetic nephropathy. The results showed that along with induction of Cdk5 and apoptosis, GRP78 and its two sensors as well as CHOP and cleaved caspase-12 were induced in high glucose treated podocytes. These responses were attenuated by treated salubrinal. The ER stress inducer, tunicamycin, also up-regulated the kinase activity and protein expression of Cdk5 in podocytes accompanied with the increasing of GRP78. On the other hand, Cdk5 phosphorylates MEKK1 at Ser280 in tunicamycin treated podocytes, and together, they increase the JNK phosphorylation. Moreover, disruption of this pathway can decrease the podocyte apoptosis induced by tunicamycin. Therefore, our study proved that Cdk5 may play an important role in ER stress induced podocyte apoptosis through MEKK1/JNK pathway in diabetic nephropathy.
유료 다운로드의 경우 해당 사이트의 정책에 따라 신규 회원가입, 로그인, 유료 구매 등이 필요할 수 있습니다. 해당 사이트에서 발생하는 귀하의 모든 정보활동은 NDSL의 서비스 정책과 무관합니다.
원문복사신청을 하시면, 일부 해외 인쇄학술지의 경우 외국학술지지원센터(FRIC)에서
무료 원문복사 서비스를 제공합니다.
NDSL에서는 해당 원문을 복사서비스하고 있습니다. 위의 원문복사신청 또는 장바구니 담기를 통하여 원문복사서비스 이용이 가능합니다.
- 이 논문과 함께 출판된 논문 + 더보기

domain: biology


text:
This week’s Jentasmic! column at Studios Central features a bit of unsolicited advice for the management of Disney Parks. A tidbit, just for starters:
Beware the deep discounts. Park attendance is high at Disney Parks, but at what cost? The deep discounts on hotels are cutting into the profit margins, and it’s not clear whether Guest spending on food and souvenirs in such uncertain economic times can justify the erosion of that profit margin, or the long-term impact on Guest expectations for future deals. (One exception: The bonus 3-month extension for Annual Pass renewals is a smart way to reward some of the company’s most loyal customers, and should be continued.) Some would argue that without these deep discounts, Disney’s at risk for losing market share to other theme parks (especially Universal), but I’m not convinced.

domain: economics


text:
A look at history will reveal the story of misery, exploitation and oppression, barbarism, cruelty, rebellion and repression. A tiny minority have lived in luxury and splendour while the majority have struggled merely to subsist and survive.
The World Socialist Movement’s fundamental principles are the same in all lands, irrespective of nationality, colour, sex or age. The WSM recognises no national boundary lines. The place in which one lives embraces the working class of the world. Every worker everywhere is brother and sister. Across the borders of all lands, socialists clasp hands as comrades. The Socialist Party is the only party that honestly stands for economic justice. Socialism means that all those things upon which the people in common depend shall by the people in common be owned and administered; that all production shall be for use; that the making of goods for profit shall come to an end; that we shall all be workers together.
The campaign of the Socialist Party is and will be wholly educational. To arouse the consciousness of the workers to their economic interests as a class, to develop their capacity for clear thinking, to achieve their solidarity industrially and politically is to invest the working class with the inherent power it possesses to abolish the wage system and free itself from every form of servitude, and this is the mighty mission of the socialist movement. We shall not compromise, nor shall we be deflected in the least by any consideration from the straight road to the cooperative commonwealth.
The Socialist Party is the only party that does not want a vote that is not intelligently cast. No vote is wanted on account of the popularity or personality of a candidate.It is the value of the socialist principle that is taught and emphasised, and if this is not understood and approved the vote is not wanted. Mere dislike and disgust with other parties is not sufficient reason for voting for the Socialist Party. Principles are paramount and the personal qualities and qualifications of the candidates are the last and least consideration. Socialists are not seeking some mythical Moses to lead them to a fabled promised land, nor do they expect any so-called “great man” to sacrifice himself upon the altar of the country for their salvation. Socialists have determined to be their own leaders and to save themselves. They put their trust in principles, knowing that these will not betray them.
The Socialist Party addresses itself to the working class, seeking to develop the consciousness of that class, while it appeals to the ballot for the realisation of its cooperative commonwealth. It is the only party that is unequivocally committed to their economic interests, to the abolition of the wage system and the freedom of the worker from exploitation and every other species of servitude. One class is small and rich and the other large and poor. One consists of capitalists and the other of workers. These two classes are at war. Every day of truce is at the expense of labour. There can be no peace between these two essentially antagonistic economic classes. Nor can this class conflict be covered up or smoothed over.
The Socialist Party is the party of the workers, who are on the right side of this worldwide struggle, and, although a minority today, it contains all the elements of self-development and will expand to majority proportions to inaugurate the impending change as certain as the forces of industrial evolution is undermining the present system and making that change inevitable. The Socialist Party is the party of the present and of the immediate future. It believes that the competitive system has outlived its usefulness, that it has become an obstruction in the path of progress, that, like feudalism, from which it sprang, it must pass away to make room for its cooperative successor.
The Socialist Party stands for the abolition of the wage system, for the economic freedom as well as the political equality of the working class, knowing that without the former the latter is impossible. The Socialist Party stands for the common ownership of the means of wealth production and distribution and the operation of industry in the interest of all. The Socialist Party stands for the industry of the people, by the people and for the people, that wealth may be produced for the use of all instead of for the profit of a few. The Socialist Party stands for the full enjoyment of economic freedom, shall have the full opportunity, in the best possible environment, to develop the best there is in people for their own good as well as the good of society at large.

domain: sociology


text:
Nina Wills commented on the post, desk 7 years, 3 months ago
It was a lovely desk. A sturdy one, solid and best of all, it was white in color. “Perfect!” she thought and gleefully took out her credit card. She can already imagine the wonderful things she would write as she […]
Nina Wills commented on the post, entice 7 years, 3 months ago
Entice me with his smile
As I lose myself in his eyes
The black as dark as this moonless night
No light, no light
And I surrender my might
To the one who claims me tonight.
Her skin, smooth as silk
Her smile, enticing and bewitching
He is butter in her hands
Slipping through her fingers
Surrendering to his desires
Of flesh, blood and bone.
The cheese cake and the bread butter pudding enticed her like no other. Why must dessert entice her so? She seems helpless and completely hopeless, as her diet seems doomed yet again.
a division of Identity Crisis, Inc.

domain: artistic


text:
An Austrian student has been jailed for three years in an Egyptian jail in a retrial of accusations of spreading fake news.
Accused Ahmed Samir Santawy, 31, had been on a family visit to his homeland last year.
He was interrogated about his research on women’s abortion rights and Islam.
But he was seized and accused of spreading fake news on social media and joining a terrorist group.
Judges in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, sentenced Santawy to three years in prison on Monday, 4th July.
Amnesty International Austria said he had been found guilty of “spreading fake news on social media”.
Santawy, a postgraduate student of the Central European University in Vienna, was arrested during a family visit to his home country in February last year.
He was researching women’s rights and abortion rights, but the authorities claimed he was “joining a terrorist group” and “spreading false news”.
Days later, he was also accused of “funding a terrorist organisation”.
At the time, Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Ahmed Samir Santawy’s arrest and detention appear to be completely arbitrary and part of a pattern of punishing independent voices.”
Santawy was first convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in June last year. However, the conviction was quashed at the beginning of this year.
His latest conviction and sentencing, after months spent in custody, come at the end of his retrial.
Annemarie Schlack, general manager of Amnesty International Austria, said: “The whole process was a farce that dragged on for months. Today’s ruling puts a sad end to that.”
Amnesty has called for his immediate release.
And Shalini Randeria, rector of the Central European University, said: “Ahmed Samir Santawy is a political prisoner. He was in prison for exercising his right to freedom of opinion and expression, both as a scientist and as an individual.”
Rights groups say there are currently around 60,000 political prisoners languishing in overcrowded cells in Egyptian prisons.

domain: law


text:
Today, National Cabinet met virtually to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, Monkeypox (MPX), Foot and Mouth Disease and the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit.
Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly provided an update on the current COVID-19 situation, including the uptake of vaccine booster doses and COVID-19 treatments.
The Commonwealth, State and Territory leaders discussed the continuing impact of COVID-19 on health system capacity and that they would work together to plan and prepare for likely future waves of COVID-19.
First Ministers agreed to continue to work together to manage the response to Monkeypox, following an update from Professor Kelly on the emerging situation.
The Chief Medical Officer declared MPX a Communicable Disease of National Significance on 28 July following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (23 July).
Internationally, there have been ten MPX deaths reported this year.
First Ministers also discussed the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in Indonesia and work to ensure FMD preparedness in Australia.
The Commonwealth is providing a $14 million biosecurity package to bolster Australia’s frontline defence and provide more technical support for countries currently battling FMD and Lumpy Skin Disease.
Through this package, the Commonwealth continues to increase its biosecurity measures, including additional biosecurity officers, detector dogs, sanitation foot mats and increased messaging at airports.
First Ministers agreed to continue to work collaboratively on FMD preparedness to protect Australian livestock and businesses from the devastating impacts of this disease.
The Prime Minister also provided an update on the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit and National Cabinet discussed how states and territories would work together on priority issues for consideration at the Summit.
The National Cabinet remains committed to working together on national priorities and will continue to meet as necessary.

domain: news


text:
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak that emanated across the globe from Wuhan, China, the Chinese government has conducted a full-fledged disinformation campaign that includes failing to report the true number of its citizens infected with the virus. The number could be close to 2.9 million, according to a recent report from the American Enterprise Institute
“In early April,” Derek Scissors of AEI wrote in the report, “headlines read that the global figure for COVID-19 cases had breached one million. At the same time, China rejected charges by US intelligence and others that it has lied about the extent of its outbreak.”
Scissors’ report indicates that the “migrant outflow” of more than 5 million people from Wuhan in the weeks before the Chinese government instituted a citywide lockdown allowed the virus to circulate throughout the country. It’s estimated that 1.5-2 million of the people who left Wuhan, left Hubei province entirely at the time. Meanwhile, 465,000 flew to 10 listed cities outside of Hubei.
If the number was less than 5 million people and the infection rate was at 2.3 percent, which are conservative estimates, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases outside of Wuhan would’ve still surpassed what China reported, according to AEI’s report.
“How many cases China is failing to acknowledge is less a matter of the number of initially infected migrants than the days they were in circulation,” Scissors wrote.
After Wuhan closed its borders on January 23, there were already 27,000 cases of the virus from migrants who left Wuhan. Scissors concluded that after looking at the models from Italy and adjusting for China’s population size, the number of people infected with the coronavirus in the country is closer to 3 million. China, however, has reported just over 15,000 cases.
You may like
REPORT: China has vast network of covert police stations around the world
China has a vast network of covert police stations abroad, according to a recent report by Safeguard Defenders, an NGO that focuses on human rights violations in China and other Asian countries. These police stations serve consular functions, but are also used by China to crack down on what the CCP deems “illegal” activity of Chinese nationals abroad. The police stations include at least 38 run by the Fuzhou City police, and 22 run by the Qingtian City police. Cities housing these police stations include New York, Toronto (which has three stations), London (two), Paris (three), Buenos Aires, Rio De Janeiro, and Tokyo.
Key findings of the report are below.
“Persuaded to return”
According to China, China has “persuaded to return [to China]” 230,000 Chinese nationals living aboard from April 2021 to July 2022 alone to face charges of fraud and telecommunications fraud. A Yangxia police station set up in Mozambique, for example, persuaded a Chinese national to return to China after being accused of stealing money from his employer. Chinese authorities also put pressure on the accused family to convince the accused to surrender.
Roughly 54,000 Chinese nationals were persuaded to return from northern Myanmar alone, in the first nine months of 2021. In July 2022, the government of Wenchang City warned that its citizens living in northern Myanmar must check in with their local police stations or face multiple penalties including blocking their children from attending urban schools back in China. Similarly, in February 2022, the government of Liayang City stated that Chinese “illegally staying” in northern Myanmar must return or the bank accounts of their immediate family members could be frozen.
The Nine Forbidden Countries
China has claimed that nine countries contain serious levels of fraud and telecom fraud perpetrated by Chinese nationals. Since November 2021, China has declared that Chinese citizens living in these nine countries must return to China immediately unless they have an “emergency reason” or a “strict necessity” to travel or stay in those countries. Those countries are: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, the UAE, and Turkey. However, the report questions whether these countries are truly awash in such fraud, as most of China’s oversees police stations are in the West, and only one of the nine countries (Cambodia) has such a police station. Chinese staying in the nine forbidden countries, as well as threats to family members as stated above, creates a “guilt-by-association” atmosphere intended to repatriate the Chinese nationals.
According to the report, Chinese police stations abroad serve to bypass “bilateral extradition treaties or other mechanisms of judicial cooperation” to cooperate with CCP-linked NGOs which effectively “[sets] up an alternative policing and judicial system within third countries.” Instead of using international judicial cooperation, which establishes due process, the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial, China uses the above “persuade-to-return” methods and transnational police stations to circumvent international law and coerce Chinese nationals to return to China for trials. These policies show the power of China’s long-arm oppression over its own subjects.
You can follow Steve Postal on Twitter @HebraicMosaic
You may like
Nation3 days ago
MD nuclear scientist, wife, face life in prison after pleading guilty in nuclear secrets case
Immigration4 days ago
IG Audit shows nonprofit wasted $17 million taxpayer dollars on hotels to not house illegal foreign nationals
War on Drugs2 days ago
‘Mass poisoning:’ Officials seize 15,000 fentanyl pills disguised as candy
Immigration5 days ago
Texas has raised over $55 million from private donations to secure border, build a wall


text:
14. Jason Lowe
Jason Lowe is a photographer and videographer of food and culture all over the world. Lowe counts chefs Claudia Roden, Glennero Contaldo, and Fergus Henderson as clients. He has had his work published in many food and travel publications, including Bon Appetite, Food and Travel, and Saveur. Lowe has won two Glenfiddich awards for his beautiful work.

domain: food


text:
British scientists could be genetically modifying human embryos by March if regulators give the green light to the controversial technique.
On Thursday the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) meets to decide whether to give permission to the Francis Crick Institute to carry out landmark experiments to alter the DNA of leftover embryos from IVF clinics.
The team at Francis Crick want to deactivate genes in the embryos to see if it hinders development.
Currently around 50 per cent of fertilised eggs do not develop properly and experts believe that faulty genetic code could be responsible. If scientists knew which genes were crucial for healthy cell division, then they could screen out embryos where their DNA was not working properly, potentially preventing miscarriages and aiding fertility.
The initial pilot, which will also have to pass an ethics evaluation, will involve up to 30 embryos and the team would like to work on a further three genes, which could bring the total of to 120.
But lead scientist Dr Kathy Niakan said that the research could fundamentally change our understanding of human biology and give hope to prospective parents.
“We would really like to understand the genes that are needed for an embryo to develop into a healthy baby,” she told a briefing in central London.
“Miscarriage and infertility are extremely common but they are not very well understood. We believe that this research could improve our understanding of the very earliest stages of human life.
“The reason why I think this is so important is that most human embryos fail to reach the blastocyst stage. Over 50 per cent will fail so this window is absolutely critical.
“If we were to understand the genes, it could really help us improve infertility treatment and provide crucial insights into the causes of miscarriage.”
The team at Francis Crick are already in talks with fertility clinics across the country to use their spare embryos.
Currently it is not illegal to edit human embryos for research purposes although it has never been done before because they technology has not been available. When China announced it had carried out similar experiments last year there was a widespread outcry.
All cells in a human embryo have the same DNA code, but they divide into specialised cells depending on gene expression.
Between day five and seven of human development and embryo has around 200 cells of three different types. One set will go on to form the foetus , while another type becomes the placenta, and the third kind the yolk sac which nourishes growing baby. The aim of the new project is to find out what causes the cells to turn into different kinds, a process known as ‘lineage specification.’
The new genetic editing technique, called Crispr, acts like molecular scissors to snip out part of the DNA code so that scientists can see if it was needed.
Dr Niakan said: “If you imagine the genome as volumes in an encyclopaedia, at some point in the development some of the cells will start to read a different volume compared to its neighbour cell. One cell will read a volume slightly differently even though they have the same library.”
“Crispr is so efficient and precise that it can go inside a single volume, open up, a specific page, identify a single word, and alter a single letter,” added Prof Niakan.
The first gene that the team is planning to deactivate is OCT4, which in mice appears to be crucial for the healthy development of foetal cells.
However British scientists were among 150 experts who in November called for a worldwide ban on genetic editing of embryos claiming the practice could open the door to ‘irrevocably altering the human species.’
Dr Calum MacKellar, Director of Research of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics said: “Allowing the gene editing of embryos opens the road to genetically modifying all the descendants of a person as well as full blown eugenics which was condemned by all civilised societies after the Second World War.”
“It is the very future of the way in which societies accept persons with disabilities that is at play since such gene editing procedures infer that they should not have been brought into existence.”
Gene therapy has been available since the 1970s but it is only recently that scientists have developed technology which can snip out parts of genetic code
The technique could permanently remove harmful mutations which lead to inherited diseases like Huntingdon’s, cystic fibrosis and haemophilia, critics say it could have unexpected side effects any may damage healthy strands of DNA.
Alastair Kent of the Genetic Alliance said: "Infertility and miscarriage causes immense distress to countless millions of women and couples around the world.
"Understanding the process by which embryos develop may contribute valuable insights that will help identify causes of miscarriage and infertility and which may eventually lead to interventions which will improve the chances for women and couples undergoing assisted conception to have a healthy baby.
"The research proposed by the Crick Institute team will use spare embryos that will never be implanted. If not used in ethically approved research they will eventually be allowed to die. Women who donate their spare embryos for research know how it feels to be unable to have a child without help. In donating their embryos to research they are acknowledging the debt they owe to those who have gone before them and demonstrating their wish that those who will follow may be able to benefit as they have done.
"Surely we should acknowledge their altruism and share their wish to ease the path to parenthood for those who have yet to benefit by allowing the creation of new knowledge that will help solve currently intractable problems faced by millions around the world every day?"

domain: medical


text:
Winter is approaching and it's time to turn on the heat. Shen Tianxiang, a resident of Tianjin, China, is content that he will pay less for heating than before, since he now lives in an energy-efficient home.
Heating is vital to survive winter in northern China – where temperatures can plunge to -30 degrees Celsius. But most of the heating systems there are coal-fired, centralized, inefficient and have poor emission controls. Buildings also lack proper insulation.
To make things worse, there’s little incentive for people to cut their high energy use – the bills most people pay are dictated by the size of their apartment, not by how much energy they use.
On average, residential buildings in China use twice as much energy to heat as places in Europe or the United States where the temperature can be just as cold.
A project supported by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is helping bring change – to modernize heating systems and speed up energy efficiency in China’s urban homes.
Saving both energy and money
Shen Tianxiang lives in Tianjin’s Huasha Classic Community, a residential complex that is part of the Heat Reform and Building Energy Efficiency Project. These buildings demonstrate energy efficiency gains and cost savings in residential space heating.
The project, launched in 2005, aims to
- Improve enforcement of energy efficiency standards for buildings , as well as design and use of insulation and other energy-saving measures;
- Implement heat metering, cost-based pricing and consumption-based billing;
- Modernize heat supply systems so that residents can control when the heat is on.
“Since we adopted heat metering, I can save more than 2,000 yuan ($300) a year,” Shen says. “With insulated external walls, I only need to turn on one of the eight radiators around my apartment. In the past, when we didn’t have the control valve, we had to open the windows when it got too warm in the room. Now we save both energy and money.”
“In Huasha Classic community alone, last winter, about 60 percent of the residents paid lower heating fees than before the adoption of heat metering and other energy-saving measures. This shows that residents can get some real benefits from energy-efficient buildings,” says Tang Xiao, a project coordinator with the Tianjin Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission, which manages the project implementation in Tianjin.
The project has also motivated developers by covering a portion of the incremental costs associated with their energy efficiency innovations. Wang Jian, Vice President and Chief Engineer of Tianjin Huasha Construction & Development Company, says his company has gained good experience that can be used in future work.
“Participating in this project has also strengthened our company’s brand,” he says.
The benefits go beyond energy savings, he says. “This project also inspired us to explore resource-saving measures in a broader scope. For example, we built a water recycling system in this complex.”
Besides, the local government conducts wide-ranging public education campaigns on energy efficiency in residential buildings, which are partly supported by the project. Brochures on heat metering are handed to each household when they move in to a newly-built apartment building.


text:
It’s been 60 years since Julie Andrews transformed from a flower girl into a sophisticated woman in My Fair Lady. This year, two productions aimed to pay homage to the original, with a hat tip to later Broadway revivals and an appreciation of audience expectations today.
Last summer, a production ran in a small theatre in Dexter, Michigan, directed by the designer who had come to the United States from England in 1956 because of his fair lady. Tony Walton, engaged at the time to Andrews, his first wife, says he saw the show some 300 times on Broadway and London’s West End. “I used to have scary dreams that I would be asked to step in when Rex Harrison got sick. In those dreams, I would begin performing with confidence and then realize that I couldn’t remember a line or lyric. But now, 60 years later, I’ve discovered I can remember every word!” says the designer-director who had done some acting, too, in his youth.
Meanwhile, while Walton was in Michigan, Andrews was taking a turn as director and in rehearsal at the Sydney Opera House, where she assembled a design team with connections to the people who created the musical. Oliver Smith and Cecil Beaton are billed as the show’s scenic and costume designers, but they had a little help.
Rosaria Sinisi was Oliver Smith’s student at NYU and his assistant for five years from 1979. After his death in 1994, she was charged with handling his materials—renderings, color elevations, drafting, and more—for this and other shows. While the materials are now housed in DC, she made digital copies before sending them off and had all she needed to recreate the cueing of the movement of all scenic elements in relation to the script and score, as well as to assemble a comprehensive prop bible.
The 1976 revival, in the St. James Theatre, required a significant redesign for a space too shallow to accommodate double turntables. “Back then, Smith merged details of the 1956 design with what would be acceptable to the eye of an audience at the time,” Sinisi says. “He never would have put the 1956 version on the stage.”
When Sinisi assisted Smith for the 1981 Rex Harrison revival, the producers wanted to avoid changes in running plans and scenic transitions in a theatre with limited space for flying pieces that would intersect with the units on the turntables,so they bought an old set, disappointing Smith, who had wanted to update the design with its mostly painted architectural detail. They did allow Smith to rebuild Higgins’ study. “We added dimensional detail and built book spines, but the style of all the sets in that production wasn’t really harmonized,” Sinisi recalls. Fortunately, in 1981, Smith talked about what he would have done differently if he could, and that provided a roadmap for Sinisi in Sydney.
The initial design for the study featured a fireplace in the curve of the staircase at floor level and a wall rising above it, with the staircase coming down behind that chimney breast. “That was cut the first time Rex Harrison walked the set,” says Sinisi. “He objected to being hidden behind a four-foot wall for part of his descent from the balcony.”
Eliza Doolittle In Sydney
The producers in Sydney wanted to reproduce the original 1956 production, but since Sinisi knew Smith would have changed the design significantly, she added dimensional detail and tightened the painting style.
“I also opted not to use the 1956 version of the Flower Market, which featured a very exposed backdrop showing forced perspective corridors receding in perspective,” she says, explaining that a more realistic treatment would harmonize better with the added dimensional detail on set pieces. “So for that scene, we used Smith’s design for the 1976 revival at the St. James Theatre. This set has a curved, forced perspective brick wall with additional columns and is easier to dress convincingly with prop flower baskets. It also focuses more attention on the crowd scenes downstage.”
In 1981, Smith had hoped to elaborate on the Ascot Road drop. “The 1956 original was very Marcel Vertès-like in painting style, which didn’t correspond with the more realistic look we were striving for,” she says, adding that Andrews preferred showing stables and outbuildings behind Ascot, rather than the racing stands emphasized in the original. When Andrews questioned why the elegantly-dressed Mrs. Higgins arrived on foot, Sinisi added a car, something Smith also wanted in 1956, but it was cut. Associate scenic supervisor Naomi Berger, who had also worked for Oliver Smith, dug into the research and found that 1912, when the show is set, was the first year that cars were permitted at Ascot. Too little space for exits slowed transitions. “Those Ascot chorus people in their wide hats and sweeping costumes were running into prop tables and temporary dressing rooms,” says Sinisi.
In the new Sydney production, “the entire show had to be redrawn in metric, and in AutoCAD, per the requirements of Australian scene shops; every addition of dimensional detail had to be painstakingly crosschecked against the plans and sections to ensure that we weren’t creating pieces that would hang up in the flies or units whose chimneys or flippers would catch on side masking or borders during the transitions,” says Sinisi, crediting Steven Capone for the AutoCAD redrawing and metric conversion work.
Not difficult enough? Sinisi soon discovered there was no single scene shop in Australia capable of building and painting in the allotted time, so she worked with ten shops in 11 locations, scattered across the continent. “This required a very high level of coordination among shops, particularly with respect to painting style, as backdrops were, in some cases, painted in different cities from the corresponding sets,” she says. An Australian painting coordinator, Pip Runciman, ensured consistency.
Moreover, there wasn’t much scenic tech time before previews. “This affected the cueing of scenic transitions in particular, which is part of Smith’s original design and is very complex, involving the coordination of many separate elements.”
They browsed archival material at the Springer Opera House in Wisconsin, where Feder did some consulting work. Columbia University had some material, too. “Who knows how often these archives are visited? It was a treat,” says Michael Gottlieb.
They looked at the original design and other versions from the mid-‘60s as well as revivals on Broadway and road companies and began drawing the lighting to a contemporary Broadway standard. The set dictates where lights can go but,“if Abe had 18, we had 18,” says Gottlieb. Feder’s plot comprised strip lights, beam projectors, and 6'' and 8'' Lekos, some used as backlights, others for lighting painted drops. Richard Pilbrow substituted Chroma-Q Color Force LED strip lights, all with cyc or border optics, for the original incandescent fixtures.
“It would have been fun to reproduce what he did with the 500W Leko. In its day, it was radiant,” says Gottlieb, adding that they couldn’t have rented historical equipment if they had wanted to; it isn’t easily available.
Knowing they would have a tight tech schedule drove some choices. In two positions where Feder used PAR 64 strip lights as backlights, Pilbrow opted for Martin by Harman MAC TW1 tungsten wash fixtures that can deliver a color change like a three-color strip light.
Other equipment used in Sydney included Martin MAC Viper Performance Spots, GLP impression x4 fixtures, ETC Source Four Revolutions with shutters and rotating gobo modules, ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals and PARs, Robert Juliat Cyrano Followspots, mini-strips, MR16 birdies, and LJUS Design Dinkey LED spotlights. Dimming equipment included Jands HP12 Dimmers, City Theatrical WDS wireless transmitters and receivers, and AFCT 5-Channel PWM Dimmers. Effects gear includes Look Solutions Viper NT Fog Machines, Tiny Foggers, and Martin by Harman Jem Fans. Among the many scenic electrics elements were City Theatrical Incandescent Flicker Candles. The design team used Virtual Magic Sheet and Moving Light Assistant software. Feder couldn’t have dreamed of this.
Gottlieb notes that, while Smith designed the show to hang on 6'' hanging centers, in Sydney the grid had 200mm centers, just under 8'' centers. Adds Sinisi, “An additional problem is that the interior of that stage house is virtually landmarked, to the point where even adding pipe extensions can be forbidden. The problem with an 8''-centered grid is obviously that the positions of the pieces over the turntables are fixed, and splitting the difference between 8''-centered line sets suddenly gives you 4''-centered pipes, which can be anathema for additional built detail. Moreover, the theatre features several enormous immovable lighting trusses that don’t fall in ideal locations in relation to set pieces.”
To make matters worse, most Broadway houses are at least triple the height of the proscenium from the stage floor, but the grid in Sydney was only double, forcing lowering of borders and making it hard to achieve decent lighting positions, while masking the bottoms of drops and scenery in their out positions. Cutting scenery was not an option, and some 21st-century lighting instruments occupy more space than Lekos did in 1956, but Smith’s original plans allocated 18'' for each light pipe. “Richard Pilbrow and I engaged in lengthy real estate negotiations, exploring multiple plans and sections, in order to make sure that the set would both fit in the theatre and accommodate the needs of his lighting equipment,” Sinisi says. Abe Feder faced some of the same challenges, according to Gottlieb. “For example, the walls of the study set are not parallel to the proscenium arch or to any of the hanging drops, with a balcony and sweeping staircase that are very difficult to light,” he says. “Everything is blocked by something, but since it was solved to some satisfaction historically, you know it can be solved today.”
The two-week tech period was too brief, but Gottlieb says Pilbrow is very good at working quickly. Pilbrow and Gottlieb agree that the challenges of the house were mitigated by a wonderful crew and electrics team. Charlie Hall programmed the ETC Eos Ti Console with 8,000 channels. The production electrician and lighting supervisor in Australia was Hugh Hamilton. “This is a big musical by today’s standards, not just yesterday’s,” notes Gottlieb.
New Opportunities In Sound
Sound designer Michael Waters says everyone intended to honor the original production as faithfully as possible, but the microphones used 60 years ago were nothing like those used now, and he agrees today’s audiences have different expectation. So, although natural sound from stage and orchestra pit was important, Waters used some amplification in the Sydney Opera House, which wasn’t designed for musical theatre or even for opera.
Waters says he doesn’t like to ask audiences to lean in. “The audience pay good money to be entertained, and they shouldn’t have to work, so setting the vocals at a comfortable level is important to me,” he says. He designed a sound system that delivered crystal clear dialogue through to the back of the gods and orchestra reinforcement that sounded as natural and as unamplified as possible, while still riding orchestral dynamics. “Today’s audiences demand BluRay not just CD quality, but it was also paramount to not over-amplify and bash the audience’s ears, which can be very easy to do too.”
Andrews was excited when Waters suggested incorporating surround sound. “While the show is not heavily laden with sound effects or soundscapes, it did open up opportunities to have some fun with the show,” he says. “For example, the top of the show starts with a montage of 1912 London sounds, such as hansom cabs and horses moving about the streets, while people are leaving the theatre looking for taxis to go home. The motor car was new, so there’s a couple of motor taxis while prerecorded voices calling for taxis come from all around the theatre. Then there’s the Ascot scene and the horse race, which is a bit of fun, and Dover even makes a subtle cameo appearance.”
Waters was also careful to make sure audiences could hear dialogue over laughs, which meant micing actors: 40 cast mics, DPA 4061s on Shure UR1M packs. That made a digital console necessary, a DiGiCo SD10, running around 94 channels. “Another issue they would never have had in the old days was the effect hats have on cast mics,” he adds. “I need to have different EQs for so many different characters, due to hats. In some cases, I’ve double-mic’d some actors on shirts or blouses because the head mics can’t be used.” He didn’t use outboard effects or processing.
The production also features a 36-piece orchestra. Waters had a sound system by JPJ Audio, including L-Acoustics KIVA speakers (center cluster); L-Acoustics 112P (stalls, proscenium L-R); Meyer Sound MS2s (dress and gods, proscenium L-R); L-Acoustics 5XTs (delays and surrounds); L-Acoustics SB12s (subs); and an RF reverse radio speaker system for the gramophone and car sound effects. Additional gear includes a Figure 53 QLAB v3 sound effects kit and TC Electronic TC4000 on vocal and string reverbs.
Feathers And Flowers
John David Ridge assisted Cecil Beaton on the 1976 Broadway revival, and then stepped in for him in 1981 after his death. He says Andrews and Rex Harrison felt the costumes Beaton designed for the Cockneys in 1956 were cartoony, and when Beaton approached the show again in ‘76, he made them more realistic. Everything else stayed the same, then and now.
In 1980, they almost completely redesigned the Cockneys, making the contrast between the classes sharper than ever. Ridge went to the Museum of the City of London and found period photos. “I had a wonderful costume painter who made them look awful,” he recalls. “They looked as if they smelled as though they never took a bath,” he adds, noting that the poor of the period slept in their clothes to deal with the cold. As dramatic as the changes were to the designers, audiences didn’t notice. Ridge says The New York Times remarked on how much like the original it all was.
This year in Sydney, Ridge referred to the work Beaton had done in 1956 and particularly what he planned in 1980, and he used today’s fabrics, trying to come close to the look. “I was able to find nice polyesters for Ascot that didn’t exist 30 years ago. We saved some money on silk.”
What was most different this time? “The world has changed so much in 35 years,” Ridge reflects. Back then, one person in New York dyed feathers, did flowers, and embroidery. Now, he had to go to Florida for feathers and Los Angeles for hand embroidery, fortunately to artisans with whom he’s worked for years and who understood what he wanted. He could have gone to Paris for silk flowers but found someone in Australia, just a three-hour drive from Sydney.
Tony Walton In Michigan
Walton recalls how in awe he was of the creative team in 1956, and when invited to direct a 60th Anniversary revival of this musical classic, he saw his opportunity to create “a valentine” to them.
It would be impossible to reproduce the original at the Encore Musical Theatre, which has no wings, flies, or storage space, a small stage, and a smaller budget, but Walton found ways to evoke it and give it a modern feel. He travelled to London with his wife/assistant director Genevieve LeRoy Walton and visited the original scenic locations, too, to see what they looked like today.
Walton, who co-designed with Sarah Tanner as well as directed, recalled that Oliver Smith and Cecil Beaton frequently took their cues from line drawings in the original Penguin edition of Shaw’s Pygmalion that illustrated characters and their environments. These were drawn by Feliks Topolski, a close friend of Shaw’s and a leading artist of the day, so Walton framed the action with two large projection screens on either side of the stage and rear-projected Topolski-like images on them; these hinted at Oliver Smith’s original scenic designs for the settings. Coffer Contracting in Dexter, Michigan, builds home additions more often than shows, but when Jonathan Coffer helped out at the Encore in the past, he didn’t use steel. This time, large steel frames were required on which to permanently stretch the rear projection screens, and the black scrim covering them, taut. These were set diagonally at either side of a central staircase. “We had to be strategic when we built, so the frames didn’t get in the way of other parts of the set,” he says.
When lighting designer Robert Perry saw the space, he and Walton shared ideas of how they might incorporate a second story into the space, under which they could position the projectors. That way, iconic scenes could be suggested by projections stemming from each upstage corner under the upper level.
“We incorporated a little technology into an old musical, but it never felt overly technical,” says Perry. The theatre’s fixed lighting positions were a challenge. “If you need other positions, you have to get very creative,” he says, adding that he and Walton wanted the production to be lush and colorful. “We wanted faces to pop, and we wanted color from the front to give punch to costumes,” he says. For a musical this size, he would normally use followspots, but in this venue, they would have lit the actors at a very flat angle and washed out the projections; they would have hit the deck and bounced upstage. Instead, he used front specials to pick actors out of the scenes.
Perry found Walton detail-oriented with a keen sense of mood and location, as the two worked together, creating windows projected from lighting fixtures for Higgins’ study and a sense of opulence inside the Ascot tent before the race, placing the race itself on a bright, sunny day. “Tony wanted to know how the weather looked when the race began,” Perry says, adding that Walton also served as dramaturge. “Tony came to the table with binders filled with research,” he says, noting that this included notes from various productions of Pygmalion.
Perry tried using footlights but removed them to give choreographer Matthew Brennan enough space to work and ensure that nobody kicked out a light while dancing. When he looked at his equipment list a few weeks after the show went up, he was amazed by what it was possible to create with so little. “Every light in my plot was definitely working overtime for this show,” he says. He used seven ETC Source Four 36° ellipsoidals, 18 ETC Source Four Jr. Zooms, four Altman 6'' Fresnels, three PAR 38 floods, nine Geni Stage Wash LEDs, four Chauvet DJ SlimPAR 56 LED units, a Stage Ape LED PAR, an American DJ Mini-Fog machine, a fire pit special effect, and a couple of practicals, including a chandelier and table lamp in Higgins’ study.
Sound designer Chris Goosman says Walton wanted to integrate musical accents from the band into the soundscape. As far as the audience enhancement for the musical part went, they “tried not to go over the top with modern production technology,” he says. Although working in the intimate black box proscenium space required some ingenuity, the new and the original techniques merged successfully.
“When I first fitted Jess [Jessica Grové, who played Eliza], she had just had a baby and was nursing, and I was worried how much she would shrink by opening night,” says Yuka Silvera, who created all of Eliza’s costumes. She found the nursing mother’s radiant skin made her “look so beautiful in the white chiffon dress and the cream striped organza dress.” Silvera did much of her own sewing, sometimes building from patterns she found online and adapted, sometimes reworking clothes she bought or had. “I checked my closet,” she says.
Although there were just two Equity actors in the show, Grové and Daniel Gerroll, who Walton brought in from New York to appear as Higgins, others proved up to their roles and dazzled audiences with the help of costume designer Caitlin Graham and music director Tyler Driskill.
Perry, who went to Yale Drama with Encore’s founder and artistic director, Dan Cooney, was impressed with the theatre his classmate had opened in Michigan. “He went back to his local area and created this beautiful thing, this gem in the rough.”


text:
in your bag 0 items
A special thank to my Etsy BeadWeavers Team's colleague Lynn Davy, who helped me edit this article.
Have you ever heard of the Etsy BeadWeavers Team? Maybe you have heard of it once, but you're not sure where and when? Or perhaps you have no idea what Etsy is and what it stands for? Make yourself comfortable, I will tell you all you need to know.
Etsy was born on 18 January 2005. Its parents, Robert Kalin, Chris Maguair and Haim Schopic, have no idea why their little e-company got this name. Time passed, and the little private company with the funny name became one of the largest Internet-based portals for selling and buying handmade creations and the supplies to make them.
Moreover, it is currently considered the main alternative to eBay for selling handmade items. On Etsy you will find paintings, art prints, handmade postcards and fridge magnets, make-up, pre-made homepage banners, fabrics, yarn, clothes, and, of course, jewelry and accessories.
Anybody can open a store on Etsy and sell their unique creations. Shop-owners often form mutual support groups called Etsy Teams, based on the techniques and materials they are using in their creations, their common interests, or the geographic area they live in. One of these groups is the Etsy BeadWeavers Team, of which I am proud to be a member.
The group was founded in 2007 and it currently consists of more than 200 members. Who are those Etsy BeadWeavers? We are a group of free-spirited artists who use tiny seed beads to make their creations: jewelry, accessories, and even interior design. Most of the members live and work in the USA but we have EBW members spread all over the world.
Etsy BeadWeavers is quite a diverse bunch of personalities. Among our members you will find representatives of various ethnic and age groups, professions and religions. Despite being so different in our geographical locations and lifestyles, all of us are united by our passion for beading in any form - from traditional and folkloric to modern and experimental.
We have members with academic degrees in arts, as well as talented self-taught beading artists and many beginners. Just search for the EBW Team tag among the handmade items on Etsy and you will soon form an impression of what we stand for.
Our main focus as a group is on practical business help, including sales promotion by networking, marketing and raising awareness of beadweaving as an art, as well as artistic inspiration, instruction and encouragement.
The leader of the team is the chief Moderator, Marlaine Taylor. She is helped by a small team of volunteers whose tasks include maintaining the team's blog, organizing the mailing group, watching over copyright issues, registering new members, taking care of promotions and public relations, etc.
From the very beginning, we organized monthly challenges. Their aim is not only to promote EBW members and their products, but also to improve our imaginative skills and beadweaving techniques. Participation in challenges is also an excellent opportunity for beginners to try their luck in an open and highly competitive beading contest, as well as to obtain friendly and constructive criticism from more experienced fellow team members.
The winner of the challenge is determined by public voting, which takes place on our blog at etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com from the 9th to the 15th of every month. The winner each month is given the opportunity to choose the theme for the next challenge. We are always glad to receive your votes and comments. Every opinion is highly appreciated!
Being a member of the EBW Team is not only a pleasure and an honor; it also requires quite a bit of work. Unfortunately, many new members forget about the most important part of our activity – to help each other in promoting our businesses on Etsy and elsewhere. Maintaining a beadweaving blog is highly encouraged, as well as blogging about the team at least once a month.
Blogging and using other free marketing tools (via Facebook, Twitter, Internet beading forums, etc.) are time-consuming tasks; however, these are effective ways to draw public attention to the team and thus promote the Etsy shops of fellow team members.
Russian readers might be interested to find out that there are several ex-"Soviet" members in the Team. You are most likely familiar with work of Irina Zelickman and Maria Zhalnina. We also have several "celebrities" among us, beading award winners or beaders whose work appears on the pages of Bead & Button, Beadwork and other prominent beading magazines: Triz Tager, Smadar Grossman, Shirley Lim, Louisa Meece, and others.
So, you've got a shop on Etsy and are considering joining the EBW Team? You are welcome to visit our blog page and to fill in the registration form (you will find a widget on the right side of the page). The minimum requirement is that your shop must contain at least two unique beadwoven items at all times. Are you up to the challenge?
Welcome to Etsy BeadWeavers!
Links to my favorite Etsy stores:
|Miriam Shimon||Dini Alves||Sue Horine|
|Hannah Rosner||Maria Zhalnina||Irina Zelickman|
|Patrizia Tager||Shirley Lim||Louisa Meece|
|Smadar Grossman||Marlaine Taylor||Lynn Davy|
|Olga Pettersson, Uppsala, Sweden|


'The LG G2's display is very bright, and it's certainly very readable in bright daylight.'
'Text on the G2 looks incredibly sharp, and it makes for a really great viewing experience.'
'It's thin enough to fit into your pocket without too much fuss. .'
'The display remains cool to the touch.'
Advanced controls and preset modes are easy to use
Good value-for-money for a convergence device
10x zoom lens and dedicated camera controls
Good battery life, Decent web browsing
'The HTC Desire 601 is a phone that gets close to the sort of specs you’d get in a top-end One-series phone, but at a slightly lower price.'
'The viewing angles of this IPS LCD screen are also quite decent.'
'capable dual-core processor'
Want BoomSound and Zoes but without the expense?
Clear call quality, a decent 5-megapixel shooter
Exceptional call quality, Good fit and finish
Inexpensive given its feature set, Excellent battery life
Large and bright screen, Affordable, Lightweight and comfortable design
'All said, the display is actually of passable quality and offers an overall proper color reproduction, though there is a barely detectable cyan tint to it and viewing angles are just poor. '
Great bang for your hard-earned buck
Good performance, Low temperatures, Enhanced sound via DTS
Snappy performance of the quad-core MediaTek chip at a low price
Near-vanilla Android software
Good performance, Good battery life, Decent camera
Fast browsing speeds, Loud speakers
Wireless charging capabilities
Free with contract, Pleasing size
Low price, Solid performance
You won't get a top-tier display or camera, but it's a good value
Good design, 4G connectivity, Excellent value for money
LTE module, high contrast, good images
High pixel densitiy screen, over 250ppi
Large screen makes gaming and watching videos very comfortable
4G and microSD support, Large, bright screen
UI navigation is pretty smooth
Crisp or clear as many other smartphones
ReviewGist helps you find the best products to buy by making sense of online reviews.
We are currently aggregating 376,500 reviews
covering over 29,474 products.
© 2019 ReviewGist.com. All Rights Reserved.


100% Polyester polo with moisture wicking. Choice of weight: 160-180gsm. Pantone matched body, panels, piping and tipping. Also, choice of different panel and piping designs.
- Pantone matched body.
- 100% Polyester polo with moisture wicking.
|1 Colour Print (£):||14.62||12.18||10.82||9.86|
Note: Setup is charged at £15.00.


text:
Thursday, February 18, 2021 /
09:00AM / Oped by Nkemchor Omife* / Header Image Credit: NAICOM
COVID-19 has set an inconvenient code of evolution for many industries including the insurance business which has had to muscle through a season of rethinking, reimagining and restrategizing of its core purpose as companies in larger numbers falter and business mortality rates become top-of-the-mind considerations.
As the pandemic becomes a fact of daily existence Nigerians are beginning to accept the risk protection options that insurance offers in hedging against unforeseen circumstances. Policy covers like umbrellas can be pulled out at times of inclement social or economic conditions. This was used to a good advantage by some traders and enterprises when the recent EndSars protests in Lagos led to rampant looting and damaging of physical properties across the state.
Insurance companies unlike other services sell "promises" against events that are uncertain and unpredictable but need to be mitigated by people pooling resources together (by way of insurance premiums) to intervene in the replacement of goods or delivery of healthcare support if any member of the 'pool' requires help to bounce back from a social or economic loss.
Also, due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic and sundry social and economic dislocations that took place in 2020, there have been early warning signals sent to individuals and businesses about the importance of insurance and the need to cover business and personal risks by pooling insurance premiums together to reduce the adverse impact of unforeseeable tragedies on individuals or corporations. Indeed, COVID-19 flipped the risk protection light switch and accelerated insurance awareness across the globe, as people increasingly began to realize the importance of insurance cover at times of social, medical, and economic shocks.
From being a disruptive elephant in the room to serving as a patient dove providing peace of mind, insurers are gradually becoming central to the business and social decision-making processes at the heart of the 'new normal' shaping contemporary economies. Census shows that a lot of people in the last year due to economic meltdown and uncertainties died to fear, panic, and loss not necessarily diseases. Business owners can now take on certain business ventures and go to bed, because of the new "burden-bearer" thanks to insurance.
In instances where a key family member or business partner kicks the bucket, activities can go on without interruptions or disruptions with the insurance industry playing the "peacemaker" that ensures calm.
However, in recent times due to the realization of benefits gotten through insurance, insurance has now become a product that consumers are most likely to buy without the need for a big sales push. Therefore, with all eyes on insurance companies and financial institutions at large due to dust raised by losses and damages, insurance must concoct fresh strategies to constantly meeting the demands of customers.
What Insurance Companies Must Do
Insurance companies must become expert managers of the unexpected. The future of any insurance company is seen in their ability to fast track into the realities of the future, find out possible problems that may arise, and find viable solutions that will speak to the need of individuals and businesses before they become a reality in this present day.
Insurers, have to be quick thinkers and practical problem solvers in these present times. In the last few months thinking of what was termed normal saw an unprecedented shift in what felt like the future. The present future will require insurers to be far more than innovators but will require a more flexible approach that makes them managers of the unexpected.
In light of the new normal thrust, there will be a great restructuring of economic, business, commercial, social demands by individuals, and organisations. Insurance companies will have to draw up new mechanisms and operations to meet the demands of customers when in need. For the digital natives, such expertise from the insurance company has become unavoidable.
Also, Insurance companies must activate an effective communication system. As problems are different, so also are solutions. Insurers must adopt flexible approaches to meeting various needs rather than drawing up templates and pre-existing patterns of carrying out operations.
Insurers must be swift in communicating effectively with their customers, the need of consumers months ago will not be the same need for this present time as there is a dramatic shift in demands both commercial, social, and business.
The "new normal" as it is being termed has reshaped how we live, work, and use technology. Insurers have to reinvent themselves based on these shifts to have any chance of surviving these present-day and times. Insurers will have to be more precise and accurate to function maximally and this will only be achieved through quality and effective communication. It would be pleasing to know that insurance firms are already thinking in this direction.
There must be a priority in providing a digital experience. Insurance companies over the past few years have proposed models that tend towards digitalizing the process. Most insurance companies have been considering a massive digital reorganisation. Each passing day, a large trunk of consumers are moving online, this has led to insurers playing catch up and investing vehemently in digital transformation dynamism.
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened this process as more and more customers adopt digital, forcing most insurance companies to fast-track their existing business and operating models. Insurers as well as other businesses have experienced periods of downtime due to carrying out operations that excluded digitalisation.
A major limitation that arose during these times involves the transactions related to insurance that slowed down for insurance enterprises while working remotely. A significant fall can be seen in the delivery of hard copy documents. Most insurers over the years have relied remotely on courier services for the delivery of hard copy documents and during the lockdown experienced a rude shock as courier services did not escape being grounded during the lockdown by the government, except in cases of delivering essential services.
This simply points a finger to the fact that Nigeria and the world at large wouldn't experience speedy growth except for the expansion of technology is being considered.
A new dawn is imminent if digitalisation is embraced to sustain and provide faster solutions that will appeal to and cater to the insurance needs of the customers. This new move towards an increase in digital adoption could lead to a permanent shift in consumer behaviour and penetration of insurance.
Finally, with so many fingers and eyes fixed on insurers with the birth of the supermoon across the world, insurers will have to keep thinking, innovating, and devising methods and technologies that will help them survive these times as any laxity and complacency might sink the boat of the entire insurance industry if not properly managed.
*Nkemchor Omife is a public relations expert with an interest in strategic corporate communications.

domain: finance


In an effort to meet the language learning needs of refugees and immigrants in the Des Moines area, students at Drake University have partnered with the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in a service-learning project.
During the spring semester, students in the School of Education’s English as a Second Language (ESL) Methods course developed a series of 14 English lessons on topics provided by Amy Campos, director of USCRI. Lessons include general curriculum materials, guidance for volunteer teachers who will be teaching the lessons, and federal assessments of the programs.
“This collaborative project has required Drake students to go above and beyond in their work to learn the art of developing ESL lessons and assessments,” says ESL Methods instructor Shelley Fairbairn. “This project’s authenticity has deepened their learning and has allowed them to make a valuable contribution to one of Des Moines’ two refugee resettlement agencies.”
The Drake students will present their lesson plans to Campos as part of a special celebration held on Monday, May 13. The event begins at 7:15 p.m., and will be held at the School of Education building, Room 214, 3206 University Avenue.
For more information, contact Shelley Fairbairn at 515-271-1954 or email@example.com.


text:
Torbeg is situated in the village of Drumbeg,14 miles North of Lochinver. A recently refurbished traditional stone built cottage with spectacular sea and mountain views. It is a short walk to a well stocked shop and cafe. Torbeg sleeps 4, one double and 2 single bedrooms, it has a well equipped kitchen with dining area, shower room, cosy lounge and enclosed garden with seating areas. Dogs welcome. Torbeg provides an excellent base from which to explore the imposing mountains and rugged coasts of Assynt.
Badnaban is a small crofting township located near the picturesque fishing village of Lochinver, in the far North West Highlands of Scotland, an area renowned for its stunning scenery. This large, spacious, and very well appointed self catering cottage is set in a secluded spot with a lovely private feel and is ideal to get away from it all and relax in the peace and quiet of the Highlands. Alternatively it can also be used as a base to explore the exceptional beauty of the nearby surroundings and beyond.
Bruaich Rainich, Gaelic for Bracken Brae, is a traditional crofters family home. Built from local stone during 1923 by the Grandfather of the current owner. Set in a peaceful hollow beneath the hills in the village of Polbain near Achiltibuie, every window provides stunning views of Tanera island, Loch Broom and the Torridon Mountains beyond.
The house is spacious, sunny and comfortable. The original timber panelling and period furniture retain the Highland charm of days gone by, while furnishings and modern kitchen provide creature comforts unheard of when the house was built.
Situated by Culkein Bay beach with spectacular sea and mountain views, Seafield is a beautifully restored, traditional Highland Croft House dating from the 1880s. Offering peace and tranquillity, Seafield creates the perfect base for family and friends and is ideally placed for enjoying all this beautiful area has to offer. Comfortably accommodating up to 6 guests in 3 bedrooms, this delightful cottage is full of character and charm with flagstone flooring, exposed stonework, beamed ceilings and old-school style radiators.
Coillessan Lodge, located in Inverkirkaig, approximately 3 miles from the beautiful fishing village of Lochinver and a 2 minute walk from lovely pebbled Inverkirkaig Bay. Nearby is Achins Bookshop and the walk to Kirkaig Falls.
Coillessan has 2 bedrooms and sleeps 4. Bathroom with bath and shower and a well equipped kitchen. Telephone and Wi-Fi. Upstairs living and dining area complete with HD TV, Freesat and DVD, dining table and French doors leading onto a covered balcony, the ideal place to view the lovely scenery or watch the local wildlife.
Quality chalets set amongst magnificent scenery, with coastal sea and mountain views. A choice of properties from a luxury 1 bedroom chalet with whirlpool spa bath or a quality 2 bedroom chalet, sleeping 4 persons. Each chalet has its own balcony with garden furniture. We also have a 2 bedroom cottage with Jacuzzi bath and stunning views over the bay/harbour. Very well appointed, fully equipped with all modern conveniences, making this an ideal 'home from home'. Open all year.
20 yards from the shore of Loch Kirkaig - fully refurbished in a tasteful blend of traditional and contemporary style.
Large sunroom overlooking the bay (with glorious sunsets) with dining and seating areas and high end hifi. Separate lounge with log burner, 55” freeview tv, blue ray and high end hifi. Dining kitchen with all new appliances and large dining table. 3 double bedrooms.Two bathrooms. Large exotic garden with outdoor eating/seating areas and stream running to bay. Lochinver (shops, pubs, restaurants) 2.5 miles. Ideal base for exploring,walking, cycling, boating etc.
Achard, Gaelic for high field, has extensive views over the spectacular scenery of this part of the west coast of Scotland. The cottage comfortably sleeps 6 in 3 bedrooms (1 en-suite) and has a large, well equipped, kitchen-diner and a utility room. The spacious lounge has panoramic views, cosy open fire, and Freeview TV.
Situated 10 miles north of Lochinver, on the Stoer peninsula, Achard is perfect for visiting Handa Island, the Old Man of Stoer, Smoo Cave, Sandwood Bay and touring the area. Plenty of walks, beaches and wildlife on the doorstep - Achard makes a great base for a relaxing holiday.
Beautiful 3 bed 2 bathroom cottage set in around half acre woodland garden on the Stoer peninsula. Close to fabulous beaches just off the NC500. Sleeps 6 comfortably in the 3 bedrooms. Stylishly furnished throughout with wood burning stove and featuring a second sitting room which adjoins the ground floor en-suite bedroom. No smoking throughout. Within a mile of Balchladich beach, 2 miles from Clachtoll beach and broch and 3 miles from Stoer lighthouse. A fabulous base from which to explore the stunning area.
Strathcraig is a traditional Highland crofter's cottage in spectacular Assynt scenery, just 2 miles from the village of Lochinver. Set in a croft where you can see red deer, roam the woods, fish from the rocks, look out for the local wildlife. On the ground floor there is a cosy sitting room, a lovely dining room with a wood-lined fitted kitchen off, and a bathroom with shower. Bedrooms are upstairs and comprise one double, one twin and a small single. There's ample room in the porch for boots, coats, etc.
Badagyle Cottage faces South East across Loch Badagyle to Ben Mor Coigach and three miles from the bottom of Stac Polly footpath. This cosy cottage has an oil Rayburn with drying pulley, a multi fuel stove and double glazed throughout. Stunning location in a National Scenic Area, Geopark and Special Area of Conservation. 5 miles to Achiltibuie, 17 miles to Ullapool. Well equipped kitchen. Freeview TV/DVD.
Bright, beautifully presented chalets on the coastline, overlooking the beautiful Summer Isles, with wi-fi and decking to enjoy the amazing scenery, sunsets, and to spot the wildlife on land and sea. A warm welcome, fantastic views from your sofa, and only a five minute walk from the family friendly bar which serves superb local seafood. Open all year, pets welcome, short breaks available at certain times of the year (2 nights minimum booking).
Lots of local walks to enjoy for all levels of walkers, and of course spectacular mountains to conquer!
Situated high above Maiden Loch, Comraich is totally private, nestled in the landscape and surrounded by its wild garden. Short walk to Clachtoll Beach, 5 miles from Lochinver with shops, pubs & restaurants. A floor to ceiling window takes full advantage of the fabulous views over the loch to the sea and to Suilven and the Assynt mountains beyond.
The perfect base for walking, photography, fishing, wildlife watching, or just relaxing. Our comfortable, bright, well equipped cottage has 3 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, shower room, 2 utility rooms & living room.
A lovely highland holiday cottage situated amidst the mountains, lochs and rivers of Assynt in north-west Sutherland – Just 2 miles from the beautiful village of Lochinver. Escape to the breathtaking beauty and enjoy the peace and tranquility of this highland cottage. We know you won’t forget it!
Cala is an exceptional home, nestled in nature, with dramatic views of Loch Nedd and the magnificent Quinag mountain. Designed to blend in with the untamed, rugged landscape of Assynt yet provide a warm and comfortable sheltered haven.
The simple yet striking exterior is mirrored in the simple clean lines and functionality of the interior. The open plan living area and master bedroom enjoy breathtaking views. Large windows and skylights flood the building with light. Wood burner, central heating, well equipped kitchen, outside deck for al fresco breakfasts.
Balsfjord log cabin is situated on the north side of Inverkirkaig bay, overlooking the sea, three miles south of Lochinver. The local area contains some of the most beautiful scenery in Britain, dominated by steep, spectacular mountains, tranquil lochs and magnificent seascapes. There are fantastic opportunities for walking, bird watching, trout fishing on the many local lochs and salmon fishing on the rivers Inver & Kirkaig. Sleeps four people, strictly no pets please.
This beautiful newly built ground floor home comfortably sleeps up to eight and is dog and child friendly. Situated in a 600 acre estate in the beautiful and wild northern area of Assynt, with spectacular views over Lochan Fearna onto the majestic mountains of Canisp and Quinag.
Spacious lounge, well equipped kitchen, utility room, four bedrooms (2 ensuite), family bathroom, natural garden with patio. Small shop, bar and cafe in Drumbeg three miles away north, Lochinver 10 miles. The unspoilt beaches, mountains, lochs, hills and glens never fail to impress.
Hillhead Self-Catering holidays by beautiful Achmelvich Beach, with it's safe clean white shell sands, a very popular area for walking, climbing, wild-life in abundance, fauna, swimming, sailing, surfing, fishing, and of course - relaxing in our clean clear air. Our Caravans are modern and very clean and well equipped. Near Lochinver village with numerous eating places, two small supermarkets, butchers, newsagents, chandlery, Doctors surgery, leisure centre, harbour slip, fuel station, post office, police station. We Celebrated our 50th year in 2015.
Unst chalet is situated in the corner of Inverkirkaig bay, set in the county of Sutherland, a lovely and unspoilt part of the Scottish highlands. The Chalet is about 20 metres from the waters edge. Just outside of the chalet, there is a picnic bench set on a vantage point overlooking the bay, where you can dine alfresco at any time of day. Taking breakfast outside, accompanied by the sights and sounds of the bay, is a fine way to set you up for the day and leave behind the cares and worries of everyday life
Unique prime waterside location in Lochinver Bay, with breath taking views of spectacular mountain range, 10 minutes walk from Lochinver village and shops. Luxurious accommodation with every modern home comfort available, recently added for extra luxury are outdoor hot tubs in all properties, perfect for relaxing after spending your day walking, climbing or fishing.
Local family run, with a high standard of cleanliness.
Situated in a peaceful croft location under 2 miles south of the village of Lochinver, this is a perfect base for your holiday in Assynt - easy access to walks, beaches, fishing & local amenities. This well appointed croft house has been renovated to a high standard and has a fully equipped kitchen. It sleeps 4 (1 double + 1 twin bedroom - bedlinen supplied) and oil central heating / electricity, free WiFi, and evening, weekend local / national calls are all included.
A wonderful self catering holiday lodge, set in the hillside of Baddidarroch, overlooking the small fishing village of Lochinver that sleeps up to 6 guests in perfect luxury.
Waterloo House has a spacious and sociable open plan living area with well-equipped kitchen, TV, WiFi, stargazing equipment, wood burning stove and picturesque views across the water. 3 ensuite bedrooms, underfloor heating, outdoor hot tub with outstanding views, two balconies, private garden with BBQ. Watersports and fishing on the loch, many cycle routes and walks in the area.
Rhuntotan cottage sleeps two people, all pets are welcome including horses (max two). Minimum stay 3 nights. Walk over the moors behind the cottage to the beach. Parking in front of the cottage. Quiet location.
Located 300m from the sea, with stunning panoramic views of the coastal and mountain scenery of Assynt, Meall Dubh is an ideal location for walking and enjoying the local beaches. Meall Dubh is a traditional stone built croft cottage, recently renovated to modern standards and has all modern amenities, including broadband internet. With 2 log burners and plenty of heating, the cottage is a really cosy and comfortable place to stay in any season or weather.
Located two miles south east of Drumbeg, the single storey accommodation is comfortable and well equipped and includes two bedrooms, a fitted kitchen, dining room and sitting room with multi-fuel stoves, and a large lean-to play area for the children for rainy days. The pretty orchard garden is a wonderfully peaceful place to spend the evening, dining or simply relaxing.
Hilltop is a lovely single-storey, detached cottage situated in the rural, friendly community of Clachtoll, six miles from the fishing port of Lochinver in the Scottish Highlands. This cottage sleeps four people in two bedrooms, consisting of one double and one twin, as well as a bathroom. The cottage also has a kitchen with dining area and a sitting room with woodburning stove. Outside there's ample off road parking and an enclosed lawned garden. Hilltop is a lovely cottage that's in an get away from it all location.
Canisp is a cosy, comfortably-furnished, modern bungalow 3 mls south of Lochinver, on its own 5 acre croft near Badnaban Bay. It has uninterrupted sea views and is an ideal base for exploring the unique scenery of Assynt and NW Sutherland. Open all year, Canisp is a perfect place to stay in any season or weather: ideal for walkers, photographers, anglers, bird and wildlife enthusiasts or those wishing to relax. Canisp offers dramatic sunsets, starry night skies and an opportunity for reflection.
Book early and save! Book longer and save!
Two individual one bedroom, bespoke micro-houses surrounded by stunning scenery. Each has a lounge / fully equipped kitchen, floor to ceiling windows, wood burning stove, separate cosy double bedroom (Lazybed is king-size or twin on request, Batbox is a standard double), bathroom with a walk-in shower and underfloor heating, toilet and hand basin. Both have a generous deck and wonderful views to the tranquil sea loch of Inverkirkaig and remote Rubha na Breige peninsula. 3 night minimum stay. Open year round. Wi-Fi on site. See enquiries page for rates.
Sitting high on the hill above Eddrachillis Bay, Buailard's sitting room overlooks some of the most spectacular and breataking wilderness scenery in Europe. Guests have been known to while away an entire day watching the unfolding drama of the mountains, sea and weather.
The comfortable living/dining room looks right out across the bay to Handa Island, there is a cosy den, well equipped kitchen, three bedrooms, and garden. Comfortably furnished, warm and well equipped, Buailard is open all year.
The Ben is a one storey detached cottage positioned over the waters of Loch Broom, across from the picturesque town of Ullapool. It boasts two bedrooms; a king-size double and a single with a pull-out trundle bed, sleeping up to four guests altogether. Inside also comprises an open-plan living room with a kitchen, dining area and sitting area with an electric fire. To its exterior is ample off-road parking and views out across the stunning Loch Broom.

domain: geography


text:
Parabens are a class of widely used preservatives in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. Chemically, they are a series of parahydroxybenzoates or esters of parahydroxybenzoic acid (also known as 4-hydroxybenzoic acid). Parabens are effective preservatives in many types of formulas. These compounds, and their salts, are used primarily for their bactericidal and fungicidal properties. They can be found in shampoos, commercial moisturizers, shaving gels, personal lubricants, topical/parenteral pharmaceuticals, spray tanning solution, makeup, and toothpaste. They are also used as food additives.
Their efficacy as preservatives, in combination with their low cost, the long history of their use, and the inefficacy of some natural alternatives like grapefruit seed extract (GSE), probably explains why parabens are so commonplace. No effective direct links between parabens and cancer have been established.
Mode of Action
Parabens are active against a broad spectrum of microorganisms. However, their antibacterial mode of action is not well understood. They are thought to act by disrupting membrane transport processes or by inhibiting synthesis of DNA and RNA or of some key enzymes, such as ATPases and phosphotransferases, in some bacterial species. Propylparaben is considered more active against most bacteria than methylparaben. The stronger antibacterial action of propylparaben may be due to its greater solubility in the bacterial membrane, which may allow it to reach cytoplasmic targets in greater concentrations. However, since a majority of the studies on the mechanism of action of parabens suggest that their antibacterial action is linked to the membrane, it is possible that its greater lipid solubility disrupts the lipid bilayer, thereby interfering with bacterial membrane transport processes and perhaps causing the leakage of intracellular constituents.
Parabens are esters of para-hydroxybenzoic acid, from which the name is derived. Common parabens include methylparaben (E number E218), ethylparaben (E214), propylparaben (E216), butylparaben and heptylparaben (E209). Less common parabens include isobutylparaben, isopropylparaben, benzylparaben and their sodium salts. The general chemical structure of a paraben is shown at the top right of this page, where R symbolizes an alkyl group such as methyl, ethyl, propyl or butyl.
All commercially used parabens are synthetically produced, although some are identical to those found in nature. They are produced by the esterification of para-hydroxybenzoic acid with the appropriate alcohol, such as methanol, ethanol, or n-propanol. para-Hydroxybenzoic acid is in turn produced industrially from a modification of the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction, using potassium phenoxide and carbon dioxide.
Most of the available paraben toxicity data are from single-exposure studies, meaning one type of paraben in one type of product. According to paraben research this is relatively safe, posing only a negligible risk to the endocrine system. However, since many types of parabens in many types of products are used commonly, further assessment of the additive and cumulative risk of multiple paraben exposure from daily use of multiple cosmetic and/or personal care products is needed.
In individuals with normal skin, parabens are, for the most part, non-irritating and non-sensitizing. Parabens can, however, cause skin irritation and contact dermatitis and rosacea in individuals with paraben allergies, a small percentage of the general population.
There is no evidence that application of consumer products containing parabens cause cancer. Investigations by the American Cancer Society and FDA found that current levels of parabens in consumer products were not dangerous. A 2005 review concluded "it is biologically implausible that parabens could increase the risk of any estrogen-mediated endpoint, including effects on the male reproductive tract or breast cancer" and that "worst-case daily exposure to parabens would present substantially less risk relative to exposure to naturally occurring endocrine active chemicals in the diet such as the phytoestrogen daidzein."
Animal experiments have shown that parabens have weak estrogenic activity, acting as xenoestrogens. In an in vivo study, the effect of butylparaben was determined to be approximately 100,000 times weaker than that of estradiol, and was only observed at a dose level approximately 25,000 times higher than the level typically used to preserve products. The study also found that the in vivo estrogenic activity of parabens is reduced by about three orders of magnitude compared to in vitro activity.
The estrogenic activity of parabens increases with the length of the alkyl group. It is believed that propylparaben is estrogenic to a certain degree as well, though this is expected to be less than butylparaben by virtue of its less lipophilic nature. Since it can be concluded that the estrogenic activity of butylparaben is negligible under normal use, the same should be concluded for shorter analogs.
Studies indicate that methylparaben applied on the skin may react with UVB leading to increased skin aging and DNA damage.
The European Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) stated in 2006 that the available data on parabens do not enable a decisive response to the question of whether propyl, butyl and isobutyl paraben can be safely used in cosmetic products at individual concentrations up to 0.4%, which is the allowed limit in the EU.
The mainstream cosmetic industry believes that parabens, like most cosmetic ingredients, are safe based on their long-term use and safety record and recent scientific studies. Public interest organizations which raise awareness about cosmetic ingredients believe that further research is necessary to determine the safety of parabens, under the precautionary principle. The concerns about endocrine disruptors have led consumers and companies to search for paraben-free alternatives. Grapefruit seed extract is promoted as a natural preservative, but in a study, five out of six commercial products tested were found to contain artificial preservatives such as methylparaben and benzethonium chloride. A common alternative has been phenoxyethanol, but this has its own risks and has led to an FDA warning on inclusion in nipple creams.
- Nutrition, Center for Food Safety and Applied. "Ingredients - Parabens in Cosmetics". www.fda.gov. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
- von Woedtke T, Schlüter B, Pflegel P, Lindequist U, Jülich WD (1999). "Aspects of the antimicrobial efficacy of grapefruit seed extract and its relation to preservative substances contained". Die Pharmazie. 54 (6): 452–6. PMID 10399191.
- Golden R, Gandy J, Vollmer G (2005). "A review of the endocrine activity of parabens and implications for potential risks to human health". Critical Reviews in Toxicology. 35 (5): 435–58. doi:10.1080/10408440490920104. PMID 16097138.
- Freese, E; Sheu, CW; Galliers, E (2 February 1973). "Function of lipophilic acids as antimicrobial food additives.". Nature. 241 (5388): 321–5. doi:10.1038/241321a0. PMID 4633553.
- Nes, IF; Eklund, T (April 1983). "The effect of parabens on DNA, RNA and protein synthesis in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis.". The Journal of applied bacteriology. 54 (2): 237–42. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.1983.tb02612.x. PMID 6189812.
- Ma, Y; Marquis, RE (November 1996). "Irreversible paraben inhibition of glycolysis by Streptococcus mutans GS-5.". Letters in applied microbiology. 23 (5): 329–33. doi:10.1111/j.1472-765x.1996.tb00201.x. PMID 8987716.
- Valkova N, Lépine F, Villemur R (2001). "Hydrolysis of 4-Hydroxybenzoic Acid Esters (Parabens) and Their Aerobic Transformation into Phenol by the Resistant Enterobacter cloacae Strain EM". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 67 (6): 2404–09. doi:10.1128/AEM.67.6.2404-2409.2001. PMC 92888. PMID 11375144.
- "Parabens: A Review of Epidemiology, Structure, Allergenicity, and Hormonal Properties". Medscape. Retrieved Feb 29, 2016.
- Karpuzoglu E, Holladay SD, Gogal RM (2013). "Parabens: potential impact of low-affinity estrogen receptor binding chemicals on human health". Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part B, Critical Reviews. 16 (5): 321–35. doi:10.1080/10937404.2013.809252. PMID 23909435.
- Nagel JE, Fuscaldo JT, Fireman P (1977). "Paraben allergy". JAMA. 237 (15): 1594–5. doi:10.1001/jama.237.15.1594. PMID 576658.
- "Parabens in Breast Tissue not Limited to Women who Have Used Underarm Products". Wiley. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- "Parabens". U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- The American Cancer Society Antiperspirants and Breast Cancer Risk
- Byford JR, Shaw LE, Drew MG, Pope GS, Sauer MJ, Darbre PD (January 2002). "Oestrogenic activity of parabens in MCF7 human breast cancer cells". J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 80 (1): 49–60. doi:10.1016/S0960-0760(01)00174-1. PMID 11867263.
- Edwin J. Routledge; et al. (1998). "Some alkyl hydroxy benzoate preservatives (parabens) are estrogenic". Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. 153 (1): 12–19. doi:10.1006/taap.1998.8544. PMID 9875295.
- Cashman AL, Warshaw EM (2005). "Parabens: a review of epidemiology, structure, allergenicity, and hormonal properties". Dermatitis. 16 (2): 57–66; quiz 55–6. doi:10.1097/01206501-200506000-00001. PMID 16036114.
- Handa O, Kokura S, Adachi S, Takagi T, Naito Y, Tanigawa T, Yoshida N, Yoshikawa T (2006). "Methylparaben potentiates UV-induced damage of skin keratinocytes". Toxicology. 227 (1-2): 62–72. doi:10.1016/j.tox.2006.07.018. PMID 16938376.
- Okamoto Y, Hayashi T, Matsunami S, Ueda K, Kojima N (2008). "Combined activation of methyl paraben by light irradiation and esterase metabolism toward oxidative DNA damage". Chemical Research in Toxicology. 21 (8): 1594–9. doi:10.1021/tx800066u. PMID 18656963.
- SCCP: Opinion on Parabens. Colipa No P82 10 Oct 2006.
- Harvey PW, Everett DJ (2004). "Significance of the detection of esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (parabens) in human breast tumours". Journal of Applied Toxicology. 24 (1): 1–4. doi:10.1002/jat.957. PMID 14745840.
- Rita Arditti (June 9, 2004). "Cosmetics, parabens, and breast cancer". Organic Consumers Association.
- "The truth about antiperspirants and breast cancer". Unilever.
- "Underarm Hygiene Does Not Cause Breast Cancer". ChemistryViews.
- Lebovits SC (May 26, 2008). "Cosmetics firms heed calls for organics". The Boston Globe.
- Commissioner, Office of the. "2008 - FDA Warns Consumers Against Using Mommy's Bliss Nipple Cream". www.fda.gov. Retrieved 2015-10-31.


text:
On Thursday, India successfully launched its third navigation satellite IRNSS 1C on board ISRO’s PSLV C26 rocket, to provide accurate position information service to users in the country as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary. Twenty minutes after the launch, the 1,425.4 kg weighing satellite was placed on the intended orbit by the launch vehicle.
Sriharikota(AP) : PSLV-C26 successfully injectected the navigation satellite IRNSS 1C into the designated orbit pic.twitter.com/jD0TFhUX0L
— ANI (@ANI_news) October 16, 2014
The navigation satellite is expected to provide two types of services- Standard Positioning Service, which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service, which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users.
In July last year, India had launched IRNSS 1A satellite while, IRNSS 1B was released in April this year. IRNSS includes different types of applications like terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, navigation aide for hikers and travellers, visual and voice navigation for drivers.
India began its space journey in 1975 with the launch of “Aryabhatta” using a Russian rocket and till date, it has completed over 100 space missions including missions to the Moon and Mars.


text:
Hidden Gem Alert-The Whiffle Tree Candle Shop and Artisan's Marketplace
It's a Fall ritual for me to make a trip up to The Whiffle Tree Candle Shop in Billerica, MA. I try to time my visit when foliage is at it's peak as the property is surrounded by trees.
Nature lovers would enjoy this spot. There's a variety of trees, wildlife running around and a peaceful stillness. It's like stepping back to simpler times.
The leaves crunched beneath my feet as I toured the property on an exceptionally warm Fall day.
Foliage has been delayed by our warm temperatures in New England so I didn't see peak color on this weekend. It was still gorgeous.
I made a little video too which you can view on my Facebook page.
I think this is the candle making shop. Don't you love the way the leaves scatter and accumulate on the roof? The colors of all the buildings give a feeling of history.
The day itself couldn't have been prettier. I was so happy it didn't rain on the day I visited.
The Whiffle Tree is open all year round. Looks like they are preparing for a New England Winter.
Hmm, I have a very similar pair of vintage skis.
More rustic charm on the property.
The trees towered over the buildings, the covered bridge, and the Spring Water station.
I never tasted the spring water from here but I often see people filling their containers.
The covered bridge is a favorite spot for family photos. In fact, I saw a photo session at the Whiffle Tree when I visited.
My favorite candle scent is the New England Apple. I bought it in the smaller jelly jar size.
There are always so many choices of fragrances from Seaglass to North Woods. Something for everyone.
The shop is like a country store. You can buy pickles from the barrels.
And many flavors of candy. Love those jars!
Of course, Pumpkin Spice is the fragrance of the month.
This place is a photographer's delight!
Notice the bend in the trees. So cool
The candle shop has a chalet feel to it. I think I shall have to visit when the snow falls.
I took a few photos with my phone too. They always look more vibrant, not sure why.
This is quintessential New England. A covered bridge bathed in fallen leaves.
This little boy escaped from the photo shoot I was watching. I guess he would rather play.
A parting shot before I drove away with candles and fudge in tow. Until next time, Whiffle Tree.

domain: hobby