text:
A Modern Warfare 2 player revealed the perfect way to deal with campers in multiplayer.
Modern Warfare 2 expanded players’ arsenals with new equipment offerings. Community members praised Drill Charges as CoD’s “best addition” in years. The lethal grenade makes it easier to deal with campers hiding in buildings and even immobilizes vehicles in Warzone 2.
Infinity Ward’s latest series entry also introduced shock sticks, used to destroy equipment, disable vehicles, and sabotage weapons. Most multiplayer fans opt to use either dead silence or trophy systems as their go-to Field Upgrades, but another new equipment item is flying under the radar.
A viral clip put on display how useful the tactical camera is when utilized correctly.
Why more players should use the tactical camera in Modern Warfare 2
During a multiplayer match on Taraq, a Modern Warfare 2 player threw a tactical camera into a room. The camera revealed an enemy’s location, and the user killed the unsuspecting opponent from below.
The user posted the highlight on Reddit and claimed, “Tac Cams are underrated.”
Community members collectively praised the play, and the genius move convinced them to give the underrated equipment item a go.
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One player responded, “welp, I know what I’m carrying next time.”
Tactical cameras can be useful in respawn game modes if you throw them into a building usually occupied by campers. However, the equipment item really shines in Search and Destroy. If the attacking team plants a bomb, a tactical camera can watch the bomb for you.
A clever community member also discovered another use for tactical cameras. “If you have C4 placed and you’re looking through the camera, a little thing shows up at the bottom of the camera view that says: Detonate C4 with the symbol for the trigger button next to the prompt.”
Enemies will have no clue what hit them if they mysteriously blew up from a C4 explosive with no one nearby.
Give tactical cameras a try for yourself and discover how powerful they can be.


text:
- Parents outraged after white supremacists plant racist Easter eggs
- Atheists sue N.J. school over ‘under God’ in Pledge of Allegiance
- Obama hosting annual Easter Egg Roll
- Big Bang a big question for most Americans: Poll
- Jimmy Carter’s grandson: People have right to sport Confederate battle flag license plate
- Supreme Court issues no ruling on case challenging N.J. gun law
- Sharyl Attkisson: Media Matters ‘clearly targeted me’
- Sherpas consider boycott after Everest avalanche
- Democrat Rep. Stephen Lynch on Obamacare: ‘We will lose seats’ this November
- Syria to hold presidential election on June 3
Women losing coverage under Obamacare, too
Topic - Tunisian Government
The Tunisian government is "not happy" about a decision by a court in Tunis to hand suspended two-year sentences to 20 people who attacked the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia last year, a Tunisian official said on Friday.
Tunisia accused the United States of interfering in the country's judicial system after U.S. Ambassador Gordon Gray criticized the guilty verdict in the blasphemy trial of a Tunisian television executive.

domain: politics


text:
Scientists have developed a new improved method for capturing longer DNA fragments, doubling the size up to 7000 DNA bases that can be analysed for novel genes which provide plants with immunity to disease.
A new review indicates that flowers may be able to manipulate the laws of physics, by playing with light, using mechanical tricks, and harnessing electrostatic forces to attract pollinators.
The New Phytologist review describes the latest advances in our understanding of how plants use their flowers to ensure reproductive success. Flowers use light to attract pollinators by creating colour using microscopic structures or chemical effects. Using gravity to their advantage, petals cause pollinators to slip or grip when they land on a flower, ensuring that they transfer pollen without taking too much of the sugary nectar reward. Plants may even alter their electrical fields to influence pollinator visits.
“It is surprising to many people that plants use the laws of physics to their advantage in attracting pollinators, but of course it makes sense that evolution has used all the available opportunities to enhance plant fitness,” said Dr. Beverley Glover (University of Cambridge), co-author of the review.
Article source: Wiley
Crop breeders in developing countries can now access free tools to accelerate the breeding of improved crop varieties, thanks to a collaboration between the GOBII project at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and Cornell University (USA), and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) in Scotland.
The collaboration works with breeding centers around the world to identify unmet needs and has developed tools to make the process of adding a trait into an existing, high-yield crop variety more efficient. Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are using the tools to develop corn varieties with greater resistance to viruses.
At Waitrose, we believe passionately in quality – the quality of service we provide to our customers, through all the Partners that work in every part of our business, the quality of the environment we provide by giving a great physical shopping experience that’s really compelling for all our customers to shop in, and – of course – the quality of products that we sell, which is an absolutely critical part of the great work that you do for us.
–– Rob Collins, Managing Director
Watch the video below to find out more about Waitrose’s Culture of Quality.
Waitrose has become the first retailer to successfully apply to lead the delivery of a major investment in doctoral training by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The money will be invested in 15 separate PhD projects focusing on food security and sustainability.
Arriving in Waitrose branches for the first time this year are British grown Christmas trees carrying the LEAF Marque logo, meaning they have been sustainably grown with care for the countryside and wildlife that live there.
Grown by LEAF Marque certified business, Hopeman Christmas Trees Ltd in the Black Isle, a peninsula in the north of Inverness, the beautiful British Nordman Fir Trees have been produced following LEAF’s Integrated Farm Management Principles. These include measures to protect soil and water, preserve and enhance wildlife habitats, recycle waste and conserve energy.

domain: agronomy


Pre-order of ION VADER - Information Channels (timewarp058). The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Timewarp returns with another stellar release from Ion Vader who will channel his finely tuned hypnotic, melodic, spacious, and exquisitely mind-bending goa trance information to create an ecstatic havoc of happy feet on dance floors around the world. Ion Vader is Ion Solounias from Athens, Greece, one third of the group Declaration of Unity. He was born in Norway in 1990 and began composing Black Metal, Uplifting and Nitzhogoa trance in 2009 when he first got his hands on Cubase SX3. During the course of the years his style has developed into being more diverse inspired by different genres of music. Ion Vader has released his music with Goa Records, Ovnimoon Records, Timewarp, Digital Dreams Music Productions, Sita Records, Eutuchia Records and more.


text:
Ana Maria Archila hovered with a small group of activists in the labyrinthine underbelly of the nation’s Capitol on Thursday morning, clutching a cup of coffee, scanning the quiet corridors and waiting for someone — anyone — important to appear.
The woman in the elevator: That’s who Archila is now, since the moment last week when the 39-year-old activist and 23-year-old Maria Gallagher blocked the closing doors of an elevator carrying Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), commanding his attention for five minutes and condemning his support for Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh, who faces allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.
Archila hadn’t expected more than a passing glimpse of Flake that day. But with a CNN camera broadcasting live behind them, she and Gallagher demanded that the senator look at them as they identified themselves as sexual assault survivors and implored him to reconsider his support of Kavanaugh.
“On Monday, I stood in your office. I told you of my story of my sexual assault,” Archila said, her voice shaking.
“I was sexually assaulted, and nobody believed me,” Gallagher said. “You’re telling all women that they don’t matter.”
The video immediately went viral, captured in headlines and cable-news chyrons across the country.
Flake had made a stunning pivot after their confrontation, calling for an additional FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh — a change of heart that may have been at least partly inspired by Archila and Gallagher’s forceful words.
But almost a week later, Kavanaugh’s confirmation moved steadily closer to the finish line, with the White House and Senate Republicans reaffirming their staunch support of Kavanaugh. (On Friday, it was reported that Flake and other key Senators would vote yes on Kavanaugh “unless something big changes.”)
With time running out, Archila was still figuring out how to make the most of her fleeting celebrity. She had spent 20 years as a community organizer, first as the leader of an immigrant rights organization and now as co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive political advocacy group in New York, but she had never experienced a rush of attention like this. She was overwhelmed by the onslaught of television cameras, the strangers who hugged her and called her a hero, the fellow activists wearing T-shirts emblazoned with her face.
One veteran protester grabbed Archila’s arms, shouting victoriously “You did it! You did it!” and Archila half-smiled, half-winced. “Well — ” she said, and trailed off.
She didn’t know yet what, exactly, had been done. She knew only that their efforts had demanded sacrifice: “I worry tremendously that a lot of us will have shared our very painful experiences in this collective effort to help the country stare at itself in the mirror and make a different decision about who we want to be,” she said.
What she wanted was to focus on the work — confronting politicians in the subterranean Senate hallways, or talking to fellow survivors about how to tell their stories in a way that might make lawmakers stop to listen.
But a television crew was waiting, and Archila’s communications director ushered her upstairs for yet another interview.
“We need to be bird-dogging senators,” Archila said, visibly frustrated. “This is the moment.”
It was never a story that Archila planned to share publicly. When the #MeToo movement took off across social media a year ago, she briefly considered revealing her childhood sexual abuse but decided against it.
“I wrote ‘me too,’ and then deleted it, and wrote it and deleted it,” she said. “It was very hard for me to do even that much.”
She had spent her life and career telling a different story about herself, focused on her experience as an immigrant. Archila came to the United States from Colombia when she was 17, joining her father and aunt as a permanent legal resident in New York City. After graduating from Montclair State University, she worked at a community organization founded by her aunt to serve immigrants in Queens.
Over the next two decades, Archila emerged as a prominent voice in the immigrant rights community.
“Being part of the immigrant rights movement allowed me to plant the first roots here, to feel like this country is my home, and because it is I will fight for it to be better,” she said. She became a citizen in time to vote in the 2008 election, she said, and she assumed her role with the Center for Popular Democracy in 2014.
Over the past several months, Archila, who lives in Queens with her two young children, has made numerous trips to Washington to urge senators to vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. But she never mentioned her own experience as a survivor, even after Christine Blasey Ford emerged as the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
“I had tried for so hard for so long to not have it define me,” Archila said of her assault. “I’d thrown it in the farthest corner of my closet and left it there.”
But then she watched Ford’s sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I understood what she was doing, that she was saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to go through this painful experience as a way to protect my country, as a way to protect the people I love,’ ” Archila said. “And it was such a powerful and different stance from how I had dealt with my own experience of sexual abuse. She demonstrated how the sharing of my story could be actually a source of power, and a very generous act.”
During a group visit to Flake’s office on Sept. 24, a fellow activist turned to Archila and asked her what she would like to say, and in a spontaneous moment she shared a few details of her account: She told Flake’s staff members that she was 5 years old and the boy was 15. She said she had told a couple of adults, but they did not believe her.
After she spoke, she wept. She still didn’t know how to tell her parents; she had never wanted them to feel they had failed to protect her. But several days later, after her confrontation with Flake in the elevator was televised across the country, she knew she no longer had a choice.
“I texted my father immediately and I said, ‘You’re going to hear something that we haven’t talked about, but I want you to know that I’m okay,’ ” she said. “I was able to say to him, ‘It’s not your fault, and it’s not my fault, and I feel very supported by you.’ But I didn’t have those words when I was 5. I didn’t have them for decades.”
Archila said she believes the interaction with Flake resonated widely because it was raw and personal. Flake later called the moment “uncomfortable” in an interview with the Atlantic, and though he said he was moved by the two women’s accounts, he also questioned their underlying agenda.
On the heels of a summer marked by widely publicized, in-your-face confrontations between protesters and members of the Trump administration, other lawmakers offered a more abrasive response to the activists staking out the Senate office hallways.
On Thursday, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) waved his hand dismissively at a gathering of women who were shouting for his attention in one of the Senate buildings. When one woman asked why he wasn’t “brave enough” to speak to them, he fired back, “When you grow up, I’ll be glad to.”
A spokesman for Hatch later noted that the senator had been “screamed at and harassed” by protesters over the past two weeks.
In a tweet Friday, Trump echoed that characterization: “The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad,” Trump wrote. “Don’t fall for it!”
To Archila, impact is more important than decorum. She has been arrested twice since August during peaceful protests, watching as police ticked off warnings and reached for their handcuffs when she and her fellow demonstrators refused to move away or quiet down.
“There comes a point where we just say, this is what we are going to do,” she said. “We will not obey injustice.”
After another round of interviews, back in the underground tunnels of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Archila spotted a young girl wearing a gray "Smash the Patriarchy" T-shirt.
Archila recognized her from an earlier rally outside the Supreme Court protesting Kavanaugh’s nomination. Pulling her phone from her pocket, Archila scrolled to a photograph of three young girls with rain-streaked faces huddled in the crowd.
Archila crouched down and told the child that she remembered her.
“I saw you,” Archila said, and the girl smiled shyly. “I saw you, and you moved me.”
Then Archila rose, retreated to a corner for a moment and dabbed her eyes with her T-shirt.
In a few minutes, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) would appear in the hallway and embrace Archila, thanking her for speaking out. Later in the afternoon, Archila would be arrested again, alongside hundreds of other protesters gathered in the Hart Senate Office Building.
Soon, this particular battle would be over. But for now, Archila was thinking about the little girl.
“She’s watching women be powerful, forcing men to look them in the eye,” she said. “That little girl, she is why we’re here. Whatever happens, she is going to be transformed by this moment.”

domain: sociology


text:
Mymensingh: Two people were killed as a speeding truck ran over them in Ishwarganj upazila of My-mensingh on Thursday morning.
The deceased were identified as Abdus Sattar Master, 62, and Dhanti Gour, 60, both hailing from Naowpara and Duttapara areas respectively under same the upazila.
Police and locals said the accident occurred in the morning when the Kishoreganj-bound truck from Mymensingh hit the two on Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway in front of Ishwarganj Fire Service Station, leaving the woman dead on the spot and the man critically injured.
The injured was first rushed to Ishwarganj Upazila Health Complex and later shifted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, they said.
Ishwarganj police station’s Officer-in-charge Majedur Rahman suspected that the drowsiness of the trucker caused the accident.
The truck driver was arrested and the truck was seized, he said, adding that legal actions in this regard are underway.

domain: news


Monday, February 20, 2012
| 11:33:23 AM IST (+05:30 GMT)
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The show will be welcoming a new character..
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CHICAGO (CBS) – Two White Sox fans are injured after a shooting Friday night, but it’s still unclear where the bullets were fired. The big question is whether the shots were fired inside or outside the stadium. Investigators are looking at both possibilities, but CBS 2 crews spotted them almost a mile away while looking for evidence.
On Saturday, the otherwise empty parking lot was packed with Chicago police officers searching for shell casings in the grass and in the alley near West 42nd Street and South Princeton Avenue.
Police sources tell CBS 2 that a ShotSpotter spotted gunfire there Friday night. Neighbors say they heard her.
Cameras in the stands at Guaranteed Rate Field captured the moment a 41-year-old woman in Section 162 realized she had been shot in the leg.
According to the police, a 26-year-old woman was also scraped on the stomach.
According to police sources, this happened at the same time gunfire was spotted near 42nd Street.
According to sources, the women were teachers on a group outing.
Fellow fans in the stands waved to the security forces for help. Fans who were seated nearby told CBS 2 that security had cleared several rows of seats to allow police to investigate.
Video shows the moment fans are hit by gunfire at a White Sox game (01:42).
The White Sox continued to play, but the post-game concert was canceled. The Sox blamed “technical problems” but didn’t mention the shooting, which may have happened far from the stands. Staff said the incident was initially presented to them as an injury and when police investigated there was no active threat to other fans.
“It wasn’t canceled for security reasons. It was canceled so the CPD could go and survey the area. They had to turn on the lights and the fans had to leave the area,” White Sox senior vice president Scott Reifert said.
The White Sox say their security team confirmed there was no altercation inside the ballpark in the incident.
“All we heard was that no shots were fired at the ballpark last night. I think if that had happened the crowd would have had a very different reaction from our security, right. From the CPD,” said Reifert.
Fans filled the area around the Guaranteed Rate Field Saturday afternoon as another game against the Oakland As was set to begin.
Several people told CBS 2 that they hadn’t considered coming.
When asked about Friday’s shooting, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Chicago police were going full force. And there were uniformed cops and K-9s all over the park.
Many fans came to the Tailgate early on and didn’t change their plans because of the shooting.
But a man who declined to share his information was in the same department as the women who were injured on Friday. He said he was disappointed with the way the whole thing was handled but came back on Saturday anyway.
It was clear that the injuries were a big topic of conversation.
“I just wasn’t sad that people made decisions like this that affect everyone,” said fan Rachel Berndt. “But I know they can happen anywhere.”
“I feel like there’s a little more security,” said Yuridia Villalba. “I saw the dogs and everything. So I feel pretty safe.”
“I’m just scratching my head,” Art Debare said. “It’s just another mistake for the White Sox this year. It’s been a long season. And it really is a tragedy.”
More from CBS News
Source : www.cbsnews.com


text:
2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. 3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. 5 Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. 6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”
7 When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
9 Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. 10 All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, 11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. 12 You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, 13 to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14 I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you 15 who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.
16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. 18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.
We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they’re called memories. Some take us forward, they’re called dreams.

domain: literature


Yippee! Netflix has done it again, we’ve got more All Hail King Julien episodes! There are five more awesome cartoons for the kids ready and waiting for us on streaming today!
I’m a member of the #StreamTeam and this post is sponsored by Netflix. All opinions are my own, naturally.
I haven’t had a chance to watch the new cartoons yet, but I think we’ll fire one up after Mitch gets home from school. The first round of cartoons were really good, so I have high expectations! If you haven’t watched these yet, the Netflix series starts with Prince Julien back in the jungles of Madagascar, pre-movie days. He soon bumbles his way to kingship and the fun never stops.
Also on my radar are new episodes of The Adventures of Puss and Boots coming out May 8 and a new series for our favorite hero Hiccup in DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge coming out in June!


NYC’s Lowline Could Become First Underground Park In The World
Imagine a new green space amid the busy hustle and bustle of Manhattan: Trees grow in pools of sunlight while musicians perform, kids play and participate in educational programs and solar lights provide illumination. It’s also 20 feet underground.
The proposed Lowline park will, when completed, be the opposite of the West Side’s High Line — rather than being built on an elevated freight rail line, the Lowline’s home will be an abandoned trolley terminal on the East Side.
The Williamsburg Trolley Terminal, according to Lowline.org, was opened in 1908 and used until 1948, when trolley service was discontinued. The 1.5-acre site still contains lots of juicy historical remnants like cobblestones, vaulted ceilings, steel columns and old trolley tracks.
The creators of the Lowline want to turn this unused space into an underground park that will host cultural programming, retail stores and commuters, in addition to being a vibrant green space.
The Lowline aims to build a new kind of public space — one that highlights the historic elements of a former trolley terminal while introducing cutting-edge solar technology and design, enabling plants and trees to grow underground,” says the organization on its website.
The new park’s solar technology was designed by James Ramsey of Raad Studio to bring sunlight underground. After passing through a solar collection dish made of glass, the light is gathered at a focal point and funneled underground through a special tube filled with fiber-optic cables; it’s then reflected by a dome on the park’s ceiling, allowing plants to grow. No electricity would be needed to light the Lowline when it’s sunny outside. According to the project’s Kickstarter page (it was funded back in April 2012 for a total of $155,186, which was used to create a mini Lowline to demonstrate the park to investors), the cables filter out the UV rays that cause sunburn, so visitors will get all the benefits of sunlight without the harmful side effects.
Dan Barasch, who specializes in promoting “socially innovative applications of technology,” according to Delaware Online, and Ramsey, a former NASA engineer, got the idea for the park when they heard about the abandoned site; they’d already been experimenting with new solar technology, so the two ideas seemed like a natural fit.
We’re simply taking over a space no one was using in a densely populated neighborhood that lacks sufficient public space,” Barasch told Delaware Online.
Current plans aim for the park to be built over the next five years. Using hundreds of volunteers and millions of dollars in mostly government funds, the fiber-optic cables must be installed and positioned so plants can grow — quite a feat, considering the cables have to reach through the streets of New York City.
Many have criticized the plans for the Lowline, questioning its plausibility, creepiness, heating and cooling system (or lack thereof) and potential dankness. However, Barasch tells the New York Press that the park will be “a cultivated underground garden which will certainly change people’s perspective on what’s possible.”


5A range single-phase AC active output current transformer module current sensor
- Precision miniature current transformer on board
- Operational amplifier circuit Onboard high-precision, accurate sampling and appropriate compensation for the signal and other functions.
- This can measure the AC within 5A, corresponding to the analog output can be adjusted PCB board size: 38 (mm) x18.5 (mm).
- Usage: current sensor
- Output: Analog Sensor


text:
"Sea Foam-Not for Swimming"
Seawater is loaded with dissolved salts, proteins, fats, dead algae and is laced with organic matter. That organic matter constitutes sea creature excrement. Collecting seawater in a beaker and shaking it creates surface bubbles. On Monday you may have noticed kids in Australia romping in five-foot waves of sea foam which occurred when the ocean was agitated by a combination of wind and waves. Each coast manufactures its foam in different ways and algae blooms create thick sea foams, similar to shaving cream. When the blooms decay offshore the algal matter wash ashore, churned by the surf. Most sea foam does not affect humans however, along the Gulf Coast; blooms of Karenia brevis create airborne toxins from sea foam bubbles. The aerosol irritates eyes and causes respiratory afflictions.

domain: chemistry


text:
From Best Evidence to Best Practice: Enteral Nutrition from Continuous Nasal Feeding in Stroke Patients
Authors Sheng L, Yin L, Peng D, Zhao L
Received 3 July 2020
Accepted for publication 8 October 2020
Published 22 October 2020 Volume 2020:13 Pages 927—936
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 2
Editor who approved publication: Dr Scott Fraser
Lijuan Sheng,1 Lihong Yin,1 Dezhen Peng,1 Liping Zhao2
1Department of Neurology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410011, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nursing, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410011, People’s Republic of China
Correspondence: Liping Zhao
Department of Nursing, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410011, People’s Republic of China
Tel/ Fax +86 731-8529-4072
Email [email protected]
Background: Best evidence regarding enteral nutrition from continuous nasal feeding in stroke patients is limited. The aim of this study was to explore the best evidence of continuous nasal feeding in stroke patients and translate the evidence into clinical practice.
Methods: This study utilized the standard procedures of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) evidence-based nursing centers’ clinical evidence-practice application system. The baseline assessment of stroke patients in the neurology ward was conducted. A pre- and post-implementation audit approach was used in this study and adopted the Getting Research into Practice program. We analyzed the compliance of nurses with best practice and its impact on patients’ gastrointestinal function and complications, aspiration, aspiration pneumonia, nurses’ daily workload of nasal feeding, and the length of hospitalization before and after implementing the evidence-based strategies.
Results: After application of the evidence-based strategies, nurses’ compliance with best practice was improved. The incidence of patients’ gastrointestinal complications including vomit (χ 2 = 5.195, P=0.023), palirrhea (χ 2 = 4.216, P=0.039), diarrhea (χ 2 = 4.514, P=0.042), constipation (χ 2 = 5.535, P=0.035) and gastric retention (χ 2 = 4.541, P=0.042) decreased significantly after the application of the best evidence. The working time of nurses undergoing nasal feeding decreased from 23.71 ± 3.22 min to 7.73 ± 1.14 min (P =0.000) and the length of patient’s hospitalization decreased from 35.63 ± 4.45 days to 35.00 ± 3.70 days (P=0.534). The rate of aspiration, aspiration pneumonia did not show a significant difference after implementation of the evidence-based strategies.
Conclusion: The results revealed that the evidence-based practice of continuous nasal feeding in stroke patients is an effective method to improve nursing quality and reduce gastrointestinal complications, which was worthy of clinical application.
Keywords: stroke, nasal feeding, evidence-based nursing, best evidence, complications
Nutritional supportive therapies, as an important measure for the treatment of critically ill patients, are divided into parenteral nutrition (PN) and enteral nutrition (EN). EN generally refers to the nutritional therapy in which liquid formulations or mixed foods are delivered to the gastrointestinal tract to supplement or provide all the calorie needs of the individual through a feeding tube or mouth.1 Nasal feeding is one of the main ways of EN, and it is an important treatment measure to improve the prognosis of critically ill patients. It can maintain the function of the gastrointestinal tract, reduce infectious complications, and shorten hospitalization time compared to PN.2 Methods of nasal feeding mainly included continuous (continuously pumped through the nutrition pump for 24 hours), cyclic (through the nutrition pump cycle, less than 24 hours a day), intermittent (every 4 to 6 hours per time, each time continuous 20 to 60 min) and bolus feeding (through gravity or syringe to complete nasal feeding in a very short time, several times a day).3 Stevens et al4 found that diarrhea caused by intermittent nasal feeding occurred more frequently and lasted longer than continuous nasal feeding in the study of nasal feeding for trauma patients, and intermittent nasal feeding caused reflux aspiration more often. In addition, McClave et al5 found that continuous nasal feeding was more beneficial for critically ill patients. Metanalyses have shown that continuous pump nasal feeding could reduce the incidence of enteral nutrition-related complications, and it was better than intermittent nasal feeding in terms of safety.6,7 However, due to the low level of literature evidence grade in these studies, there are still limitations in its clinical application. Nevertheless, some studies also suggested that intermittent nasal feeding did not increase the incidence of nasal feeding complications, and in the effect on the gastric acid secretion and pH value, it was less than that of continuous nasal feeding.4 Therefore, there is still controversy and a lack of best evidence about which nasal feeding method is the most effective and reliable. This study summarized the best evidence of nasal feeding and applied it to the clinical practice of stroke patients in the acute setting in the department of neurology, in order to optimize the nursing norms of nasal feeding, reduce the incidence of adverse complications and improve the quality of nursing.
Study Design and Population
The study was conducted to stroke patients in the department of neurology, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China. Before and after the application of the evidence, 12 clinical nurses were included in the department of neurology. All of them were registered nurses, working in the neurology department for 2–20 years, with an average of 8.08 ±5.70 years; and 11 of them with a bachelor’s degree, 1 with master’s degree. Before the application of the evidence, 38 stroke patients were included and 125 episodes of nasal feeding were performed. After the application of the evidence, 30 patients were included and 60 episodes nasal feeding was performed. The baseline characteristics such as age, gender, nation, marital status, education, medical payment mode, and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score were collected in stroke patients. The criteria for inclusion of patients were as follows: (1) ischemic stroke patients according to the diagnostic criteria revised by the fourth National Conference on Cerebrovascular Diseases and finally diagnosed by CT or MRI; (2) dysphagia and water swallow test ≥ 3 grade; (3) ≥ 18 years old; (4) EN was applied within 48 hours after admission. The exclusion criteria including: (1) intestinal obstruction, active gastrointestinal bleeding, severe intestinal infection, diarrhea, shock, acute pancreatitis; (2) gastrointestinal failure, severe dyspepsia or poor absorption, severe heart, liver, and kidney dysfunction, pneumonia or suspected pneumonia. Termination criteria: (1) unable to complete the intervention; (2) nasal feeding time <7 days. This study acquired the ethics approval from the medical ethics committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. All the patients or the patient’s relatives and nurses agreed to join the research and signed the informed consent. This study was conducted in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki.
Establishment of the Question
Evidence-based questions were formed using PIPOST8 model. P (Population): Stroke patients with enteral nutrition support therapies; I (Intervention): Continuous nasal feeding measures; P (Professional): physicians and nurses in department of neurology; O (Outcome), O1, Nurse’s compliance and workload, O2, gastrointestinal function and complications (vomit, palirrhea, diarrhea, constipation, gastric retention; O3, aspiration and aspiration pneumonia; O4, the length of hospitalization); S (Setting): department of neurology. T (Type of evidence): Recommendation practice, evidence summary, guidelines and systematic reviews.
Search for Evidence
The time span of the data was from the establishment of the database to October 2018. Database including: China Guide Network; China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM); Fudan evidence-based Nursing Center Database; National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC); Guidelines International Network (GIN); BMJ Best Practice; Cochrane Library; PubMed; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Keywords including: enteral nutrition, nasogastric feeding, tube feeding, nasogastric tube feeding, enteral feeding pump, enteral nutrition pump, continuous pump feeding, intermittent bolus, intermittent nasogastric feeding, intermittent tube feeding.
Criteria for Inclusion and Exclusion of Evidence
The inclusion criteria of evidence resources in this practice were decision support systems, clinical practice guideline reports, evidence summary, and systematic review. Exclusion criteria included all kinds of original research.
The Results of the Literature Search
A total of 315 articles were searched. After screening, 288 articles were excluded, of which 220 were inconsistent with the subject, 88 cannot find the original articles, and finally, 7 were initially included. After the final screening, 6 articles were included in the evidence resources of this project, including 3 systematic reviews6,7,9 (2 CBM and 1 Cochrane Library) and 3 clinical guidelines10−12 (1 NGC, 1 GIN1, and 1 China Guide Network). One updated guideline of the European Society of Clinical and Metabolic (ESPEN) for nutritional support treatment for critically ill patients in 2018 was excluded since the ESPEN guidelines provide the best medical nutritional therapy to critically ill patients, define how to assess the nutritional status of an ICU patient and particular conditions frequently observed in intensive care such as patients with dysphagia, frail patients, multiple trauma patients, abdominal surgery, sepsis, and obesity are discussed to guide the practitioner toward the best evidence-based therapy, which there were some limitations in the application of evidence in this study.
Evaluation Criteria for the Quality of Evidence
Articles meeting inclusion criteria were appraised for methodological quality independently by two nurses, who were trained in evidence-based nursing. Any inconsistency was resolved by consultation until a consensus was reached.13 We followed the update of the clinical guidelines research and evaluation system (AGREE II)14 in 2012 to comprehensively judge the recommended levels of the guidelines. At the same time, the JBI quality evaluation tool15 was used to evaluate the quality of the systematic evaluation, best practices, and evidence summary. For evidence derived from JBI, the results of its evidence rating and recommendation level were directly applied. In addition, for the evidence that did not come from JBI, the 2014 version of JBI evidence pre-classification and evidence recommendation level system was adopted.
Summary of Evidence
Draft recommendations were developed based on the included evidence. After consultation and discussion among one evidence-based nursing expert, two nasal feeding experts, and two clinical nursing managers, the evidence was divided into six topics including: a nursing group of nasal feeding (A multi-disciplinary nutrition support group); The patient’s condition must be evaluated before choosing a certain method of nasal feeding; nasal feeding posture; nasal feeding checking; special nursing; and complications monitoring. The extracted evidence was classified independently by two researchers, and any inconsistency was resolved by consultation until a consensus was reached.
Developing Standard Audit Criteria of the Evidence
According to the (FAME),16 the evidence including its feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness and effectiveness were audited. All retrieved B-level and above evidence was applied in this study. In addition, the evidence application project team has developed six standard audit criteria via FAME. Standard 1, nurses were aware of the importance of continuous nasal feeding and followed its standard procedures; Standard 2, nurses evaluated patients clinical situation before nasal feeding; Standard 3, nurses performed nasal feeding for patients rather than other medical staff; Standard 4, nurses could evaluate and deal with the patient’s adverse reactions or complications correlated with nasal feeding timely; Standard 5, nurses provided oral care for nasal feeding patients; Standard 6, nurses inspected and maintenance the nutrition pump regularly.
Clinical Application of Evidence
During the working day, two graduate students trained in evidence-based medicine were responsible for data collecting. One nurse and one trainee nurse were scheduled for data collecting on weekends and holidays. The night work nurse was assigned for collecting data at night and checked the information in the morning of the next day. A trainee nurse with a regular shift was arranged as an observer. The observation ended immediately after the nasal feeding tube was removed. The methods of data collection included the following three items:
Field Observation Method
Using the single-blind method, the nurses with fixed shifts (worked at the same time) were arranged as observers every day. The nurses were trained by the permanent staff in the quality audit team. The significance of the project, the observed contents, and the attention points were informed. Whether the nurses carried out continuous nasal feeding in accordance with the audit criteria were observed and recorded.
The collected data, including the basic characteristics such as the age of the patients, the time of admission, the time of discharge, the time of nurses’ nasal feeding operation, the occurrence of gastrointestinal complications were reviewed.
Barriers to Best Practice
The baseline data of 12 nurses and 38 patients who met the inclusion criteria were audited from August 13 to November 19, 2018. Through the results of nurses compliance before application of the best evidence, we found that the main obstacles to the implementation of evidence included: (1) The nurse was lack of evidence-based nursing awareness; (2) No relevant continuous nasal feeding system and guidelines in neurology departments; (3) the choice of continuous nasal feeding methods were mainly based on clinical experience rather than evidence-based evidence. In response, the evidence application group has developed the following innovative approaches:
Strategy 1: Evidence-Based Nursing Training and Assessment for Nurses
In the daily process of nasal feeding, nurses did not know the evidence-based evidence. They mainly relied on clinical experience. In addition, they did not know that the patient’s condition needed to be specifically assessed when choosing nasal feeding procedures. The solution adopted by this group was to carry out evidence-based training and education on continuous nasal feeding rules and regulations for all nurses in the neurology department. This kind of training and education was presented in the way of multimedia teaching. The knowledge of nurses was evaluated before and after teaching, and the effect of nurse training was confirmed by asking questions in the morning and pushed this in the WeChat (a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media) group of nurses.
Strategy 2: A Standardized Nasal Feeding Process Was Developed
At present, there were no standard nasal feeding procedures and regulations in the neurology department of this study. The solution was to establish and improve the procedures and regulations through the related evidence-based resources. After that, the evaluation criteria were established as the basis for the effect of nurses’ nasal feeding training and daily inspection of nurses’ implementation. At the same time, the workflow of nasal feeding was introduced among nurses, and the time of nasal feeding operation was defined. In addition, the management of continuous nasal feeding has also been the daily duties of nurses.
Strategy 3: Strengthen Continuous Nasal Feeding Training
In the past, the traditional intermittent nasal feeding method was used in the training of nurses, so that they were not clear about the purpose and process of continuous nasal feeding. The solution was to shoot a video of continuous nasal feeding based on evidence and send it to the WeChat group of nurses, which was used for them to learn. After that, an assessment was conducted on each nurse to ensure that they had mastered the evidence-based method of continuous nasal feeding.
Re-Audit After the Application of the Evidence
After the evidence-based continuous nasal feeding evidence was applied and practiced in clinical, a study of 12 nurses and 30 patients who met the inclusion criteria was completed from December 11, 2018, to February 18, 2019.
Nurses’ Compliance with an Evidence-Based Continuous Nasal Feeding
An audit sheet used to record the implementation of each item was self-designed according to the constructed audit standards. The sheet was also used to analyze nurses’ compliance with evidence-based criteria. If the nurse completed the item of audit standard, marked “√” in the space, if not, marked “×”. In addition, if the criterion was not observed, it needed to be recorded or explained. The frequency of nurses on the completion of each item of evidence-based criteria was counted separately.
The Gastrointestinal Complications of Nasal Feeding
The complications included vomit, palirrhea, diarrhea, constipation, and gastric retention. Vomit is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one’s stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Palirrhea is defined as no symptoms of choking and coughing before nasal feeding but choking or wheezing and reflux in the process of nasal feeding. Diarrhea means that the patient defecates more than 3 times a day. Constipation is thought of as infrequent bowel movements, usually less than 3 stools per week. In this experiment, constipation is defined as having no defecation within 3 days. Gastric retention refers to the aspiration of gastric contents of the patient every 4 hours through the nasal feeding tube. If the amount of gastric contents extracted exceeds 200mL, the patient occurred gastric retention.
Aspiration and Aspiration Pneumonia
Aspiration refers to the countercurrent of stomach contents into the pharynx and trachea. Aspiration pneumonia means that the patient has an obvious history of aspiration and the chest X-ray examination of the patients showed that there were signs of infection in the lung compared to before. Or patients with two or more of the following manifestations, including fever, body temperature above 38.5°C; chest auscultation indicated rales; cough purulent sputum or sputum volume significantly increased; white blood cell count or neutrophil count increased; sputum culture was positive.
The Workload of Nurses on Nasal Feeding
To record the time spent by nurses on nasal feeding for each patient every day.
The Length of Hospitalization
The hospitalization days of the patient was recorded.
EpiData 3.1 was used for data entry and management, and the data entry quality was checked by the double data entry verification method. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive analyses were performed using mean, standard deviation and frequency. χ2 test or Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the incidence of nasal feeding complications and aspiration and aspiration pneumonia before and after the application of evidence. T-test was used to compare the nutritional index of patients, the workload of nurses and the length of stay of patients before and after the application of evidence. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Demographic Characteristics of the Stroke Patients
Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 68 participants were selected for final data analysis. The average age of 30 observation group participants was 61.71±10.17 years old, and about 21 of them were male. The results showed that there was no difference among age, gender, nation and any other characteristics in the observation group compared with the control group (P > 0.05). The details of these stroke patients’ features are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of Stroke Patients
Summary of the Best Evidence of Continuous Nasal Feeding
A consensus expert opinion about the best evidence for nasal feeding in stroke patients was finally compiled and used as a basis for decision-making after repeated consultation, induction, and modification (Table 2).
Table 2 Summary of the Best Evidence of Continuous Nasal Feeding
Nurses’ Compliance Before and After the Application of the Best Evidence
After the application of the evidence, the compliance rate of standard 1 increased from 20% to 100% and standard 2, 3 increased from 0% to 100%. In addition, the compliance rate of standard 4 increased from 71.2% to 100% and standard 5 increased from 44% to 100%. Besides, the compliance rate of standard 6 increased from 21.6% to 100%. The compliance of nurses’ evidence-based behavior was significantly improved (Table 3).
Table 3 Compliance of Nurses Before and After the Application of the Best Evidence
The Incidence of Gastrointestinal Complications Before and After the Application of Evidence
After the application of the evidence, the gastrointestinal complications including vomiting (χ2=5.195, P=0.023), palirrhea (χ2=4.216, P=0.039), diarrhea (χ2=4.514, P=0.042), constipation (χ2=5.535, P=0.035), gastric retention (χ2=4.541, P=0.042) were lower than that before the evidence. The difference was statistically significant (P <0.05) (Table 4).
Table 4 The Incidence of Gastrointestinal Complications Before and After Application of the Best Evidence
Incidence of Aspiration and Aspiration Pneumonia in Patients Before and After the Application of Evidence
After the application of evidence, the incidence of aspiration (F=2.478, P=0.249) and aspiration pneumonia (F=1.627, P=0.500) in patients with nasal feeding was lower than that before the application of evidence, and there was no case after the application of evidence, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05), as shown in Table 5.
Table 5 The Incidence of Aspiration and Aspiration Pneumonia Before and After Application of the Best Evidence
The Workload of Nurses on Nasal Feeding and Hospitalization Days Before and After the Application of Evidence
After the application of the evidence, the time of the nurses spent on nasal feeding was decreased from 23.71±3.22 min to 7.73 ±1.14 min, and the difference was statistically significant (P <0.05). The hospitalization days were decreased from 35.63±4.45 days to 35.00±3.70 days, and the difference was not statistically significant (P> 0.05), as shown in Table 6.
Table 6 The Workload of the Nurse and the Length of Hospitalization of Patients Before and After the Application of the Best Evidence
Feasibility Analysis of Clinical Evidence Applied to Practice
In this study, the clinical feasibility and suitability were fully considered in the application of evidence. After strict literature screening and quality evaluation, three systematic reviews and three clinical guidelines were included. Through the back-to-back evaluation and classification of the evidence by two evidence-based nursing training personnel, and screened by experts in this field, the best practice evidence suitable for the clinical situation and patients’ wishes was obtained finally, which was scientific and practical.
Application of the Best Evidence of Continuous Nasal Feeding into Practice Can Improve the Condition of the Stroke Patient
Currently, some researches support that continuous pump nasal feeding could reduce the incidence of nasal feeding complications, and it was better than traditional intermittent nasal feeding in ensuring the safety of nasal feeding. However, there was some clinical heterogeneity among these studies.17 In addition, due to the limitation of patients’ economic ability and medical operation habits in clinical nursing practice, continuous nasal feeding was not always widely used in clinical practice. Moreover, clinical nursing practice mainly depends on doctors’ decision-making or clinical experience and lacks the guidance of evidence-based practice. Based on the evidence-based practice, the latest evidence of continuous nasal feeding was applied to the nursing practice of stroke patients. The incidence of gastrointestinal complications was significantly lower than that before the application of the evidence. In addition, the workload of nurses was reduced. Before the application of the best evidence, the nurses always used intermittent nasal feeding method for stroke patients, so it took a relatively long time for each patient. Besides, nurses were not clear about the requirement and purpose of continuous nasal feeding and the operation was not up to the standard. However, after applying the best evidence, the method adopted by nurses was based on evidence-based medicine, which not only standardized the nasal feeding operation procedure but also shortened the time spent on each patient. Also, the incidence of aspiration and aspiration pneumonia in patients with continuous nasal feeding and the hospitalization days decreased, but the difference was not statistically significant. This may be related to the small sample size. In addition, the length of hospitalization may also be related to many factors such as the severity of the patient’s clinical condition, so it needs to be verified in large sample size in the future.
The Application of the Best Evidence of Continuous Nasal Feeding Effectively Improves the Quality of Nursing
Some studies have shown that continuous nasal feeding has advantages over intermittent nasal feeding and can effectively improve the quality of nursing.18–20 In this study, evidence-based continuous nasal feeding practice was introduced into clinical practice, which can enable nurses to better understand evidence-based nursing and solidify nursing behavior in their daily work. This not only updated nurses’ knowledge of evidence-based continuous nasal feeding but also significantly improved their compliance. In addition, through the analysis of obstacle factors, this study further put forward improvement measures and standardized the process of continuous nasal feeding in the hospital. It can standardize the nursing practice behavior of nurses and effectively improve the quality of clinical nursing.
To sum up, how to apply the best evidence to clinical practice has been the focus of attention in the field of nursing. Gurzick et al21 indicated that the promotion of evidence application project could improve the evidence-based thinking ability and compliance of clinical nurses, so as to improve the quality of clinical nursing.
When we summarize the evidence, there may be conflicts in the review of evidence-based practice due to the cultural differences between China and the West, which may lead to the failure of evidence-based practice in clinical application. Therefore, we should consider the localization of evidence in the audit and application of evidence. In addition, the collection of data in this study was limited to one hospital, so the sample size was small. In order to better understand the effectiveness of the evidence-practice, it is also necessary to carry out multicenter, large sample studies and increase research in a patient with other diseases. Finally, a major limitation is a bias in the observer’s assessment, given that they are aware of the pre-/post-intervention study design.
In this study, evidence was obtained by the evidence-based method, and strict quality evaluation was carried out. Through the implementation of the best evidence of continuous nasal feeding, the compliance of nurses’ evidence-based practice was significantly improved and the incidence of complications was effectively reduced. This not only made nurses have a deeper understanding of the evidence-based practice but also promoted the wide promotion of evidence-based nursing practice in the neurology department. In addition, it also provided a reference for the follow-up work of evidence-based nursing and the transformation of evidence.
Data Sharing Statement
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the present study were availed by the corresponding author on reasonable request.
This work was supported by the Clinical Nursing Research Fund Project of the Second Xiangya Hospital. (2018-YHL-50).
The authors report no conflicts of interest for this work.
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domain: medical


text:
Tetra Tech, Inc. TTEK reported better-than-expected results for third-quarter fiscal 2018 (ended June 2018).
Quarterly adjusted earnings came in at 71 cents per share, up 34% year over year. The bottom line also outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 65 cents.
Revenues in the fiscal third quarter came in at $570.4 million, up 14.4% year over year. The top line also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $541 million.
Revenues of the Government Services Group in the reported quarter came in at $301 million, up 13.1% year over year.
The Commercial / International Services Group revenues came in at $267.8 million, up 15.7% year over year.
Tetra Tech, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Subcontractor costs in the quarter under review were $194.4 million, up from $187.1 million recorded in the year-ago period. Cost of revenues in the fiscal third quarter were $460.8 million, up 12.9% year over year. Gross profit margin in the quarter was 14.3%, up 110 basis points year over year.
Selling, general and administrative expenses during the quarter were $53.9 million, up from $44.4 million recorded in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, interest expenses in the June-end quarter flared up 55.5% year over year to $4.3 million. Operating margin in the fiscal third quarter was 7.3%, up 60 bps year over year.
Balance Sheet/Cash Flow
Exiting the fiscal third quarter, Tetra Tech had cash and cash equivalents of $214 million, up from $190 million recorded as of Oct 1, 2017. Long-term debt came in at $419 million, up from $341.3 million reported at the end of fiscal 2017.
In the nine-month period ended fiscal 2018, the company generated $67.4 million cash from operating activities, down from $71.6 million recorded in the comparable period last year. Capital expenditures totaled $6.3 million, down 9.6% year over year.
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Additionally, Tetra Tech has raised its earnings view for fiscal 2018 from $2.50-$2.62 per share to $2.59-$2.64 per share. Also, net revenue guidance for the fiscal is currently pegged at $2.20-$2.22 billion, instead of the prior projection of $2.15-$2.25 billion.
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Tetra Tech currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks in the Zacks Industrial Products sector are listed below:
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.


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Lawmakers in France have voted to return to Senegal and Benin prized artefacts that were looted during colonial times.
Benin will receive a throne taken in 1892 from the palace of Behanzin, the last king of what was then Dahomey. 25 other artefacts looted from Behanzin’s palace, which are currently being exhibited at the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris, will also be returned
Senegal will have a 19th-century sword belonging to El Hadj Omar, a major political and military figure, returned. The sword and its sheath are in the collection of France’s Army Museum but are currently exhibited in Dakar as part of a long-term loan.
The National Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of the return of the artefacts on Thursday, with 48 votes in favour, none against and two abstentions.
Former colonial powers are under pressure to return looted artefacts – mainly from Africa.
There some 90,000 African artefacts in France, most from sub-Saharan Africa.
French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot said President Emmanuel Macron intended to “renew and deepen the partnership between France and the African continent”.
In October, an activist was fined €1,000 (£901) for removing a 19th-Century Chadian wooden funerary post from the Quai Branly.
A new museum in Germany, which opened on Wednesday, has attracted controversy as it will hold many looted items, including Benin bronzes that British soldiers stole from Nigeria.

domain: history


text: The effects of dark chilling on CO2 assimilation, chlorophyll a fluorescence kinetics and nitrogen fixation were compared in two Glycine max (L.) Merr. genotypes. The aim was to elucidate the mechanisms by which photosynthesis was inhibited as well as identification of selection criteria for dark chilling tolerance. Seedlings were dark chilled (8 degrees C) for 9 consecutive nights but kept at normal day temperatures (28 degrees C). CO2 gas exchange analysis indicated that photosynthesis in Maple Arrow was inhibited largely as a result of stomatal limitation, while in Fiskeby V, it indicated inhibition of the mesophyll reactions. Increased intercellular CO2 concentration and decreased carboxylation efficiency suggested loss of Rubisco activity in Fiskeby V, although no effect on the KM (CO2) of Rubisco was observed. Quantification and deconvolution of the Chl a fluorescence transients into several phenomenological and biophysical parameters (JIP-test) revealed large genotypic differences in the response of PSII to dark chilling. These parameters differentially changed in the two genotypes during the progression of the chilling treatment. Among them, the performance index, reflecting several responses of the photochemical apparatus, provided the best preliminary overall assessment of the genotypes. In contrast, the quantum yield of primary photochemistry varphiPo (FV/FM) was quite insensitive. The recovery of most of the JIP-test parameters in Maple Arrow after 6 and 9 nights of dark chilling was a major genotypic difference. Genotypic differences were also observed with regard to the ureide response and N2 fixation appeared to be more sensitive to dark chilling than CO2 assimilation. The JIP-test provided information consistent with results derived from CO2 assimilation and N2 fixation studies suggesting that it can substitute the much more time-consuming methods for the detection of chilling stress and can well satisfy the requirements of a rapid and accurate screening method.


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- Nov 22, 2020
Support the effort – bringing a community garden to the neighbourhood
Dear neighbours, I’m working with a group of passionate local leaders to bring a community garden to Beaches-East York. Led by East End Neighbourhood Urban Farm (EENUF), the mission for this initiative is to: “contribute to our neighbourhood’s food security by creating a sustainable urban farm and sharing its produce, our experience and expertise, as part of a growing and learning community.”
We need your voice to make this vision a reality! The community garden would be on a City-owned property at 25 Oakcrest Avenue, run by volunteers and open to all. The land has sat vacant for many years and was deemed surplus by the City in 2001. We believe it could be put to better use as a community asset.
There’s a complex and potentially long process to get the City approvals needed to transform this underutilized land. A strong show of community support will help to make this project move forward quickly and make it a priority.
Please sign this petition to show your support and let the City know how much this effort will mean to you, to the volunteers committed to supporting local food banks and other food security efforts, and to our shared values of collective action in the East End.
If you have any questions or comments, or want to get involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office.


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The group, which measures a combination of new and existing home sales, said there were 4,428 sales January through March, a 9 percent increase over the 4,063 sales in the same period last year and 23 percent better than the 3,608 sales a year earlier than that.
The 2013 second-quarter median price was $170,000 and reflects a small but steady increase over second-quarter median price in 2011 and 2012, RANM said. The year-to-date 2013 median of $169,000 reflects a similar increase over the past two years.
Median price indicates half the properties sold for more and half for less.
“The number of sales for the month of June 2013 is less than 1 percent less than those reported in June 2012,” RANM President Cathy Colvin said in a statement. “Low inventories and an increase in mortgage rates contribute to this slight decrease. The good news for sellers is the June median price of $179,000 is 5 percent higher than the May 2013 median and over 4 percent higher than the June 2012 median.”
In the Albuquerque metro area, sales of single-family detached homes increased 25 percent compared with June 2012, the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors reported last week.
There were 859 closed sales in June – down a bit from the 903 sales in May – but well up from the 685 sales in the same month last year, the group said. The median sales price remained the same at $172,000 as June a year ago.
A third report showed that home sales in Santa Fe were on the rise but down slightly in the county, according to second-quarter statistics released by the Santa Fe Association of Realtors.
Total sales of homes within the city limits rose 4.4 percent from 183 to 191 homes.
Sales for homes in the county dropped nearly 11 percent, from 157 to 140, during the second quarter as compared to the same period last year.
The median price for a single-family home within the city limits dropped slightly to $252,684, while the county saw a sharper drop to $331,500.

domain: geography


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Sure. It doesn't really matter where you get your other rat as long as the place is clean and the rats are healthy. Petco gets litters from different breeders so the chance of you getting another rat from the same mom is unlikely.
Like everyone has been saying quarantine the new rat. Good luck with your new addition.
I was just able to put my two girls together. Juliet is a little smaller and she always incites things and then they go into a wrestling match. They get along well. A lot of rough housing though, makes me nervous. But they will calm down some after they are together for a while.
Only problem is, I think my new female might be pregnant. Around me, Petcos only have white feeder rats. I do not like red eyes, they creep me out some. So I go her from Dave's (the only pet store that sells colored rats, all colors). Ahh, lets just say, a lower standard of pet stores. They store the rodents by age and not by sex (They let the rodents breed constantly. And they have tanks of pinkie/fuzzies just starving until they are bought as food. That store angers me so much. When I get my license I am shutting them down for animals cruelty and unsanitary conditions.). So it is very possible to walk home with one rat and end up with ten. As much as I hate them, I love colored rats… So I have to bend and buy from them. But, only rats, no food or anything else.
Last edited by APoetCalledAnya; 04-24-2007 at 12:43 PM.

domain: pet


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Are you 18 years old or older?
Sorry, the content of this store can't be seen by a younger audience. Come back when you're older.
It may be early for fresh-cut flowers but with this craft, you can still arrange your own spring flowers while waiting for warmer days to come.
Each kit includes: Die-cut flower pieces, 3 bamboo sticks, styrofoam square
Materials you need: Liquid Glue/all-purpose craft glue, Tape
Mindful Craft kits are more than just cute coordinated projects, they are designed by a team of specialist to help children:
1) follow instructions
2) improve gross/fine motor skills
3) increase creativity
So while your child is crafting, they will also be learning and growing while having fun!

domain: hobby


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Krakow, Poland is the destination for the 11th Valve Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major, tournament organizer PGL announced today. The event will take place between July 16-23 and will be hosted at the TAURON Arena, which has played host to esports in the past, when the League of Legends European League Championship Series Summer split finals played out at the 15,000 seater arena. The tournament will feature the now standard $1 Million prize pool. It will be the first major fully hosted by PGL, however the company did assist in production of Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca in 2015. Eight teams have already secured a spot at the tournament by finishing in the top eight at the ELeague major in Atlanta earlier this year. The rest will be decided by a series of Minors taking place across June. The minors will eventually lead into an offline qualifier on June 29.
PGL CS:GO Major announced in Krakow
Published on March 15th, 2017


Drew Dillen scored the go-ahead goal in the 48th minute as Louisville edged visiting Field 3-2 in their home opener. Brady Adams and Dominic Porter-Kovacich both scored on penalty kicks earlier in the contest as LHS moved to 2-0.
Field Falcons Boys Soccer
Field Falcons Boys Soccer News and Articles
Riley Adams scored a pair of goals to lead Louisville to a 2-1 road victory over Field Thursday. Joe Reynolds also recorded 10 saves in goal for the Leopards who improved to 2-2-1.
Riley Adams scored a pair of goals to lead the Leopards over the visiting Falcons 4-2. Maddox Drake-McKimm and Chris Walters also added scores as Louisville improves to 4-6.
The 2017 DII Medina District Boys Soccer Tournament Bracket, Schedule, Voting Matrix, and Preview.


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Possibility of reprogramming endogenous fibroblasts into functional inner ear hair cells for regenerative purposes
Direct reprogramming adult fibroblast into cells with partial inner ear hair cell characteristics through cell activation and signal directed approach.
Neurosci Lett. 2020 Apr 25;:135010
Authors: Zhao M, Ma R, Huang YB, Cong N, Chi FL, Yuan YS, Gao Z
Loss of inner ear hair cell (HC) is an irreversible process in mammals and is the most common cause of human hearing and balance disorders especially in the elderly. Cell therapy based on highly scalable generation of HC linage and inner ear transplantation is one of the most promising therapeutic approaches for HC impairment. For fibroblast is quite abundant and readily available in human body, it is an ideal endogenous cell source to generate HC lineage for transplantation purpose. In the present study, by using a cell activation and signaling directed method, we demonstrate that adult fibroblast can be direct reprogrammed into a kind of cell which expresses lots of HC markers. At the same time, an intermediate progenitor stage exists during such a lineage conversion and activation of FGF pathway is critical for its formation. Although these reprogrammed cells still lack some of the key features of HC such as mechanosensitive ion channel hence have not acquired the functional properties of HC, the findings reported here raise the possibility of reprogramming endogenous fibroblasts into functional HC for regenerative purpose.
PMID: 32344104 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]


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Sora might be coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate later this month, but that won’t be the spikey-haired hero’s only foray on Nintendo Switch. The Kingdom Hearts trilogy is coming to the popular hybrid console via cloud streaming, Nintendo announced in a digital showcase today.
Read More: Smash Bros. Ultimate Fans Split On Kingdom Hearts’ Sora As Final DLC Fighter
Three games from the popular crossover franchise will be available: Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 + II.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and the comparatively simple-named Kingdom Hearts III. Nintendo did not announce a release date.


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If you’re looking for a destination where you can have your luxury dream wedding, try the Balearic Islands. The culture, the climate, and the gastronomy will give you a chance to create an unforgettable celebration. And we would know that. Here at Serafina Weddings and Events, we excel at planning weddings. But not just any kind of wedding, unforgettable weddings.
We are great at planning the best kinds of weddings in Ibiza and Formentera. Here, you will enjoy excellent weather for your wedding throughout the year. The lovely Mediterranean, tropical climate assures you of that.
Weddings in the Balearic Islands have a unique air to them. Guests love Ibiza weddings and weddings in Formentera too. If you’re considering having your destination wedding in the Balearic Islands, they’re good options. Here are some great venues at both where you could throw an unforgettable celebration.
You’ll find Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain’s eastern coast. The world knows this UNESCO World Heritage Site for its summer club scene. The Island of Formentera is to its south, and it is 150 kilometres (93 Miles) from Valencia.
There’s more to Ibiza than wild parties, however. It has some of the most luxurious venues where you can get married. If you have your wedding in Ibiza, you’ll love it. The following two places are examples of some perfect venues for weddings in Ibiza.
Atzaro Agroturismo is a hotel in the heart of Ibiza. This oasis of tranquillity gives you a chance to enjoy your wedding in nature. It can host up to 400 guests, and you can have your exotic wedding facing the ocean. You’ll also love the beautiful gardens with olive and palm trees.
The 7 Pines is nestled between Cala Conta and Calar Codolar off the west coast of Ibiza. It is a lovely resort and has two beautiful wedding venues. You can choose to have your ceremony facing the sea at the cliff and upper cliff terrace. Your cocktail hour can also hold there and you can all retire to an indoor space for a lovely reception.
The second option is the dreamy Cone Club. This clifftop restaurant offers amazing views and has a bohemian style that is hard to beat. Your boho chic wedding would flourish here. The 7 Pines also has many other amenities. There are 185 suites available for use. You’ll get a choice between 4 bars and 2 restaurants, a spa and wellness centre. There’s also three Pershing Yachts available for you to charter and have the time of your lives. When it comes to a wedding in Ibiza, the 7 Pines offers you the utmost luxury available.
You’ll love your wedding in Formentera. It belongs to a group of Islands known as the Pityusic Islands, of which Ibiza is a member. With a small population, this Island offers exclusivity and luxury, such as you’ve never seen. You’ll love the following venues because they’re the top choices for your luxury wedding in Formentera.
Chezz Gerdi offers you the chance to turn your wedding celebration in Formentera from beautiful to exceptional. It is one of the best spaces on this lovely island and offers luxury you won’t get elsewhere. This restaurant is perfect for a boho chic wedding and you can have your ceremony on the beach to the sound of the waves. It doesn’t get more romantic than that! Chezz Gerdi offers you the chance to have an original and fantastic wedding that is unforgettable.
If you’ve always wanted a destination beach wedding, Gecko Beach Club is perfect. You’ll get a chance to hold your wedding alongside the beach. It also offers magical Mediterranean gardens and a restaurant with impeccable service. Your guests will love the bar service and the different terraces too. You can have your boho chic wedding here also with natural colours and fabrics to match. So, what do you say?
If you’re looking for an Ibiza Wedding Planner or a Balearic Wedding Planner for your wedding, look no further. Here at Serafina Weddings and Events, we have lots of experience. We enjoy planning and executing memorable, luxury weddings, and would love to work with you.

domain: travel


The Armani/ Case Interior Design Studio, which already has several branded residential properties including the World Towers in India and the Macka Residences in Istanbul, is now ready to design its first North American project.
The design studio has partnered with South Florida developers Dezer Development and the construction company Related Group for the interior design of a residential tower located in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.
The residential tower rises 57 stories and is designed by Argentinean-American architect César Pelli, who has worked on multiple notable developments all over the world, and is best known for his Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and the Adrienne Arsht Centre in Miami.
The residential tower will feature 260 luxury residences. Each of the 5 residences per floor will have a minimum 10-foot ceiling with floor to ceiling glass and large balconies, plus an east to west “flow through” floor plan design.
The residences boast ocean-front living, ranging between 1,350 square feel to just over 3,700 square feet. To be priced from 1.35 million dollars to 5.6 million dollars, the floor plans are offered in 2,3,4-bedroom plans.
The residential tower will also include three floors of private cabanas, restaurant, fitness facility, a spa and oceanfront pool.
The tower is likely to be completed in 2016.


There’s a ton of innovation happening in the monitor space these days. Companies are experimenting with different sizes, form factors, panel technologies, and more. With more people permanently working remotely, there’s more and more interest in how to both work and game in different ways from your PC with the best monitors you can buy.
So, from futuristic designs to wildly high gaming specs, these are the most anticipated monitors of 2022.
No monitor has created as much buzz going into 2022 as the Samsung Ark monitor. Debuted at CES, this monitor made a splash with its 55-inch curved screen that can rotate vertically. The result is a “cockpit” mode that wraps the screen around you like a mini-IMAX screen. It’s gimmicky and niche, for sure. But the special dial control that comes with the monitor makes it particularly special.
When we saw the monitor in person, Samsung demonstrated how it could essentially handle three 16:9 screens stacked on top of each other. The dial, then, allows you to move and adjust these screens without needing to dig into clumsy software settings.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about this ambitious project, but there’s no other monitor I’m more excited to plop on my desk and spend some quality time with.
Speaking of experimental form factors, the LG DualUp monitor introduces a more vertical aspect ratio as its primary orientation. Never use a 16:18 aspect ratio display? Me neither. But just looking at it, your head might already be spinning with imaginative ways you might use it. It’s the equivalent of two 21.5-inch displays stacked on top of each other, which LG claims “helps reduce side-to-side head movements, the main cause of neck pain.”
But it’s the potential use cases that make the DualUp so interesting. Whether it’s splitting the screen between your timeline and video playback in Premiere or between a streamer’s game and live chat, there are more use cases for a square-ish monitor shape that you might initially assume.
The 2560 x 2880 resolution is certainly odd, but LG has the credentials to make this square monitor more than a gimmick.
There’s very little we know about Apple’s next external monitor, but we do know that it’s rumored to be in the works. It’s been over two years since the Pro Display XDR and well over five years since the $999 Thunderbolt Display was retired — and it’s more than time for Apple to bring back a consumer-level external monitor that doesn’t cost 5,000 dollars.
Early reports have indicated that this stand-alone display will be a follow-up to the Thunderbolt Display and would hence land in a similar price bracket. Later reports indicated a higher price, around half that of the Pro Display XDR, which would be around $2,500.
Anything beyond that, however, is speculation. However, a Twitter leak from December claimed that LG was working on three new displays that could potentially be for Apple, “two of which have the same specifications as the upcoming 27 inch and current 24 inch iMac displays.” The third is an improved 32-inch Pro Display XDR with a custom chip inside. The Tweet thread ends with mention that the 32-inch and 27-inch monitors have mini-LED panels and 120Hz variable refresh rates.
Whether or not Apple will release three new monitors or merely an update to the Pro Display XDR, some kind of external monitor from Apple seems to be on the horizon later this year.
The Samsung Odyssey gaming monitors have been leading the charge in advanced technology, primarily with its curved ultrawide Odyssey G7 and G9. It even has its 49-inch Neo G8, which comes with a 5120 x 1440 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and Samsung’s Quantum Dot tech.
The Odyssey Neo G8, though, takes things even further. This new addition to the lineup has a higher 3840 x 2160 resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate, making it the first of its kind. Very few games even in the most powerful gaming PCs could actually make use of all that, but the Odyssey Neo G8 futureproofs you for many, many years. It also comes with VRR (variable refresh rate) in support of both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards through the two HDMI 2.1 ports.
The latest display technology usually takes its time to get to monitors. But with QD-OLED, the latest advancement from Samsung, PC gamers are getting an early sneak peek at it. By the time we get the first Samsung QD-OLED televisions in our living rooms, we may also have the Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED on our desks. That’s exciting from an industry perspective, especially when technologies like OLED and mini-LED are still rare in monitors.
QD-OLED, also known as Quantum Dot OLED, gives the best of both worlds. The absolute blacks of OLED and the brightness and better colors of Samsung Quantum Dot panels. In the past, the best gaming monitors have been all about performance. But as higher refresh rates and resolutions become the norm, image quality will be the next hurdle, and the Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED may be a glimpse of that future.
I won’t know for sure until I can spend some more time with it, but I certainly have my hopes high.
Most monitors are nothing more than a shell for your PC. Not Samsung’s Smart Monitors, though. These bring all the goodness of smart televisions to the monitor form, whether that’s convenient access to streaming apps, wireless connectivity, and a remote — all without the need for a PC. It’s for the person who wants their monitor to double as a television.
The latest model, the Smart Monitor M8, though, brings an important new addition for 2022. Game streaming. Through the new service, Game Home, you can access all your game streaming apps in one place and easily pair controllers. That’s a lot of functionality for just a monitor.
Of course, it’s a large, 32-inch 4K monitor, of course. It even features a new bezel-less frame, an external magnetic webcam, and a thinner, white chassis. But the brains inside are what get me excited about this one.
- Samsung’s Odyssey Neo G9 launches in October — if you can stomach its insane price
- Your next Mac monitor could have this genius new feature
- Samsung brings a 2023 update to its M8 smart monitors
- Samsung’s first QD-OLED gaming monitor might be dead on arrival
- The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is Samsung’s most powerful laptop ever


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Sunday Photo Fiction – October 1st 2017
Hosted by Sunday Photo Fiction at https://sundayphotofictioner.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/sunday-photo-fiction-october-1st-2017/
AN OLD FOX REMEMBERS
Taxidermy fox at Natural History Museum, London
By Neel Anil Panicker
‘You know who’.
Inspector Sharma’s eyes gleamed in recognition like an old fox.
‘Not everyday and not everyone writes in such neat cursive strokes, a style that was quickly heading the dodo
As the private car cut through the rain swept streets racing towards Mayapuri Industrial Area, the senior
cop’s thoughts hurtled backwards into the past.
His mind’s eye opened up to an incident some two decades ago.
The year was 1994; he a new recruit; first posting, first night out.
Crossing the roundabout at Motia Mahal, he thought he heard something, someone’s voice, a girl’s, perhaps.
He looked up and saw a four-story crumbling structure, a sight not uncommon sight in centuries old Old Delhi,
the capital of the erstwhile Mughal Empire that ruled over India some 400 centuries ago.
As the wails grew shriller, he decided to check it out, and climbed up the rickety steps that led to the hallway.
Past the long wooden corridors, he found himself peeping through a half broken glass window into a dark dust
He could make out the silhouette of a little girl, barely six, her hands secured behind thick nylon ropes, her small
fear laden eyes almost jumping out of their sunken sockets, staring out at him from a darkened corner.
It was only much later that he came to know that the girl he had
rescued was none other than Lisa, the dreaded mafia don Afzal Guru’s only daughter.
©neelanilpanicker2017 #fiction #novella #part23ofadangerouslove #249w
If you would like to read the earlier parts of this ongoing novella ‘A DANGEROUS LOVE’
kindly click on the links below:
PART SEVEN https://neelwritesblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/neelwritesgaffarmian-alifeoutsideprisonwallsthreelinetalesfiction188words/
PART EIGHT https://neelwritesblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/neelwritescatsoutofthebagfffpppart8ofdangerouslovefiction08082017/
PART NINE https://neelwritesblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/neelwritesthediscoveryfffawpart9dangerouslovefiction09082017/comment-page-1/#comment-3979
PART TEN https://neelwritesblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/12/neelwritesalonelyvigilparttenofadangerouslovefiction35812082017/
PART ELEVEN https://neelwritesblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/neelwritesthedisclosurespfpartelevenofdangerouslove15082017/
PART TWELVE https://neelwritesblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/neeelwritesthedonsnestparttwelveofdangerouslovefictionnovella16082017/
7 thoughts on “neelwrites/anoldfoxremembers/part23ofadangerouslove/fiction/novella/spf/03/10/2017”
I had lost track of the series over the past few weeks, Neel. I’ll go back and check them all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Varad, i appreciate that and do hope you enjoy it.
Thanks Varad, I really appreciate that and do hope you enjoy it.
Excellent piece, Neel, stands alone nicely.
But surely not 400 centuries?
Thanks a lot. A typo, I meant 4 centuries.
Good story Neel.


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Aaron Judge described it as a “silver lining,” and in the midst of all this coronavirus-infected darkness, we understand what the Yankees’ rehabbing rightfielder was trying to say.
Yes, the regular season being on hold indefinitely gives Judge — along with recovering teammates James Paxton (back surgery) and Giancarlo Stanton (calf strain) — the unprecedented opportunity to be ready for whenever Opening Day happens to be. The same is true with the Mets across town, where Michael Conforto is dealing with a Grade 1 oblique strain and Yoenis Cespedes is coming back from twin heel surgeries followed by a boar-induced ankle fracture.
Rather than sitting out the first few weeks, or more than a month, all of these players should be healthy by the time Major League Baseball gets the green light — if it ever does. Judge particularly needed the extra time because of a confounding stress fracture in his first right rib and a collapsed lung.
“That’s the silver lining in all of this,” Judge told reporters Friday outside of Steinbrenner Field. “Just having the ability to not feel rushed trying to get back for a certain date, especially since we really don’t have a date. Just trying to let it heal. Don’t try to rush it.”
Remember when the Yankees’ baffling series of injuries felt as if their championship season was dissolving before our eyes? And the Mets’ nearly spotless spring training bill of health (pre-Conforto) appeared to set them up for a spectacular 2020 start?
It wasn’t all that long ago. Less than two weeks. Sunday will make it 10 days ago, to be exact, right up to the point when MLB suspended spring training on March 12 and declared that the regular season would not begin as scheduled (the initial two-week delay has since been abandoned by a two-month hiatus, minimum).
To imagine that we’re going to see players on the field again before June 1, however, seems like an overly optimistic projection. And as life continues to get more restricted in a nationwide effort to contain the global pandemic, loosening those restrictions enough to allow for sporting events of any kind is a goal that appears too far away to even guess at in this current climate.
MLB and the Players Association have been in daily contact, according to sources, as they try to negotiate through some of the more complicated hurdles of a truncated season, with service time being among the chief concerns. But agreeing to terms on any of those issues seems impossible until they come up with a target date for Opening Day — and the way this pandemic is being handled suggests that is nowhere on the horizon.
Gov. Cuomo is eyeing places like the Javits Center and the Westchester County Center, home of the G League Knicks, as a drive-through testing center for COVID-19. Just one week into the CDC’s eight-week mandate of no group gatherings of 50 or more people, Cuomo already took it a step further by putting the city under quarantine, effective Sunday night, in an attempt to enforce the six-foot social distancing guidelines.
As of 5 p.m. Saturday, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, California and Oregon all had instituted “stay-at-home” lockdowns. More states certainly will follow suit, including Florida, where the Yankees are maintaining a skeleton crew to work out at Steinbrenner Field. Some teams already have closed their facilities, despite a bargained agreement to keep them open for players who wanted to use them, and the Yankees soon might need to bend to those containment efforts.
“That’s the biggest concern — getting shut down,” Judge said. “The great thing is they have this open to we can come here and still do some baseball activity and stay ready. Just kind of feel like we’re still in baseball mode.”
For now, MLB is viewing this coronavirus menace as an interruption to the regular season, not a cancellation. But even if the spread is halted (fingers crossed) how soon would the federal and state governments be comfortable allowing larger groups to congregate? The current guideline of 50 or more doesn’t even work for a game with zero spectators in the building.
Under the rosiest of projections, and a few big lucky bounces, maybe MLB can get back on the field again, but that would require an incredibly strict operating policy to keep their personnel virus-free. And forget having fans, of course.
Being healthy took on a whole different meaning this year, with much greater stakes. For once, it’s not about the players recovering. It’s everybody else.